After having my bi-weekly breakdown about how I feel like a crappy mom/teacher (for not being home, for caring too much about my work, for not caring enough about my work, for not being able to function on less than 6 hours of sleep, for getting annoyed at my kid, etc. etc. etc.) I have been trying to be more zen about the whole work/home issue. The G-man is amazing, and he made the good point to me that, as the one who brings home the (tempeh) bacon the best way I can be a good mom is to keep making enough money to support my family. That does make me feel a bit better. I still feel like I am supposed to be superwoman who does it all - with grace and style no less. But I just can't. So, I'm trying to be at peace with being an imperfect mom and an imperfect teacher, but still hanging on to my sanity.
LP's Stuff:
I'm re-naming our child "Destructor." We build a tower - he knocks it down. We put toys away - he pulls them out. And he has a grand ol' time doing it. LP's latest thing is that he thinks crawling is for sissys - he's more into walking these days. He rarely crawls, and usually it is only when we have him in footie pajamas that are a bit too small for him (which makes it hard to walk). So, he continues to walk all over the place with little regard for obstacles that are in his way (such as blocks and stuffed animals). This leads to quite a bit of falling, but he seems pretty immune to that by now. LP is also enjoying not only eating Cheerios, but also feeding them to mom and dad. Now, when he is full, he picks up Cheerios one by one and holds them out for mom and dad. We find this far superior to his previous method of being "done" - throwing the Cheerios down on the floor.
Food and Fitness:
Many people ask us what we feed our vegan baby. We (and by "we" I mean the G-man) make our own baby food - one mix that is fruit-based for morning and one mix that is veggie based for dinner, which a lunch of avocado in-between. Mixed in to each baby food serving is about 2 tablespoons of ground-up tempeh, which helps to provide some protein. Here is a recipe that the G-man uses for one version of our morning fruit mix:
Baby Fruit Mix (enough to freeze for a few weeks!)
Ingredients:
3 apples
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 can coconut milk
3 TB flaxseed oil
14 chunks of frozen mango (from Trader Joes)
2 cups of Earth Balance iron-fortified infant cereal - oatmeal
1 TB olive oil
Directions:
1. Wash apples thoroughly and then chop them in to large chunks.
2. Steam apples in a vegetable steamer for 10-15 minutes
3. Blend all the ingredients in a high-powered blender or food processor
4. Serve to baby! This stores well by freezing the mix in ice cube trays and then piling all the frozen cubes in a plastic ziplock back. LP usually has 4-5 cubes in a meal.
Pictures (older ones - sorry we've been lazy with pics!):
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