How To Puree Baby Food?

Life lesson learned tonight: pureeing cooked kale (with a little water) in a blender = bad idea. After a year of my mother suggesting all sorts of designated "baby food makers" and me telling her "no, we have enough crap in the kitchen" or "why would we get one of those when we have a food processor, a blender and an immersion blender?!" I'm starting to wonder if she was right. (Don't tell her I said that.) You are thinking, "Why didn't you choose the food processor to make the pureed kale?" "Well," I'm answering, "Because I already broke that last month." Not the motor, but the plastic lid. Something about sleep deprivation and hurrying up in the midst of making a bunch of different types of baby food, I twisted the lid and the stupid thing broke. So I've been using the blender, intended for things like margaritas and smoothies, to make all my baby food. Not my baby food. His baby food. You know what I mean.
So tonight after stirring and whirring and flipping between low and high and blend and liquify, it started to sound different. Then it started to smell different. Then, about the time I was thinking I should maybe stop doing this to the poor blender, it started to smoke. Oops. This is why EVERYONE SHOULD OWN AN IMMERSION BLENDER. There. I shouted it. As I looked at the chunks of kale remaining in the goop, thinking that my baby shouldn't be eating that, I remembered the immersion blender! I poured the kale goop into the kitchen aid bowl (okay, I tried using the immersion blender in the blender briefly in an attempt to dirty less dishes and quickly realized it was a stupid idea) and immersion blended that goop into a suitable-for-babies goop! And with no lid, it made a hell of a mess. So now, I not only have an extra dish to clean, I have a whole kitchen to clean! But I got 2 ice cube trays full of kale freezing as I type, so it wasn't a loss. The blender might be broken, but I needed a new one anyway. I think the source of the problem was strands of kale wrapped around the blender blades.
And I have a baby that loves kale. Really. Which makes it all worth it.

Teaching a Baby What NOT To Do

At one year old, my son is starting to get it when I say things like "stop" "don't" (I try not to overuse "no"). It doesn't mean he stops putting his hand in the water bowl or trying to crawl into the kitty litter box. It means he kind of acknowledges that he is doing something that is getting a reaction out of me.
The latest lesson: to go around the cat instead of on top of the cat. While we (and the dog) allow him to crawl on top of and over the dog (who is 63 pounds) (gotta admire the cleverness of figuring out the shortest distance from point A to point B!) we discourage him crawling over the 10 pound cat. The cat agrees with his growling and flexing of the claws. And, I think he's starting to learn! Conclusion: it is possible to teach a one year old rights and wrongs, as long as you have a growling feline with claws to back you up.

Fresh Air

It's great to take a summer evening stroll with the baby and the dog. And it's handy to have the compartment to store stuff under the stroller! And the drink holders! No more walking around with a plastic bag-o-poo, it can be knotted up and stored in the stroller compartment, freeing up both hands for the stroller/leash!
And, something to cross of the bucket list: finding a flattened plastic bag of dog shit still sitting in the stroller compartment the next time you go to use it!

To Blog or To Sleep

If you want to be a writer, even an amateur one, the pros will all tell you the same thing: write every day, even if it's only a little bit. The blog is a great outlet for such advice. With an infant and a blog about learning how to be a parent, apparently there should be no limit to the topics I can write about. But, every day I'm faced with this choice: blog or sleep? And this choice: dishes or sleep? And laundry or sleep? And shower or sleep? And exercise or sleep? The intelligent side of my brain always pushes me toward the pillow, and so sleep wins. I'm still a bit sleep-deprived, but I think (hope) things are improving. Expect a big detailed blog about Getting an Infant To Sleep and Nap on a Regular Schedule in the future, once I have some conclusion for it all. In the meantime, brain, blogging won the choice tonight!