Homemade Teething Biscuits

My poor baby.
Teething hurts and it hurts to watch.
This morning I decided to make Rosie a treat. A helpful treat, using the baby food and cereal that I need to use up.
I'd imagine that the recipe would work the same using homemade cereals and food, but I can't say for certain.
I saw plenty of recipes for homemade teething biscuits. Some had too many ingredients, some had ingredients that I didn't have on hand... for one reason or another, they didn't seem the right fit. So, I decided to make my own. I plan to try a few new things out later (different flours, thicker/thinner cookies, etc), but here is what I've come up with for now:

Homemade Teething Biscuits 

1 cup flour

1 cup infant oatmeal cereal

1 cup (2 jars) baby food

1 tablespoon baby food

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

2 tablespoons coconut oil

Preheat oven to 425.

Mix all ingredients well.

Dust surface with flour and roll out about 1/4 inch thick. 

Cut into shapes using cookie cutters.

Bake 20-25 minutes, flipping every 5-10 minutes. Make sure they are cooked until HARD.

I don't think it's necessary, but I'm going to store ours in the freezer. Just because everything for a teething baby seems better in the freezer. 

Rosie enjoyed hers. We did need to cook ours a little longer, which is why I added a possible additional 5 minutes to the cook time in the recipe. All in all though, it was successful and, most importantly, seemed to help (or at least distract) my poor teething baby for a moment. 

Making Baby Food- mixing "real foods" with store bought baby food

I know it's completely unnecessary, but I really REALLY wanted a Baby Bullet. I was lucky enough to have a friend buy me one off my baby registry shortly after finding out I was pregnant and have been eagerly waiting to get to use it. Of course, I've also been given jars of store bought baby food.
Although we are not giving her store bought cereals as meals, I have some of those too. I've decided to use both, homemade and store bought, at the same time. Here are some of the mixes, concoctions and recipes I've came up with and the results:

Strawberry+Banana Yogurt- A tried and true flavor combination made of simply mixing 4oz of plain yogurt and a 4oz jar of strawberry+banana baby food.
I divided it into a regular ice cube tray and froze to put in her feeder (which she liked), but will be defrosting some to spoon feed her as well another day.

Avocado with Apple+Banana+Pear-  I read recipes for mixing avocado with banana... avocado with pear.. and avocado with apple. Well, I just so happened to have a jar of apple+pear+banana baby food.
So, I blended the 4oz jar of food together with one avocado and put it in the freezer. I scraped the side of the Baby Bullet and spoon fed Rosie, just to see how she responded. She obviously loved it.

Zucchini with Apple+Blueberry- I blended 1 pealed and steamed zucchini with 8oz (2 jars) apple+blueberry baby food with a tiny amount of cinnamon (little less than 1/8 of a teaspoon). I tasted it; tasted like applesauce. She has had everything but the cinnamon before. That or the warmth.. or the fact she'd just crapped her pants.. wasn't sitting well with her.

Banana with Pear- We get bananas for $1 a pound here. I had already had more than my fill and had 3 left, starting to get spotty. Rosie doesn't like fresh banana, but gladly eats it frozen, so I think the texture is the problem. Maybe pureed will be better? To up those chances, I included her favorite fruit baby food- pears. Blending 3 peeled bananas with 2 jars of pear baby food yielded about 24oz... so, I hope she likes it.

I have so many ideas for different purees, teething biscuits, puffs and other baby noms noms. I'll edit this list as I try new things! 

Canvas Painting with an Infant

The last time I tried painting with Rosie was a fail. There was no way that I was going to let that stop me though! I happened to find a "messed up" canvas in our house and decided to try to get some use out if it. After all, the only thing wrong with it was some random spots of paint and I'm positive Rosie wouldn't mind. So... I decided to give it another try and this time worked out much better!

-I started out by just squeezing paint randomly onto the canvas. (I used blue, yellow, silver and white this time. My plan next time is to use red, yellow, blue and white to give the opportunity to have the full color wheel on the canvas.)
-I wrapped (and wrapped and wrapped... I was nervous about leakage, but it wasn't necessary.) the canvas in cling wrap.
-i let her slap, smoosh, rub and even "kiss" at the paint until the cling wrap.

Once she was all finished (a.k.a. lost interest), I unwrapped it and set it somewhere out of reach to dry. Here's how it came out.

Not bad for her first (successful) art piece, huh? I, personally, love it. I could be a tiny bite bias though. I plan to give it to my spouse for Father's Day and then proudly display it in our home for all to see. 

I think this worked out better than last time for many reasons. Obviously, the canvas was more sturdy than construction paper. I also made sure to do this activity at Rosie's most active time of the day. I think what helped the most was using cling wrap instead of a Ziploc bag. The wrap made slight crinkle sounds and the layers made bumps and other textures for her to enjoy. 

I loved this activity and plan to do it many more times with my baby! Her artwork will make great gifts for the family and friends who love her! Each piece, even if using the same colors, will be beautiful and original... just like the artist. 

Painting with an Infant - failed attempt

This morning's project was pretty much a fail.

The (Pinterest) idea was to:
-put globs of paint on paper
-put the paint globbed paper in a Ziploc bag
-tape the paper filled globbed paper Ziploc bag to the floor
-let baby slap and smoosh and rub paint
-keep the abstract art if you want.

Well, I was a bit too excited about doing this and might have tried it too early into Rosie's day. That was my first mistake.
My second mistake was not taking into account that she is more into sound right now than touch or sight (except lights), so I should have put wrappers or something underneath to crinkle and keep her interest longer than 3 seconds.
My third mistake was try to use wimpy construction paper. The paint globbed paper stuck to the bag and ripped, pealed and pretty much deteriorated when I tried to take it out.

So, that was just practice. I'll apply what I learned and try again another time.

"Stargazer" Light Box

I was so excited to do this. I imagine I looked like a very giddy version of the famous shower scene from Psycho. I made this in less than 5 minutes and it was incredibly easy. That look of wonder on her face the moment I turned the light on would have easily been worth 5 hours of hard labor though.

-Get a box
-Stab the heck out of the box
-poke Christmas lights through stabs
-put baby in box
-turn on lights
-enjoy how fascinated your little stargazer is while they enjoy your quick creation