Babycook and Croup-y Crud

So far, it's been a great 2 days as a stay-at-home Mommy. I got the Christmas decorations down yesterday, and today was Colin's 6 month checkup at the doctor's office. I have good news and I have bad news for our visit to see Mrs. Natalie. The bad news is that he has the croup and that is REALLY no fun. We did a breathing treatment in the office (which felt like torture to me). They placed this little mask (ok, amend that Trey and I--more me held the mask) on his sweet little face and I had to HOLD HIS ARMS DOWN!! Did you get that? Oh, geez it broke my heart. It's supposed to make the swelling in his throat go down though, and I'm all about making that sweet angel feel better. We're also on antibiotics (again-yuck!) and steroids. Now maybe this child will stay well for a little while! I did learn something about the croup (and my Daddy confirmed it, so I know it's gospel) that if you take a child out in the cold, it helps them breathe and makes them feel better!! Ok, now on to the good news: HE GREW! He's still small for his size, but his growth is on the right track so no worries. Mrs. Natalie feels pretty confident that he will begin growing now that he's eating a lot more solid foods and suggested we up feeding him cereal from once a day to twice a day. So, we'll see how that works. Ok, here's his stats:

Height: 25.5 inches (12%)
Weight: 15 pounds 6.5 ounces (10%)
Head: 45 cm (78%)

Yes, my child still has a ginormous head!!! I guess it may be a while before he can walk because he has a 10-12% body with a 78% head!!! But, it sure is a cute body and head!

Ok, before we get into detail with the awesome Babycook I want to throw this out there. I have nothing against canned baby food--ok maybe a little, but I'm no hippie. I just know I can make his baby food for way less money than it costs to buy all those millions of jars!! It's an added benefit that I know exactly what goes in his little belly. So, here it is...the greatest kitchen appliance for babies that I have ever seen!!!! The wonderful, the fabulous, BABYCOOK!!
Trey surprised me with this fun little appliance the day after Thanksgiving (after he struck out at Sears for the washer/dryer). I'm just now getting to use it, and it is the best! All I have to do is fill water to the specified level for whatever food I happen to be cooking (I can cook meat, fruits, veggies, whatever!) in the reservoir, and turn the steam on. Then you take the food out of the steamer basket and set aside the cooking water. Put food back in the bowl and add cooking water to thin out the food. Puree it (in the same appliance-it's so great!), and VOILA! Baby food! So easy. I'm a huge fan. Already I've made the equivalent of $10 worth of baby food for about $2.50-$3.00.
Trey also bought this cool little freezer container that I can freeze individual pods (2 oz. each) of the baby food. After they freeze, I pop them out and place them in a ziplock bag with the date. It's so easy, I know I can't mess it up!

We tried broccoli for the first time tonight. It didn't go well. Bless his heart, I'm afraid he's going to be more like me than I had hoped for. I'm desperately trying to get him to eat so much better than I did by following all the doctor's orders on the order of food introduced. I mean I'm following it to the letter. He did really well with the sweet peas and the green beans. Actually likes them which is a lot more than I can say. But then, there's broccoli. That didn't go well. His face pretty much looked like this the whole time.
Then he'd want to just spit it out. Or swat it away from his face with his little hands. Oh, brother. Maybe it's just the broccoli. We've got 2 more days with the broccoli, so maybe he'll acquire a taste for it. Probably not. But, a girl can hope, right??

He was also pursing his little lips trying to keep the spoon from entering his mouth with the broccoli on it. He even pushed his bottle away because he was afraid it contained broccoli as well!

Doesn't he look pitiful? He just looks like he's just begging me to take the food away and bring him something else to eat.

Let's end on a good note, he is usually a great eater, and eats everything down with a smile (not a scrunched up nose).
Stay warm the rest of this week and be safe if you're around snow! Hugs and kisses from the Carter's!