It's My Party and I'll Pee if I Want To

This post is a bit of a departure from the norm since it isn’t really about what Eliana eats. But, last week she turned 1-year-old. (1! Holy crap!!) So, I think this event is worthy of a departure…

Her “Baby Pool Party” was all set to happen out on our deck. A rain date would be announced if needed since there is no way we were going to be able to fit 50 people in our apartment! Now, I know that this was Eliana’s first birthday party and she wouldn’t remember it and this party is really for the adults yeah, yeah, yeah. I tried to keep that in mind so I wouldn’t go nuts over this event. BUT, how could I let my baby’s first birthday slip by without a bang? And in true Jory style, I began thinking about it, stressing about it and making lists and notes of what I wanted it to be like waaaay in advance. But the actual work for it began only about a week out. (I’m an excellent procrastinator.) I had the foresight to hire my amazing babysitter, Kate, for the day. I figured an extra set of hands the morning of the event would be great and during the party she could help out too. The nights leading up to the party my friend Michaele** and my mom helped me make the decorations and everything was going to be ready and happen seamlessly on Saturday morning.

Cut to the morning of the party. About an hour before it begins:

Eliana is in PJs, I’m clothed but not in my party attire, nothing is set up, party-related stuff is all over the apartment because when I did go outside to begin setting up, I felt raindrops. And no, I DON’T think they were psychosomatic. I actually saw raindrops too. The guy from the bagel place, who prepared most of the food, has called to make sure we are, in fact, going to pick up all the food he prepared. Eliana is refusing to chill in the pack and play like she usually will when I need to be “hands free” and I’m trying very hard, and not really succeeding, to not freak the heck out about the state of affairs. I’m cursing everyone- including myself for sending Kate with Matt to get all the food rather than keeping her with me to help me prepare here. I always forget that having a party in my home is great. In theory. But in practice, it is so much more work than I remember from the last time I had the great idea to host a party at home. And then, in an instant, a crowd arrived to help. My mom, Michaele, Matt and Kate with all the food, my brother and his family and my in-laws. It was a whirlwind of activity with all hands on deck.

Um, you people are all getting ready for MY party. Why am I stuck in baby jail?

Really? You're not going to let me out??

Of course, it all came together in the end. I was able to stop for about 3 seconds and appreciate that the place looked great, our friends and family were laughing and having fun and the weather cleared up so the day was beautiful.

The decor:

Cupcake toppers from BugandBoo designs
Shelley also created the banner below. Love it!

My favorite of the decorations. It is a collection of the weekly and monthly photos we've taken of Eliana over the year. My mom spent a long time putting this together for me. Thanks, Mom!

The spread:

The pool scene:

"I'm comfy people. Where's the pool for everyone else?"

It's a par-tay, people!

Who knew my nephew Ryan (left) and Joey (my friend Amy's son) would become instant buddies?

Matt's brother a.k.a. Uncle Greggy

My dad with my nephew, David.

My nephew Zack inspecting the cupcake he decorated.

Matt's parents and Grandpa Paul.

My parents with Eliana.

 Eliana enjoyed some bagels with lox and, of course, the special cupcake that was made just for her. Yes, I allowed the teeny tiny foodie to have something full of processed sugar and void of any nutritional value whatsoever. 

She did stick her hands in the frosting to lick it and even got some on her nose. But, she didn’t do the typical baby move of sticking her whole face into her dessert. (I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit happy about that.) And, I was overjoyed that frosting didn’t get on either of us during that process. Woohoo! (Please, even though it was her party, you really think I wasn’t on guard against stains and spills?? And, of course, she had a special bib to commemorate the event. Obviously.)

So, why is this post called “It’s my party and I’ll pee if I want to?” Well, once it started to get sunny, Matt and I agreed that we should fill the baby pools and get Eliana into her bathing suit. We went into our bedroom to change her. I quickly ducked into our bathroom while Matt started that process. 

All of a sudden Matt yells, “Which side is the front???” I assumed he was talking about her bathing suit so I yelled back, “The flowers go in front.” “No! The diaper! Which side is the front?!” he yelled back. Then I hear our good friend Steve, dad to Eliana’s “bestie” Sophie, talking to Matt. He came in to offer a little father-to-father support. For whatever reason, that set Eliana off and she began SCREEEEEEAMING at the top of her lungs and hysterically crying. (Thanks for trying though, Steve.) I finally finish up and come flying out of the bathroom to see a stressed-out Matt holding a naked and bawling Eliana. I’m about to step forward to help out when-whooooooosh-Eliana peed all over Matt. And I, of course, began cracking up. Yes, I was appropriately horrified by the fact that there was urine everywhere. And I was very glad that we have laminate a.k.a. easy-to-clean flooring, too. But, the look on Matt’s face was priceless. And apparently, Eliana just needed that release because the moment she peed she was calm and happy and ready to continue partying.

So, Happy FIRST Birthday to my clever, funny, silly, sometimes-seemingly-suicidal, happy and amazing Little Lady! I look forward to what the years ahead will bring.

Who needs presents? These ribbons are great!

And, thank you, to our friends and family who traveled from out of town to celebrate this special day with us.

**Michaele deserves an ENTIRE post dedicated to her amazingness. Not only has she spent countless hours at my place with her toolkit hanging artwork and photos on the walls, consulting on interior design and researching furniture options online for us to buy. But, she also found the beautiful “Happy Birthday” banner I ordered from BugandBoo designs on Etsy.com which also led me to the ridiculously cute cupcake toppers I got as well. And that is only what she has done recently to help me, and my little family, out. Michaele- you are a wonderful friend and I only hope I can reciprocate somehow one day.  I’m so lucky to have you as a friend and Eliana is lucky to have such an awesome Auntie. xoxoxoxo

Michaele, of course, took photos during the party. I love this one from when Eliana was around 3 weeks old.

Basic Vegetable and Cheese Frittata

Eggs are one of Eliana’s favorite foods. She will eat them any way they are served. I like eggs too, so I often make eggs as an easy go-to protein for our lunch during the week. Typically, I make a frittata for brunch over the weekend and, sometimes, I even make one for dinner. Eggs are relatively inexpensive, easy to cook and loved by this family so I keep a few dozen in the fridge. I typically like to buy Nature’s Yoke brand or the store brand of one of our local stores, Fairway- just as long as the eggs are “cage free.”

Basic Vegetable and Cheese Frittata

-6 egg whites and 1 egg**

-1 small yellow onion, chopped (around ½ cup)

-¼ to ½ cup cheese, shredded (I usually use a mix of parmesan and mozzarella. Or, whatever is in the fridge.)

- 1 ½ cup vegetables, chopped

-Salt, pepper, chopped garlic olive oil to taste

Heat oven to 365˚. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and a pinch of salt.  Sauté for around 3 minutes until they start becoming translucent. Add chopped garlic and stir. Sauté for around 1 more minute. Add vegetables, a pinch more of salt and some pepper. Sauté for another 2-3 minutes so the vegetables are cooked but still a little bit firm. They will cook more in the oven. Remove pan from heat and transfer vegetable mixture to a plate so it cools slightly. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper. Add cheese and mix. Add in vegetable mixture and mix with eggs and cheese. Pour into a greased 9x9 pan. Cook for 20-25 minutes until edges are golden and eggs are set.

** I typically use egg whites in my cooking. But, I throw in a whole egg (or two sometimes when I mess up while cracking the eggs into the bowl and yolk escapes the shell) for added B12. My best guess if you’re using only whole eggs is to use 4-5 eggs.

Happy Cooking!

My mom got these cute cupcake liners from Williams-Sonoma.

These are mini-frittatas I made one night. I followed the basic recipe but also added around ¼ cup of tomato sauce I had made the night before for pizza. I filled the cupcake tins about ¾ of the way full. To change them up a little bit, I sprinkled a small handful of breadcrumbs on top before I baked them.  

foodie or footie?

I wonder if my teeny tiny foodie has been confused about her nickname. Maybe she thinks I’m saying teeny tiny footie instead? 

I'll just help myself to a snack while I wait for lunch.

Her Daily Bread

For the last 6-8 weeks or so, Eliana has not been too keen on eating anything I try to feed her off a spoon. She is deeply offended by this concept. Why should she allow me to feed her when she can feed herself? She is a very independent little person. So, a new challenge has been figuring out what to do with all the frozen purees so she will eat them. Occasionally, she will let me feed her. But, it is either a puree she really loves and doesn’t care that I have to put it into her mouth. Or, I’ve been a sneaky Mommy and given it to her using regular silverware. I think she is over using her rubber spoons. As far as she is concerned, she is too old for them. She sees me and Matt using the metal spoons so that’s what she wants to use too. That makes sense. However, I do need to say that metal spoons might be successful because Eliana has a strange love of licking metal objects. Drains (gross), dresser knobs and latches (weird), zippers (doesn’t that hurt her tongue?), the buttons on her onesies (“safe-ish” metal as far as I’m concerned), tinfoil (scary) and anything else she can get her mouth on. I’m definitely asking the doctor about when to become concerned about the possibility of her having pica at her check-up in a couple weeks.

Anyway, back to the purees. What I’ve done to make them into finger foods is to mix them with textured foods Eliana can pick up like oatmeal, quinoa, couscous, cottage cheese, orzo pasta or rice. I’ve also spread them on little pieces of wheat toast or wheat tortillas. And if I thought feeding her was messy before, I was totally deluded. Yes, I do laugh about how I used to be so concerned about the mess she made while eating. Oh, I had NO CLUE what was coming my way! I laugh at my naiveté in the post Helicopter Mommy. Now, I might need to write one about how I am completely reformed- or at least much more accepting of the mess. As a result of her picking up her food and feeding herself all the time, I find food everywhere! Obviously, it goes onto the floor and her high chair. But, I also find food in her ears, on the back of her pants, in her neck folds and even, occasionally, in her diaper. (No idea how that happens.) At the end of a meal I do what I call a “360 Butt Check” and I rotate her around to see exactly all of the places on her body that meal went. Then we rush to the sink to “play” in the water so I can wash off her hands.

And, now that Eliana is eating more finger foods and mashed versions of what Matt and I eat, it is a regular exercise in not freaking out about her choking. At least once a meal, I quickly run through the steps of infant CPR in my head. There was even a scare a few weeks ago when Eliana looked at me wide-eyed with her mouth open like a fish and not making a sound. Something seemed wrong so I yanked her out of her high chair, flipped her over my knee and began pounding on her back. And then in the middle of my dramatic life-saving efforts, she had the nerve to start laughing! Little Bugger.

But back to her eating…

My friends and family are always asking me what new or wacky foods I’ve given Eliana lately. So, it got me thinking: what does my little lady eat across the day? Soon enough, she will be off her combination of solid foods, breast milk and formula and be drinking cow’s milk. At that point, I will really need to make sure I’m feeding her balanced meals. We aren’t at the point of doing any “snacks” yet. Between eating a meal each time she gets up from a nap and then having a bottle around an hour or two after she finishes her meal, there is no room in our day, or in her belly, for snacks.

I’m ALWAYS taking photos of her eating. I never know when a good ttf photo-op will happen! It is so boring to look at my phone and Matt’s iPad because they are FULL (literally, we can't take any more photos without deleting some) of the same type of photo: Eliana with a bib sitting in her high chair and eating. Matt suggested I change it up a bit by labeling what she is eating. So I took his suggestion and began to track her eating by photographing her meals in a very “scientific” and “precise” way: I took a Post-it, wrote down what she was eating and stuck to her high chair for the photos.

And here is Eliana’s “daily bread” over the course of almost a week:

Day 1:

Breakfast: Banana sticks and peach puree

Lunch: Pea puree with cumin and garlic mixed with couscous.

Dinner: String cheese and baby carrots

Day 2:

Breakfast: Banana sticks with blueberry puree

Obviously she has the full-body bib for blueberries!

Lunch: White bean hummus with spinach on toast and peach puree

Dinner: Baked tofu with barbeque sauce and carrots

She didn't love the homemade barbeque sauce. I think it was too vinegary for her.

Day 3:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with blueberry puree

Lunch: Peach puree, carrot sticks and white bean hummus with spinach

No, I didn't consciously make the spoons, sippy cup and napkin match the color of her food. Apparently, my craziness runs that deep. Matt laughed at my "restaurant style" presentation too. 

Dinner: Sauteed chicken breast (Yes, she has had chicken. And yes, the pescatarian in me cried a little inside.)

Thanks for dinner, Daddy! 

Day 4:

Breakfast: French toast with peach puree

Lunch: White bean hummus with spinach and carrots

Dinner: String cheese and carrots

Those happy little feet crack me up!

Day 5:

Breakfast: Banana sticks with apple-ginger-spinach puree

Lunch: Chicken breast and oranges

Dinner: String cheese and carrots

Day 6:

Breakfast: Banana sticks with blueberry puree

Lunch: Wheat pasta with spinach and basil pesto and clementines

Dinner: String cheese, carrots and focaccia at one of our favorite local restaurants, La Villa.

Looking back at her meals I noticed several things:

1. We were definitely on a peach puree kick that week!
2. She will actually eat more purees than she did a few weeks ago. This makes things a little easier. 
3. While not everything is always perfectly balanced nutritionally, I’m glad that she does eat a variety of “colors”- orange carrots, peaches and clementines, green spinach, basil and peas, purple/blue blueberries. Well, I suppose mostly orange and green that week. Will work on that one.
4. I need to change up her dinners. I like doing the easy and “clean” dinner of string cheese and carrot sticks because I don’t need to use a bib or wipe off her hands and face like I do at the end of other meals. These moments became so un-fun for both of us that I started to feed her these “cleaner” meals to avoid the drama of cleaning her up after she was finished eating. She HATES the bib (go figure, since I wrote all about my obsession with bibs in an earlier post) and the post-meal clean up. For a tiny person she is LOUD and the neighbors must think I’m torturing her based on her protests every time I put on her bib or wipe her hands and face. But, string cheese and carrot sticks isn’t such a nutritious meal to have every day. So, I’ve gotta work on that one. And raw carrot sticks are no longer on the menu. She can break off pieces and that makes me nervous that she might choke on them. But, I discovered that roasting them makes them really tasty and soft enough for Eliana to eat them safely. 

So, there’s a window into her daily meals. I’ll keep track again soon and give you all an update of what she eats across the day. And maybe I’ll write a list of all the random non-food items she tries to eat too. Metal objects are just the beginning. Oh boy! 

Eliana Approved Vegetable Casserole

This recipe was inspired by a recipe I got years ago from my friend Amy’s mom, Debbie. Debbie uses spinach and her version is super yummy. Over the years I’ve played around with it by changing up the vegetables, adding a topping and using egg whites instead of whole eggs.

Here it is:

Vegetable Casserole

- 2 10-ounce boxes of frozen vegetables ie: spinach, broccoli, lima beans

- ¼ cup Italian breadcrumbs, plus a small handful more for topping

- ½ cup chopped yellow onion

- 3 egg whites (or two whole eggs)- blended with a fork or whisked

- 3 tablespoons melted butter- unsalted

- ¾-1 cup grated Parmesan or Locatelli cheese or a combination of the two, plus a small handful more for topping

- ½ teaspoon garlic powder

- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme

- ¾-1 teaspoon salt

- ½ teaspoon black pepper

Saute onions until yellow. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Cook frozen vegetables according to packaging and drain them well. Put all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Pour into a 9 inch by 9 inch baking dish. Mix leftover breadcrumbs and cheese and sprinkle over the top of the casserole. Bake at 365 for around 25 minutes. 

And here is a video of Eliana enjoying the casserole. Think she liked it?

Happy Cooking!

When Daddy's Left in Charge of Breakfast

Oh boy! Here’s what happened when Matt gave Eliana her yogurt with strawberry puree the other day.

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!

 All I can do is practice my calming yoga breaths and be glad we wash behind her ears every night!

Strawberry Puree

2 cups organic frozen strawberries, thawed

Puree strawberries and serve.

Variations: Mix with oatmeal for texture, yogurt for protein or cottage cheese for both.

Happy Cooking!

Wearing Mommy's Lipstick?

Clap, clap for beets and yogurt.

No, Silly! It's just the roasted beet sticks  my Mommy pureed and mixed with Greek yogurt for my breakfast. Yummy!