In the past week, this is what Jia has been up to:

• She now knows how to say her name (through mimicry). It sounds more like “Zshee-ya” but we’re working on it!
• She eats yogurt now! Yay! It took us about 5 attempts, and the success came from her eyeing me enjoying my regular yogurt. I would give her TEENSY tastes of my yogurt (like the size of a grain of rice) and then my mother-in-law came up with the idea to have her try her plain yogurt in between tastes of mine. No scrunched up face, nothing! She flat out started sucking it down without needing to try mine again! Win!
• Mimics lots of word sounds and faces, still amused by sticking out tongues. 😛 
• Stands alone for anywhere from a few seconds to 20 seconds and once she realizes she’s doing it, she sloooooowly squats back to a seated position.
• She’s starting to subtly learn right from wrong by doing “bad” things slowly. For example – I think it’s so adorable – when she has found, say, a Christmas tree needle (yes because there are still hundreds of them hiding away in the crevice between the carpet and wall), I’ll say “Jia, whatcha doing??” and she’ll look at me, and put it up for me to see so I can take it. But she has had it in her hand for a long time, so that I can “catch her.”
• Has learned how a rocking chair works. She shook the rocking chair and watched it move Mei Mei who was seated on it. She was belly laughing over this!
• Doors open and close, and she really likes closing them and giggles when we say “Open!” “Close!”
• Look away from the hungry beast! Looking away from Jia helps her concentrate on eating. This is counterintuitive, but it’s something I think a lot of us moms are learning as our kids enter this similar phase in life – if you stare at them and hand-feed each bite to a toddler who refuses to look in your direction and open their mouths, they (maybe) won’t eat. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. But, as of late, if I am looking at this computer as she’s seated in front of her new food, I see out of the corner of my eye a daughter who is devouring her zucchini/spinach/apple pancakes. (recipe below) That being said…
• She knows what we mean when we say “In your mouth,” when she threatens to drop the food morsel on the floor. Does she always follow? Well, “60% of the time it works every time…”

Mom Thoughts:

• I love watching my friends become such great parents. It’s really an amazing thing to witness my friends make the transition from wife to mommy. It’s from playdates where I’ve really gotten the pleasure of just watching how they interact with their little, hear the stories of how they are learning from their babies, and to what lengths they have gone to support, nurture, nourish, and love their children. It’s so touching — Armita, Mary, Taylor, Martha, Rosemary, you guys are truly inspiring. (There are so many other incredible and inspiring mom-friends of mine who I haven’t been able to have playdates with, I really wish we all lived in the same city!! You know who you are!)
• Making finger foods from scratch for Jia is a lot of work. I’m not this savvy fashionista homemaker Pinterest-Super Mom-Blogger who is so creative in the kitchen and just loves cooking til the cows come home. It takes a lot of work to find an easy enough recipe for me to try that is packed with some good veggies, and then to trek out to the grocery store to get the ingredients for said recipe, then find the time to bake/cook up the recipe while Jia doesn’t need me, all with the hopes that Jia actually accepts the food I’ve spent time to make… it’s all very challenging. I’m not trying to make it look easy, because it’s not. I actually get a LOT of help, tips, and pointers from Armita. SHE is the one who is a supermom. And she’s a full-time lawyer. 
• Somewhere between Reno and Rome, I discovered I am somewhat of a “cook.” Like, cooking almost every night, cook. I didn’t even notice it was happening to me, until I realized we hadn’t ordered out in about 3 whole weeks. I’d cooked dinner almost every single night (with the exception of New Year’s Day and last Saturday when my mother-in-law cooked really yummy meals for us + one date night last Friday) and it’s all thanks to this tiny little human refusing purees. And believe me, I looked forward to that no-cooking date night at a restaurant like you wouldn’t believe. “It’s a good thing.” (in Martha Stewart voice)
• Please don’t tell a mom, “Just feed the them what you eat,” when they are scratching their heads for finger-food ideas. It just doesn’t always work like that. Some nights, yes that works and that is glorious. Other nights, it just doesn’t and that’s seriously the pits. Just because your baby/toddler is eating finger foods and wants something of substance doesn’t necessarily  mean they want your pasta, turkey meatballs, meatloaf, baked chicken, etc. when YOU planned on making it.

I adapted this from Feeding Audrey’s “Baked Zucchini Pancakes” recipe. I had an organic Red Delicious apple just sitting in the fruit basket for about a week now, probably just days away from decomposing, and I wanted to get more veggies into her pancake, so I did that by substituting one of the two zucchinis for grated apple and chopped spinach. It’s a really easy recipe, I would go and say anyone can do it. Jia actually ate about 90% of one of these bad boys – success in my book!

So here’s my version of the recipe:

Zucchini Spinach & Apple Pancakes (Makes 1 dozen)

• 1 medium sized zucchini, peeled and grated (I have a flat paddle grater, but a 4-sided one with larger holes is probably best)
• 1 apple, peeled and grated
• 1/2 c chopped spinach (I used defrosted and drained chopped spinach from Trader Joe’s)
• 1/2 small red onion, grated
• 2 eggs (I forgot to beat them beforehand)
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (plus 2 tablespoons for extra, if needed)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (I accidentally used 2, now that I think of it…)
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Grate zucchini and apple and place in a strainer. Take a few paper towels and press onto zucchini/apple mixture to drain excess water. Add drained spinach and grated onion to mixture. Throw in 2 eggs, baking soda, pepper, parmesan, and flour. Stir until well combined. If it seems too thin, add extra flour to thicken. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Using your hands, grab the mixture and form into about 3-inch balls and place onto a greased baking pan, flattening each ball to dollar pancake-size. (I spread a couple tablespoons of ghee/clarified butter onto foil before plopping down the “dough.”) Bake for 30 minutes, flipping pancakes mid-way. You may need to add extra time if they seem a little moist to you. When finished baking, allow to cool, cut into small bite sized pieces for your little one! I think next time I’ll throw in corn and do a zucchini/corn pancake. 

Enjoy! Hope you enjoyed this week’s recipe! Don’t get used to this, I don’t plan on trying something new every week in time for WSDW! Oh, and because of this recipe, “Non-Stick” Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil is now on my next Target shopping list. 

What are your go-to recipes for your baby? 

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