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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Homemade Fish Sticks!

Today I once again ventured into the world of finger foods for babies with only two teeth. In an effort to give Pumpkin and Snugs some variety, I am still trying to come up with ways to give them foods I know they like but now refuse to eat off a spoon. We tried tuna last week and they really liked it, but it was very messy - as they are forever rubbing their nasty little hands all in their hair.

So I decided to try and make the canned tuna (in oil) that they liked so much into little baby fish sticks and hope for the best. I carefully made up a recipe (ie: used what we had already in the fridge) and cooked up a batch of my first ever tuna sticks. The verdict....a hit! They really liked them.

So for anyone that is interested, he is my version of fish sticks:


1 can of undrained albacore tuna in oil
big spoon (serving spoon size) of steamed peas
big spoon of pureed carrots (mine had some green and yellow squash in it, too)
1 egg yolk
1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 slice of what bread ground into crumbs

Mix together every EXCEPT the bread crumbs. Add the bread crumbs slowly at the end little by little, stirring them in until you get a sticky consistency somewhat like cookie dough.

Spoon into skillet on medium/medium low heat. As soon as you put them in the pan, shape them into little sticks using two spoons. Cook until lightly browned on one side, then flip.

This made enough little sticks to serve my 10 month old twins two meals each.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Exciting Day and Busy Evening

I found out today that a new member of my twins club had her babies today - 2 boys! Add that to my two boys, Tracey's two boys, Stephanie's triplet boys, and Melissa's two boys and we have enough little boys to field a team of almost any sport! How odd that we are a club of so many boys. I've been trying to call her for about 45 minutes to set up a time to take her lunch at the hospital, but I keep getting an 'all circuits are busy' message. Very odd.

On the home front, we had a fun evening. Doug got the boys home before 6 and we all had dinner together. This is still a new and only moderately successful, but we are trying. The boys are getting more and more independent with their eating, so we can 'kind of' eat at the same time. The bonus to this is that it finds us an extra 45-60 minutes in the evening after they are in bed, because we usually make and eat dinner after they go to bed.

Since we were all fed before 7:00, and it was warm out, we decided to end the night with a dip in the pool. So we all suited up and spent some time floating with the babies. We are going to the lake later this summer and really want them to like the water, so we are trying it out ahead of time. They seen to have a good time. We spent about 40 minutes playing and then they got all snuggled up in warm towels, back inside with warm PJs and a bottle.

It was a great evening.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Captian Crabby Strikes Again

Today we had a lot planned. First, we were off to a birthday party of fraternal twin boys from our twin group (they turned 5 - hard to imagine we will make it that long!) The plan was to then go to the water park with all the little boys, but Grayson had other plans. This little boy refuses to sleep. This makes for one crabby little boy.

He only slept 40 minutes this morning, so that set the tone for a melt down around 1:30. We could barely get him to eat anything and he ended up falling asleep in the car after almost 30 minutes of crying :( Only to wake up when we brought him in the house (ugh!) Poor little guy refused to go back to sleep and played up a storm. He did get to eat dinner, but again, fell asleep while eating it. The only time we can get him to hold still is in the high chair! And then he falls asleep.

I hope he sleeps tonight, as we are just as tired as he must be.

Captain Crabby strikes again. Luckily it doesn't happen all the often, but it does - watch out!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Splashing on the Porch



We finally had a nice sunny weekend day that wasn't too hot or humid. This meant the boys could have their bath time outside, which they really love. There was more splashing than you could ever imagine, but they had a great time - and that is what matters. What always amuses us is that Gabe hates to have water in his face, yet he is the one that splashes the most. Grayson laughs and laughs at his brother while chewing on his starfish.

So we stripped them down to diapers, had a good and messy self-feeding lunch (of noodles, steamed peas, curried pancakes, yogurt, and meatballs), and then played on the porch. All in all, I would call it a really nice afternoon spent outside doing nothing but enjoying the boys.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Baby Wrestling....or As the Crow Flies


I'm not sure if what is happening here is the singularly minded dogged determination to get from point A to point B that we see from Gabe on a regular basis, OR if he is just trying to wrestle his brother to the ground. What you don't see is the fact that little Grayson launched him right off of him about 20 seconds later.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Strip Them Down and Feed Them Spaghetti-o's

The boys are getting more and more independent and we knew we had to do it at some point...give them their own pasta and let them just have at it. We've been eating outside on the porch since this Spring, so we figured 'no time like the present!'

Pumpkin here thought this was the most fun he had seen all day. He ate lots and lots of "O's" by stabbing his finger in the hole. Of course, as he got less and less hungry he got more and more entertained by the lovely red sauce...until it was all over his face.

We finished the event by splashing in the little baby tub on the porch.

[Snugs seems to be teething and wasn't really "in" to dinner tonight. He opted for a bottle and went to bed early. We'll try again this weekend with him.]

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Creative Cooking...for 10 month olds

I have always fancied myself as quite the cook. Since having the twins, our overall culinary experience has declined. I must admit, we have eaten more frozen pizza than we had in the previous 15 years of our married life. The focus shifted to the babies. We have avoided that scary jarred food and made all our own. Our boys have eaten every vegetable we can get our hands on. They have enjoyed a wide range of herbs and spices. Alas, we have hit a wall...the boys have decided that they have no interest in anything that comes off a spoon. They MUST, MUST, MUST feed themselves.

So this has lead to efforts to get them to eat things other than toast and cherrios and little pieces of diced up fruit. Today we tried something new - vegetable pancakes!

They were easy to make (bonus!), easy to travel (double bonus!), and the hat trick...they like them.

So the recipe:
  • 1/2 cup flour (AP or half and half AP/whole wheat)
  • 1 tsp. oil
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/4-1/2 c. of water
  • 1/2 c. veggies (pureed, grated, etc.)
Mix together with the lesser amount of water. Add a bit more water to get the dough more like a thick pancake batter. Cook on griddle at a temp. a little lower than you would normally use.

The pancakes will be moist and it takes a little longer than a 'regular' pancake.