Review: The Baby & Toddler Cookbook

The Baby & Toddler Cookbook is by far, the best and most useful cookbook I have found for infants and toddlers. This was given to us as a gift, and I finally discovered it in Williams-Sonoma last week. I highly recommend this book for any parent wanting to make their own baby food…. and also toddler food!

When Max was ready for solids, his first meal was Gerber rice cereal. But from there, we stopped with most of the store bought things and made it ourselves (read here on DIY baby food—so easy!)

I liked making my own food for a few reasons: I found it to be less expensive, better tasting, fun, and there was also a lot more room for flexibility with textures and tastes (if I wanted it thicker, I wouldn’t blend as much… if he didn’t like the green beans, I’d add something sweet to the mix like a plum or pear.)

But without The Baby & Toddler Cookbook, I would have been at a total loss for what to feed him beyond the basics of mashed up bananas and sweet potatoes (though the book does start with such basic newborn meals as these!) Especially once he was ready for mixing certain fruits and veggies together, I always felt at a loss as to what “went together.”

The cookbook is broken down by age, starting from 6 months up to 3 years. The recipes for the most part are extremely simple, requiring only a few ingredients.

My book is all marked up, tagged, and water stained from having it by my side so much the first couple of months. I put an “M” (for Max) next to every recipe that he tried. I wanted to expose him to many types of foods, flavors, and textures.

The Baby & Toddler Cookbook offers more than just recipes too. It offers tips for getting your kid to eat, allergy information, how to sanitize and store the food, and information on nutrition and portion control. As a first time mom, I probably relied on this information more than I did the actual recipes.

Here are some sample recipes:

6 months: Applesauce, butternut squash puree, avocado puree

7-8 months: Fruit smoothie, guacamole, red lentil and rice soup

9-11 months: Apple-cinnamon oatmeal, hummus dip, cheesy brocolli casserole

12-18 months: Veggie quesedilla, alphabet soup, chicken and veggie pockets

18 months- 3 years: Pizza party, almond butter and banana bites, lasagna roll ups

Williams-Sonoma also carries a great Baby Food Processor. I couldn’t justify the extra price of it when I started out making his food, so I bought a Magic Bullet instead. The bullet worked great! But I kind of wish I would have spent the extra money on the nice Williams-Sonoma one, as I plan to use this for multiple kids.

This book makes a great gift (we didn’t have it on our registry, and its one of my favorite things we received!)

Click on the link below to take you directly to the Cookbook’s website:
The Baby & Toddler Cookbook

Other books I recommend:

Babywise and The New Basics for the Modern Parents

Review: Mixbook Holiday Cards

With our wedding being in December, I didn’t leave myself much time for Christmas cards or holiday prep. Thus, this year, we opted for a New Years card to send to family and friends, just in case I didn’t get them in the mailbox in time for December 25th.

I also like the New Years cards because I feel like people can leave them up on their fridge or displayed around the house longer than you can leave traditional Christmas cards (and who wouldn’t want THIS CUTIE up on their mantel all year long?!?) Also, with some of my family being Jewish, or not celebrating Christmas, I thought this card was appropriate.

When Mixbook offered me free holiday cards in an exchange for this blog review, I thought “What the heck is Mixbook? Oh, another TinyPrints, Kodak Gallery, Picture making website….just what the world needs!”

However, I gave it a try and was very impressed with their site! I have ordered other paper products (wedding invitations, birth announcements) online, and it’s so hard because you never know exactly what you are going to get.

Mixbookhad templates for me to chose from, then from there it was pretty customizable. I uploaded the picture I wanted to use, re-sized it a little, and added our family’s name to the template. It was that easy!

The paper quality is extremely nice (I did opt for the “premium” at checkout, so can’t speak for their non-premium option.) It is heavy, thick, very substantial and nice cardstock.

Even the back of the card is printed (it has the diagonal stripes across the back that show through the border of the front of the card.)

Shipping was fast, website was user friendly, and over all, I would recommend Mixbook. I might try them for Max’s 1st Birthday invites since I was happy with my holiday cards! Can’t wait to send these out!!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Product Review: Healthy Eating for Kids Cookbook

Since Max began eating solids, I have made all of his baby food. This was something (like breastfeeding) that I did not only because there are health benefits associated with it, but because I also enjoyed the process of doing it. There should be no mommy guilt if you are too busy, or have no interest in making your own baby food! Baby will grow up fine and healthy on Gerber, just as much as the DIY foods.

Many times, I take whatever we have for dinner as adults, and cut it up into little pieces appropriate for Max. But it’s difficult finding recipes that suite the whole family.

So when Stonham House Publishing offered me a free E-book, Healthy Eating for Kids (in exchange for writing this review) I was thrilled with the trade-off. I was looking forward to getting some new ideas for healthy, fun, and easy recipes.

I should not have been so thrilled.

There were a few good recipes in this book, but not enough originality or creativity to justify purchasing a copy. Many of their ideas were main-stream, such as “Ants on a Log,” which is nothing other than raisins on celery sticks with peanut butter. An ancient idea Mom’s have been using for years as a way to “dress up” a vegetable, protein, and fruit.

For a “Healthy” eating book, I was surprised to notice no mention of the nutritional details of each meal. Sure, they’d mention that oranges are good, because oranges have Vitamin C (duh) but never outlined on a nuritional chart the daily percentages of vitamins, calories, fats, etc. contained in each meal. That information would have been helpful.

Also, many of the snack ideas were meant for kids to help with in the kitchen. Cooking together is a great way to get a child involved in the family’s meals. But the book contained no pictures of the process or final product.

A cook book with no pictures? I personally like to see pictures to encourage and visualize a beautiful end product. This is especially important for children, who tend to be much more visual learners.

Lastly, I even found grammatical and spelling errors, which made the E-book unprofessional and sloppy.

Overall, I would not recommend this book.

Thank you for the opportunity to allow me to review your product.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Review: Octopus Halloween Costume

Ok, so we really like Halloween around here! So much, that we have a couple of different costumes for a couple different events and parties this year. After making the Lego costume, I decided to order one online for Halloween.

I found this adorable Octopus costume online and thought it was pretty different from a lot of the costumes I’ve seen at the mall, Target, etc. Its bright colors are what attracted me to it the most, and I thought Max’s eyes would pop in this color blue.

I ordered it from Costume Super Center. They had a lot to chose from, not only for kids, but adults too. It was shipped very quickly and inexpensively.

What I love about this costume is that the body is all one piece. It’s kind of like a onesie, so it was really easy to get on. The head piece contains the octopus’ other legs though, so you do have to be careful about that. If your child won’t want to wear the headpiece, your missing more than half the costume (as is the case with most Halloween costumes for toddlers I’ve seen.)

Max was able to move around and crawl in it well, because the octopus’ legs were not too long. It was a pretty practical outfit.

There were only two issues I had with the costume: One is that the yellow socks pictured on the website were not included. The website mentioned this, but the outfit looks much more complete with the socks, and it’s difficult and cumbersome trying to shop around for a pair of yellow socks that match the costume well.

Also, I ordered size 12-18 months for my 9 month old son and it is a little snug. I would suggest ordering up one size for your infant or toddler.

We are looking forward to wearing the costume trick or treating this Halloween and getting lots of candy for Mommy and Daddy to enjoy!

Review: Happiest Toddler on the Block, Harvey Karp, M.D.

As you can imagine, being a WAHM does not leave me much time to read. So when I spend time reading a book that I don’t get much out of, I’m pretty disappointed at the end.

This was one of those books.

I heard great things about Dr. Karp’s other book, The Happiest Baby on the Block. I never read it during my son’s newborn days, because as I mentioned before, I was quite the Babywise fanatic. But some of my friends really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d try the toddler version of his book, The Happiest Toddler on the Block: How to Eliminate Tantrums and Raise a Patient, Respectful, and Cooperative One- to Four-Year-Old.

Although a National Best Seller, I think the majority of The Happiest Toddler on the Block success has been from piggy backing off Dr. Karp’s first success. This book did not offer any new or interesting parenting theories that I hadn’t heard of before, or that I felt could really change the world and how I interact with my toddler.

He does lay some groundwork in the beginning of the book, explaining how the toddler brain scientifically functions much differently than an adult brain. While one would assume this, he contributes these differences in brain function to differences in thought proccesses and actions, leaving a toddler nothing more than a “little caveman.”

Beyond that, I found the book full of over used parenting scenarios and imaginary role play between parent and toddler. Much of his advice was basic communication improvement techniques, such as using nonverbals and the use of repetition.

About half way through the book, I probably would have stoped reading if it weren’t for wanting to finish the book for this review. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have wasted my time.

Review: Justin Roberts, Children’s Music

This guy is my life saver.

Literally.

If I play his music in the car, Max magically becomes mesmerized, happy, content and a perfect little angel. It is the sole reason I have been able to make long trips from West Virginia to Kentucky, and run errands on a daily basis with Max in the car.

Forget a DVD player. Justin Roberts is full-court entertainment.

While the music is obviously child themed, I have to admit that there have been times I listen to these CDs without a baby on board. There is humor and irony in his songs that only an adult could appreciate.

My nieces and nephews have been privileged enough to attend his concerts more times than either of them can count, and meet him on numerous occasions. The guy is pretty cool.

Here are some samples of my favorite JR tunes.

Stay at Home Dad: Hilarious tune about a Stay at Home Dad. It’s kind of mocking him, but in a loving way

My Brother Did It : I never had a brother, but it sounds like something I would have said as I kid if I did have one.

Forget Justin Bieber, Justin Roberts is stealing the show! All his CD’s are must haves!! Below are links to some of the Best Selling JR Albums…

Review: The New Basics, A-Z Baby & Child Care for the Modern Parent by Michel Cohen, M.D.

My sister–who happens to be a pediatrician–gave me this book as a gift during the last few months of my pregnancy. The New Basics: A-to-Z Baby & Child Care for the Modern Parent by Michael Cohen, M.D.

I think the gift was two-fold. 1.) She thought it might answer any basic baby questions I had and 2.) She thought it may serve as first line of reference, thus lowering the amount of phone calls she receives from me asking all the annoying first time mom kind of concerns.

She was right on one of those accounts. (After all, what’s the point of having a pediatrician in the family unless you can call her with the most “basic” questions at 3:00 in the morning?)

Synopsis:

The New Basics: A-to-Z Baby & Child Care for the Modern Parent is a reference book, outlined alphabetically to cover the most “basic” parent concerns, from Adenoids to X-Rays. With a simple table of contents, busy parents can easily flip to exactly the page which addresses their particular concern of the moment. Cohen, author and pediatrician, sends the message to the modern parent that most bumps, bruises, late development, and odd rashes are not much to worry about.

Who this book is for:

The New Basics: A-to-Z Baby & Child Care for the Modern Parent is for people who don’t have the luxuryof 24 hour a day pediatric advice. I referenced the book when my son had excess discharge in one eye. Reading Cohen’s advice on blocked tear ducts, eased my concerns, and I followed up with my pedetrician about it at my son’s next scheduled visit.

Who this book is not for:

This book is not for Web M.D. lovers, or those that want to research a concern until it’s (or you) are exhausted. Cohen’s advice is direct, short, and may leave some parents feeling a bit unsatisfied if you prefer very detailed explanations.

My Final Rating: 4 Stars

Refreshingly, Cohen does not suggest to rush your toddler to the emergency room for a temperature of 98.8 degrees, or worry about college admittance exams for a 13 month old who has yet learned to walk. His advice is simplistic, realistic, and concise–what all new and modern parents could use more of.

“Babywise” book review

On Becoming Babywise by Gary Ezzo

Out of all the advice (both solicited and unsolicited) I have received from family, friends, strangers, doctors and other mothers, the most powerful advice I ever absorbed to help with the newborn age, is from Gary Ezzo’s book, Babywise.

Synopsis:

Ezzo’s suggestion is to provide scheduled eat, play, and sleep cycles for your newborn. Once your newborn is accustomed to this schedule, it becomes routine. With a structured and predictable day and night, he suggests, parents are able to focus on themselves, each other, and other family members or life obligations. In return, the newborn appreciates the predictability such a routine provides, learns to independently fall asleep on his or her own without the reliance of a feeding (a skill that will translate to happy bedtime routines further into childhood) remains well rested, and enjoys “awake/play” time with parents or other family members.

Who this book is for:

Any parent can appreciate the idea behind Babywise. After all, what parent doesn’t want their child to sleep through the night at 6 months? However, only parents who are serious about implementing the system Ezzo suggests will succeed.

Work at Home moms can especially appreciate Babywise, as it provides a solution for daily structure and for a good night sleep for the entire family. Personally, it would have been 10,000 times more difficult for me to awake each morning, ready to work at home, had it not been for my child’s ability to sleep through the night and for scheduled daily naps.

Who this book is not for:

If you cannot tolerate hearing your child cry without immediately providing comfort, this book is not for you. Ezzo suggests to let babies “cry it out,” as he believes this to be a normal–even necessary component–to infant sleep cycles. I took a middle of the road approach to this, not letting my child cry for too long, yet not picking him up at the first whimper, either.

If your family practices co-sleeping, this book is also not for you. Lastly, if your child has special needs, I would not think this arrangement would satisfy your family’s situation. For example, a friend of mine had a child born deaf. Worried that she couldn’t hear in the night, and really couldn’t see because of the darkness, they chose a co-sleeper. I have also had friends with coalachie babies who said it made it difficult to implement Ezzo’s suggestions.

My Final Rating: 5 Stars

By following this book, I became a happy, confident, and well-rested mom (well-rested being a relative term). It allowed me and my son (who is also happy, confident, and well rested) to enjoy our first few months of his life together with structure and stability.

The book receives criticism by many for its “overly structured schedule” or “unrealistic” expectations for newborns. Yet, millions of us Moms are Babywise fanatics, proof that Ezzo’s theory can work on a variety of newborn and parent temperaments.

What do you think of Babywise? Leave a comment and let us know!

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