We wandered up to the farmer’s market today.

I thought it was so cool to see that the vendors are able to take food stamps!  Isn’t it awesome to know that those who need some help are able to access fresh food putting those dollars back into the pockets of local farmers?

The guy selling these sugar watermelons had a sense of humor.

The girls surprised me.  Tessa didn’t nap before we left and Steve decided not to put a pull up on Sabrina.  I predicted disaster.  But Sabrina was dry and we used to bathroom there.  And Tessa managed to hold it together pretty well and even flirted with a couple of people.

We brought home lots of yummy stuff for this week – including some ham from a local farmer.  I am going to make some salsa and something reminiscent of eggplant parmesan without the breading and the deep frying.

Then we made a stop at World Market (one of my all time favorite stores – probably a good thing financially that it isn’t very close to where we live).

While at the farm market, we played home town sight seers and went across to Bicentennial park.

A rare photo of my little family together:

I like the shapes here:

I hope you’ve all enjoyed your holiday weekend.

If it is the 4th of July, that must mean watching at least a couple episodes of The Revolution on the History Channel (narrated by Lorelai’s dad).

It also means missing the family cookouts that are likely happening up north.  We miss you all!

Our little family is enjoying a long weekend together.

I spent some time today making a little baby food for Tessa: sweet potato and zucchini puree since she still won’t eat chunks (yesterday’s attempt ended in much doing of laundry).  My SIL sent us this book on baby food…while making baby food is pretty simple, the book is a great resource for flavor combos that I wouldn’t think of.  (For example – I eat neither sweet potatoes nor zucchini.)  And cooking techniques – I didn’t know I could steam sweet potatoes.  I don’t agree with all of the ages they suggest you can introduce some foods but that is largely up to individual research and comfort level.

I found these little containers 6 for $1 in the dollar section at Target and they are 4 oz (the same size as baby food jars).

At least my children eat healthy!  Although I must eat somewhat healthy because when Sabrina imitates me making lunch, she always says she is making a salad. She even wants to go outside and pick leaves (aka herbs for the dressing).

And just a little gratuitous cuteness:

Tessa is getting a tooth on top to go with her 2 bottom teeth.  It has just broken through and she has something in her mouth at all times this weekend.

This is Tessa’s soulful look – a pathetic plea to be released from captivity of the evil high chair:

This is Sabrina’s attempt to immitate.  The child just can’t help but be joyful:

I asked for advice from all of you because Tessa wasn’t able to eat any solids without gagging and throwing up.  I wanted to give  a quick update since all of you were kind enough to take a few minutes to offer your thoughts.

Tessa still isn’t allowing me to feed her anything solid or with chunks.  But, I have been making her cereal thicker and thicker and am hoping to start mixing in some Stage 3 fruits – starting small and then increasing the amount to hopefully trick her into it.  I’ve also discovered that if I put some broken cheerios and/or gerber puffs on her tray, she will put them in her mouth now.  She doesn’t actually swallow most of them – the spits the mush back out (lovely mess).  But I have to think that she must accidentally swallow a little of it here and there.  It is much more fun for her and for me when she is the one shoving them in her mouth instead of me doing it repeatedly.

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On the Sabrina front, she is doing a great job with potty training.  We’ve had 3 accidents in just over a week and I think 2 of them were parental error.  It requires constant reminders and a lot of patience for listening to her whine about how she doesn’t want to/have to/need to go…but I think it is going really well.

I do wonder at what point we back off the rewards.  For a variety of reasons, we quit rewarding each trip to the potty and started rewarding 1/2 days of success.  If at nap time she is dry, she gets a treat – the same goes at bedtime.  It seems to be working well and I’m not suggesting we quit rewarding yet…I’m just curious how you all wean them off the treats?  I don’t want to have to clue her first boyfriend into the reward system.