Snacks, that is… Wagon Wheels, Puffy Stars.

 If you’re mom to a baby or toddler, no doubt you’re already familiar with Gerber Graduates. This line of older-baby foods is always prominently placed in the baby grocery aisle. They have everything from apple roll-ups to zwieback toast (A to Z! Literally!), all made for little ones just “graduating” from baby food and making the transition to big kid food. Everything dissolves quickly and is made for little fingers just figuring out how to get food from point A (table) to point B (kisser).

The Bean’s first-ever finger food was Rice Krispies, which were the perfect size and consistency for him as a starter food, but quickly became a burden. Rice Krispies are so small, they end up everywhere and are hard to keep track of. Plus, they’re not exactly a filling food, so the Bean either had to eat lots of them or have something else to fill him up.

(Still, I highly recommend Rice Krispies for your kiddo’s first-ever finger food. To see a video of The Bean eating these little gems, click here.  It’s seriously the cutest thing you will ever see.  In your life.  Ever.) 

When we were finally ready to move on from the Rice Krispies, we discovered Gerber’s Puffy Stars, a great alternative to Cheerios. (Especially if you’re like me and see only a choking hazard when you look at a Cheerio.) Puffy Stars are about the same size as Cheerios, but because they’re made for little ones, they dissolve more quickly in the mouth before being swallowed. They come in a variety of flavors, too – apple, banana, even sweet potato. The Bean LOVED them, and still does.

We made great use of these little stars for breakfasts and snacks, and they were always a popular choice.

As the Bean got a little older, though, we wanted to give him something even more substantial.  Daddy Bean had been intrigued by the wagon wheels for a while, but I was scared of them. They look kind of like really big Honeycomb cereal pieces, round and, well, wagon wheel-like. Bigger than the Bean’s mouth, so he would have to actually bite off a bit at a time with his two little teeth, getting it a little slobbery and soft before he could swallow it (or so Daddy Bean thought).  But they looked like Big Kid food to me, and we didn’t have a Big Kid. We had a very Little Kid.

We bought the wagon wheels, but they sat on my kitchen counter for at least a week while I worked up the courage to give them to the Bean. Daddy Bean asked every day, and every day I said, “I’m not ready yet.”

But then one day I was ready. We put the Bean in his high chair and placed a wagon wheel in his tiny hand, then backed away – but not too far away – and waited. I was ready to pounce at the first sign of choking.

The Bean turned the wagon wheel in his hand a few times, checking it out from every angle. He looked at Daddy Bean. He looked at me. We looked at each other and back at him. There was a lot of looking going on.

Finally, the Bean pulled the wagon wheel to his lips and, in a single swoop, shoved the whole thing in his mouth. He then began to gag.

I pounced like a spider monkey, and yanked that snack out of that kid’s mouth so fast his head could have spun.

“That’s it! Never again!” The Bean was destined to dine on a diet of Puffy Stars and baby food for the rest of his life, as far as I was concerned. Daddy Bean did not dare argue.

But a week or so later, for some reason, a little voice inside my head said, “Don’t look back, you can never look back.”

Wait, no, that was Don Henley’s little voice.

What MY little voice said was, “Try again.” So I did.

This time, it worked. The Bean grabbed the wagon wheel out of my hand and immediately took a bite. He sucked on his wagon wheel piece, rolling it around in his mouth and getting it good and slobbery-soft before swallowing, just like he was supposed to. Another bite followed, same thing. And another, until the  wagon wheel was no more. A big smile followed.

Cut to Now, about six months later. Wagon wheels have become my very favorite snack food for the Bean. They’re easily portable, and almost always make him happy when he’s fussy. Best of all, because they’re not tiny like Cheerios or Rice Krispies, or even Puffy Stars. I can hand him one in the car and know that it will keep him occupied for a few minutes without making too much of a mess.

Wagon wheels go with us everywhere.

The Moral of This Story: I highly recommend both snacks if you’re looking for starter foods and you’re on the go. The Bean gives both two thumbs up! (Unless one is in his mouth.)

 

Father’s Day Edition: Top 11 Reasons Why I Love Daddy Bean

This is Daddy Bean.

Here are the Top 11 Reasons Why I Love Him.  I went to 11 because it’s one louder.)

11.  He has the biggest smile and the longest eyelashes of anyone I have ever known.  He passed both on to our son the Bean.

10.  In the 17 years we’ve been together, I have never once had to mow the lawn.  And I’ve only had to take the garbage out a handful of times.

9.  He is, hands down, the absolute best player of “That’s what she said” I have ever met. 

8.  He is the only person in the entire world, and I do mean the ONLY person, I’m comfortable farting in front of. 

7.  He NEVER gets embarrassed.  Never.  Not about anything.  Ever.

6.  If I’m backing the car out of the driveway, or pulling in, and he happens to be outside in front of the house, I will honk my horn.  First it scares the hell out of him, and then he gets really pissed.  I find this hilarious.  He always gets over it.

5.  He would never admit it, but he’s an optimist.  He’s had many jobs over the years (it’s the nature of the restaurant business), and he firmly believed that every one of them was going to be the Best. Job. Ever. 
He got super-excited about one job because he got a free t-shirt at the interview.   

4.  He always addresses our waiter or waitress by name, even though he’s never 100% sure he’s got the right name.

3.  I got him addicted to The Bachelor.  He tried to pretended to just be a casual watcher, but I asked him one night which Bachelorette he thought was going home and he knew which one it was, called her by name, and then explained to me that she would have to go because “she didn’t open up enough.” 

2.  He loves both of my parents like they were his own, and would do anything either of them ever asked of him. 

1.  His face lights up when he sees the Bean.  He is the most wonderful father I could ever have imagined. 
He loves me and the Bean more than I ever could have hoped for.  And he’s in it for the long haul.

—–

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy Bean!  I love you more than words can say! 

The Crib Mattress from Hell

When I was pregnant, I put off decorating the Bean’s nursery until the very last minute.  I don’t know why I did this – I know it’s something new moms are supposed to be really excited about, but I just wasn’t.  Maybe it was the superstitious paranoid in me, not wanting to jinx anything.  Or maybe it was just the fact that I was already a procrastinator by nature, who was also enormous and hormonal and cranky and very deep into that “I’m-Pregnant-So-I-Don’t-Have-To” stage. (God, I miss that.)  Take your pick.

 

Anyway, somewhere around the 9-month mark I realized that I had a baby coming in, like, two weeks and hadn’t done any of the Research new moms are supposed to do about Nursery Stuff before actually buying Nursery Stuff.  I knew what color the room was, and that was about it. 

  

My wonderful grandparents bought us a crib as a baby gift, but we had to fill it with a mattress.  Finally sliding into Nursery Decorating Mode, Daddy Bean and I happily skipped off to our new favorite place Babies R Us, thinking we would just pick something up off the rack.  But when we got there we realized it would not be so simple.

 

We stood there in the crib mattress aisle (yes, there is such a thing), perfectly still, staring upward — two tiny mice caught in the gaze of a giant, hungry lion ready to pounce, jaws wide open and mouth watering for a delicious tiny mouse meal.  About twenty different mattresses loomed before us – widely varied in price, firmness, and “other features” like air holes and rubber surfaces.  We were at a complete loss. 

 

So we went home mattress-less.  Intimidated.  Scared.  Frustrated. 

 

I immediately got online and Googled “best crib mattress” only to be presented with about 20,000 pages, none of which told me what I wanted to know.  The shopping-comparison sites told me the prices of things and where to find them, but not why one might be better than the others.  The store sites just wanted us to buy something – anything! – and the customer reviews were too many to sort through, all of varying opinions.  

 

But then I found it.  Who could I trust in this dark hour of need?  Why, Consumer Reports, of course!  Finally, a site that told me what I needed to know:  The Best Crib Mattress Money Can Buy, right there on my computer screen.  It was the safest.  It was the sturdiest.  It was the Most for Your Money.  I knew all of this to be true because Consumer Reports said so. 

 

I found the mattress online (at a discount, no less!  $99 with free shipping!) and bought that sucker quick, before some other expectant mom might catch a clue and snatch it out from under me.  (I don’t think it was actually the last one they had, but the pressure – oh, the pressure – it plays with your mind and makes you think everyone is Out to Get You.)

 

A week went by and a large box containing our magical, perfect Consumer Reports crib mattress appeared at our front door.  Christmas in April!  It was glorious.  We had done it!  See?  This parenting thing was going to be a breeze!

 

Daddy Bean brought it in and opened it up (I was Pregnant-And-Didn’t-Have-To.)  As he pulled it out of the box, we were both a little perplexed.  It looked fine, just a crib mattress, nothing special.  But it was hard.  Really hard.  Like, brick-hard.

 

Daddy Bean unwrapped it and put it on the floor and sat on it.  “THIS is the mattress we got?  It’s so hard!  It’ll be like the Bean is sleeping on a rock!” 

 

“It’s the Best Mattress Money Can Buy.  That’s what Consumer Reports told me!” I cried.  “Consumer Reports said!  Consumer Report said!”

 

“Don’t judge me or I’ll cry!” 

 

I went back to the Site That Knew Everything to make sure I had read it right.  And yes, I had.  This was the mattress.  This was it. 

 

It was hard because it had to be hard. SIDS!  Your baby could die! 

 

SIDS terrified me.  SIDS was an ever-present threat to my unborn child.  SIDS brought out the Mama Bean in me. I would NOT let it take my baby!  (Another post on SIDS to follow soon.)

 

So I went back and told Daddy Bean that yes, in fact, this was the Best Mattress that Money Could Buy.  He was skeptical.  Wanted to take it back and trade it in for a softer version.  I told him to shove it.  I was Pregnant-and-Tired-and-Done-With-This-Whole-Mess and this was what Consumer Reports said.  If he had a problem with it he should call them.

 

So we kept it.  Dropped it into the crib, where it fell like a stone slab.  Tried to pretty it up with cute little fishy sheets.   It was still rock-hard.  Daddy Bean complained bitterly.

 

For more than a year now our Bean has slept on a chunk of boulder.  Once we hit the 9-month mark, I allowed Daddy Bean to place some added padding under the sheet to make it a little bit softer, but not much.  It became a constant struggle to keep Daddy Bean from filling the crib with blankets and quilts, anything soft to make our Little Bean more comfortable. 

 

Little Bean really could not have cared less.  He slept just fine.  He started sleeping through the night at around 11 weeks, and never looked back.  He’s only NOT slept through a single night since then.  The mattress matters not.

 

But it matters to Daddy Bean, and I guess it matters to me now, too.  More so now that the Bean has passed the one-year mark, and the evil threat of SIDS no longer looms large over me like a giant spider with a web already wrapped around a mess of dead babies, just waiting for its chance to snatch mine. 

 

Daddy Bean has asked many times, “If a rock-hard mattress is the only thing that can keep your baby safe from SIDS, why are so many crib mattresses on the market that aren’t rock-hard?  Wouldn’t those companies get sued for killing babies?”  It’s a fair question.  I don’t know the answer.  I just keep repeating my mantra, “Consumer Reports said! Connnnnsuuuuumer Reeepoooooorts…. saaaaaiiiiid…” over and over, my voice becoming weaker as time has marched on.

 

We’ll soon buy a new mattress.  I’m less worried about SIDS now and more worried about my 13-month-old’s new habit of arching his back and throwing himself backwards when he sees something he doesn’t like.  If he goes back like that in his crib, he could crack his head open on that granite block.  Okay, maybe it’s not THAT hard, but it would hurt like the dickens, I know that much.

 

The Moral of This Story?  Well, the Bean didn’t suffocate in his crib or die of SIDS.  I don’t know if that happy fact can be attributed directly to his hard-as-nails Consumer Reports Best Crib Mattress Money Can Buy, but I like to think that I single-handedly saved his life by sticking to my guns. 

 

However, the next mattress will be considerably softer.  The search has already begun.

Friend to many. Mom to one.

Hi all, this is my very new blog all about Mom Stuff.  I’ve had another blog for a while now called The Bean, but it’s a personal blog and unless you can handle the very raunchy I would suggest you stay away.  Really, it’s not that raunchy but it has become a nice place for me to relase my Inner Bitch, so if you are weak of mind or thin of skin, you might want to just stay here.

(But if you actually have a sense of humor and want to be rewarded in Heaven, I suggest you go check it out and leave comments.  Tell your friends.)

I’m starting this blog because I want a place to post stuff specifically about what I’ve learned or observed in my Mommy Bean experience.  I like the idea of pretending like I know what I’m talking about.

I’ll use this space to talk about products or places I like or don’t like, share my experiences with The Bean and funny stories from BFF and other friends about their kids, and offer advice that I’ve found helpful or that I think somebody else might.

Future posts I’m working on include:

• The Crib Mattress From Hell
• HELP is a Four-Letter Word
• Wagon Wheels and Puffy Stars
• The Baby Blue Meanies
• Terrible Travels with Bean

I hope you like it!!