There is a blizzard outside my window.

A nasty, windy, cold, spirit-crushing blizzard.

Cody is currently making the trek home from work early.  His 15 minute drive has (so far) taken him 45 minutes and counting.  He has a PB&J sandwich with him just in case.  Not that PB&J is going to save his life or anything, but maybe it will keep his stomach from growling.

Cheeks is asleep.  Oblivious to everything happening outside his bedroom window.  How peaceful it must be to be a baby.

I’m going to pack a suitcase full of shorts and tanktops this afternoon.  When this is over, I’ve got better, warmer places to be.

This morning, I was sitting at the table with Cheeks as he ate Oatios.  I looked up at him just as he was opening his mouth to stuff another ‘O’ in and noticed a small white spot on his lower gums.  I’ve seen this before, it’s not uncommon for him to have little bits of food stuck there, but I stuck my finger in his mouth anyway.  Sure enough, the kid has his first tooth!  It’s his lower, front, left tooth.  I can officially start worrying about his dental health!  How exciting.

In a little more than a week I’m going to alarm the TSA and a group of friends by showing up in town with my little family and a cooler full of colorful mush.  To help ease the confusion of my friends I’m going to make a confession.

Confession:  I’m that mom.  That crazy woman who makes all of her baby’s food from scratch and with only organic ingredients.

I spend hours optimizing his nutrition, figuring out the perfect method for freezing to maximize freezer space and minimize food waste, and yell at anyone who even jokingly suggests that my baby might like a bite of ice cream.  I get up in the morning and put together 3 meals in easy to heat, convenient to take, lidded bowls.  I have a book that is packed with nutritional information for individual fruits, vegetables, and grains.  The most processed thing that my kid has ever had is the formula that the doctor tells me he has to have.

Those of us who decide to cook for our kids like we cook for ourselves take a lot of crap from mothers who don’t.  Women frequently say to me, “You’re probably one of those mothers who makes all of her own baby food and then organizes it neatly in the refrigerator.”  Yes, I am.  Suck it.

When I’m faced with people who think it’s OK to knock my parenting choices I want to reply with something snide like, “You’re probably one of those women who buys her spaghetti sauce in a jar and makes her macaroni and cheese from a box.”  I refrain, but my point is that Cody and I don’t eat packaged foods so why would we feed them to our baby?  If I’ve got time to make old fashioned oatmeal for myself every morning then I’ve got time to do the same for Cheeks.

Though Cody has said that he wouldn’t think less of me if I decided to feed Cheeks jarred foods, it really isn’t about that.  I don’t spend every Monday making baby foods to feel like a better person.  I do it because I believe that Cheeks is human and a part of this family.  He’s small and can’t speak for himself but he’s one of us, he just has a special diet.

I know my concern with my baby’s diet makes people uncomfortable.  It’s like they think I’m silently judging everyone who doesn’t make their own food.  I’m not.  I don’t really care if you buy turkey dinner in a jar.  It’s just not my style.  As he get’s older I’ll have less control over what he eats, but in the meantime I’m going to take advantage of his cooperativeness and feed him my way.

If you’d like to read more on Cheeks’ diet, I’m working on a page with a menu, a food introduction list, and a day in the diet of the little man.  It’ll be up later this week.

UPDATE:  The Diet Page is up and running.  You can find it under “Cheeks” at the top of the page.

The spring cleaning is coming along nicely.  I know you were wondering.

The little one actually likes to watch me work in the file cabinet and he’s pretty into closet cleaning.   (My kid is going to be a Home Organization Guru by age one!)  His patience has been a huge help in tackling some of the tasks on my list.  Those things that he’s not so into (dusting) I’ve done while he sleeps.  This week Cody has promised to help me move the piles of give-aways, storage, and trash that I’ve managed to build.  Once those are out of the way I’ll have more room to work, and I’ll be able to get to the floors, baseboards, etc. that are obstructed by my piles.  In the process of cleaning out closets and drawers I’ve found a lot of things that I’d forgotten about.  I even found food in the pantry that I didn’t know we had.  Apparently our visitors have been kind.

Despite all of the cleaning out and organizing, I’m still short on storage space in the kitchen.  A few months ago we started shopping at Costco and finding storage spaces for all of the bulk has been a challenge.  The pantry, laundry closet, freezer, and cabinets are filling up quickly (or already full), and we’ve had a discussion about how they should build bulk-storage space into new houses. Cody and I have always been big on kitchen and bathroom organization.  We’re all about having a convenient place for everything, but being in a rental limits our options.  Time to find a more permanent home?