Friday Lunch Date

     After work I typically head home with the kids so they can nap. Today, however, we decided to go visit with Hubby so he and I could get some lunch while the kids (who had already eaten) had some snacks. So we headed to Hubby's office to pick him up and then went across the street to Panera, which was delicious! The kids had a blast with their fruit cups, Froggie even tried to drink her fruit!

Froggie tried to keep me from going to work with the big kids.

Froggie with her Fruit.

     After we were done eating we returned Hubby to his office to finish working and headed to Target, since it's my favorite store and we were nearby. We didn't really need anything but I picked up a few things for Easter baskets, a care package and some toys for the kids just because. They were pretty well behaved until it was time to go and they started getting cranky. They really liked sitting side by side in the cart!

The kids in the monster cart at Target

Froggie giving her new fish "kisses". 

Making "Puffs"

     I decided to be brave and try my hand at making puffs. (I feel like I should mention the last time I tried making baby snacks they didn't turn out well at all) So I checked out a bunch of posts online and decided on the recipe that required the fewest ingredients. This recipe also didn't require sugar while most of the others did (and if you look at the ingredient list on puffs there's sugar in those too).
     So I'm using the recipe from The Happy Lil' Homemaker which calls for Rice cereal (2 cups), pureed baby food (2 table spoons) and water (1/4 cup). I chose to use a fun flavor and picked Apples and Cherries.

     As I started working on my concoction I quickly realized that there was not nearly enough liquid to mix everything together. I ended up doubling the water and using an entire jar of baby food. 

     This made a pretty nice dough and I decided to attempt to spread my dough out on my wax paper lined cookie sheet and then take a pizza cutter to it. The dough was pretty sticky and a lot of it collected on the cookie cutter so I'll have to see how it actually worked when they came out of the oven. (If you have the time or tools to do tiny dots of dough do it! I'm sure it'll save you the work of trying to cut everything apart once it comes out of the oven but I'm impatient.)

     Well, here's the bad news... my "puffs" didn't turn out. After 40 minutes in the oven the top was baked but the inside looked a little like oatmeal still and EVERYTHING was stuck to the wax paper. In retrospect I suppose you have to follow the directions exactly to know if it's going to work and I may try it again in the future (or a different recipe). Honestly though, I didn't think these were very flavorful. Good for a baby who doesn't have a real understanding of flavor maybe but I don't think Big Brother would have been happy with these. 

Beware the Bottomless Pit

     There are several people in my family who are bottomless pits. Hubby, Big Brother (if it's something he wants to eat) and now... Froggie!
     Because sometimes my "mommy brain" is worse than others I frequently forget things. Usually it's something like where I put my phone/keys/kindle/etc. Well, today I left Froggie's wet bag full of today's diapers on the counter at work. Since today isn't a wash night it wouldn't have been an issue if it weren't a Friday because I'd of just used the same bag tomorrow and then brought it all home. However, it IS Friday and I couldn't leave 3 dirty diapers sit all weekend. I couldn't ask any of my coworkers to take them home either, simply because I would have felt horrible for sending them a bag full of smelly diapers.
     I also didn't realize that I had left said wet bag until we were getting out of the car at home, 15 miles away from work. Hubby (very awesomely) volunteered to take Big Brother and head back up to pick up the diapers.
     While they were out Froggie joined me at the table and enjoyed a snack while watching clips from Disney movies while I pumped. It's been awhile since we had offered her any "snacks" but she's pretty good at picking stuff up. I'm also a big believer in "if you don't let them try they'll never learn" (also you'll never know what they're able to do). So I stuck a couple yogurt bites and some puffs on her tray and let her play away. She concentrated pretty hard but quickly got the hang of picking them up. She didn't get the idea of putting them in her mouth quite as quickly and a bunch ended up all over the table.
     I guess this means we will have to buy some more snacks and have them readily available and in the diaper bag. Maybe I'll hunt out some recipes online and see if I can make any of my own.

checking out what was on the tray

Taste of success

Mmmmm snacks!

it's official - Froggie can feed herself!