Blend Baby, Blend with a Vengeance

With boy #1 I was eager to feed him solids, needed more to do. I was bored. Putting him in his little booster chair and feeding him rice cereal was an event that helped us get through the day and get to daddy's return back home.

I was smitten by the blender and making my own foods; I'm a saver at heart.

When boy #2 got near the age of eating solids, I only blended my own foods because of the saving aspect...I no longer needed more to do. Life was not dull with two little boys a mere 17 months apart. I also put off solids as long as possible. I'm pretty sure our second went straight from breast to steak.

Whereas #1 couldn't grow fast enough, #3 needs to slow down....he's already 3 months old! Each day is a flash. Suppertime gets here before I've even finished one load of laundry. There was a time when Friday seemed like an eternity away, but these days my weeks consist of Monday, Tuesday, and then comes Friday followed by a quick breather we dub the weekend. I'm positive the introduction of solid foods into our final boy's diet will come with great reluctance.

And so I smile at myself and the woman I was when I wrote a column about baby food and my first son....:

I confess, I recently discovered my love affair with the blender. All those buttons. The power. Do I merely blend or puree? The options are endless. Whatever you want you can create by simply throwing it in and pressing a button, viola'! I've been seduced.

In the beginning it was for my 5-month-old son. I wanted to make organic foods and save money in the process.

I see fresh produce and I immediately grow a little giddy like a girl waiting for her first date to a rock concert. I buy and I rush home. I throw in a little flax seed to aid in any potential baby constipation. Then I pour the liquid brew into ice trays. Freeze. Pop out. Put into freezer bags.

I don't want roses, diamonds, expensive fur coats. I want the farmers' market. I hurry down to Ray's Fruitland. I wonder what else my little one would like.

I once committed myself to something greater than my blender. I vowed to monogamously cherish nursing for the first six months. My vow: the most natural food source for my son. This was the soap box on which I stood. Obviously it was a bit flimsy, for at earlier months my baby was eyeing food with much curiosity and wonder. He reached out for it, maybe all in my imagination, but at a local mom's gathering someone mentioned the "food window" and I thought, "This is it. I must not miss out, kicking that soap box to the recycling curb. Temptation won.

I got out my Super Baby Food Book; at least I'd do this right. I would stick to only the recommended first foods. Boxed rice cereal. Utter disgust masked my son's face. I tried mixing it with the milk he was used to instead of water from the tap. No good. Forced to veer off the book's lists, I mixed in apple sauce. Not much better. I tasted some. My face was a perfect mirror of the lad before me.

That is when I first found my lover, or maybe it found me. I liquefied some bananas with the apple sauce stirring the two into the rice cereal. Delish! Next came peaches. Then carrots. I found myself getting excited for the fall harvest of sweet potatoes and squash.

Oh the endless possibilities. So easy. But more than that, I was an artist. I saw myself giving demos on "The Morning Show," perhaps turning my passion into a business. Shameless, my husband walked in on my blending, and I didn't hide it or try to explain why my lover was out in the open, sitting on the kitchen counter, why our son was strapped into his seat with various colors smearing his face, hands and feet. I was long gone down the blending path.

A warning: once you take this road of home baby food production you can't stop. You can't say to your child, "Actually you have one more month honey, I know you've tasted from the Tree of Good and Evil, but try and forget that and come back to the bosom of your youth."

Blend baby, blend! Blend with vengeance. Blend with soul. Blend like you're vamping a new tune with sweet mixes dripping down your temples and complete ecstasy in your taste buds.