Thursday, December 25, 2008

Sophie's First Christmas

For Sophie's very first Christmas, we went up to Bemidji to visit Bryan's extended family. We stayed at Uncle Derek's house. On Christmas Eve, we had a delicious dinner at Bunny's house and celerated with the all of the uncles, aunts and cousins. On Christmas Day, we celebrated with the immediate family. On Boxing Day, the Ericksons came over. It was a fun-filled holiday!

The annual Hanson family picture.


Sophie in her Christmas outfit.


Sophie and Ava with Great Grandma Sylvia Hanson. This was the point in the evening when she was getting to be little Miss Crabby Pants. Ava is just glaring at her!


Sophie with Karen and Ava with Stephanie. Again, Sophie is not happy and Ava is giving her "the look".


Sophie with Great Grandma Sylvia Hanson and Grandma Linda Hanson.


Sophie with Great Grandpa Blaine Erickson.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Sophie meets Santa

Last weekend, Sophie met Santa and had some pictures taken. I don't think she realized that Santa was holding her and she took it all in stride.


Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Homemade baby food

Yum! So far, Sophie has tried rice cereal, avocado, applesauce and acorn squash. Avocado is simple, just smash it with a fork, applesauce is the same stuff that we eat (as long as it's "natural"), but acorn squash takes a little more work. I used kitchen tools that were banished away to the deep, dark unknowns of our cabinets for years. They were thankful to be out.

I went to Trader Joe's to pick up the acorn squash and I cooked it by steaming it until it was soft. It has the texture and color of melon, but with a sweet, nutty smell (that sounds odd).

Next, I used the Cuisinart food processor to puree the acorn squash, along with some milk. Side note: the Cuisinart is the world's loudest method of pureeing your food. Plus I just found out that it contains BPA, so I think that for the next round of baby food, I'm going to use the KidCo food mill.

I portioned out some to feed to Sophie for the next day and froze the rest in an ice cube tray for storage. The next morning, I put the little cubes of acorn squash in a Zip Lock bag, labeled it and looked at it proudly. For good measure, I also showed it to Bryan. Interestingly, the final product looks very similar to the original. Which is a good thing, since I'm feeding this to my baby.


So, less money to the giant baby food companies and the satisfaction of knowing exactly what goes into Sophie's baby food.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

It's almost Christmas

Sophie checking out her new Jumperoo. It's her Christmas present, but we decided to put it together and give it to her early, instead of hauling it with us all over the state.
We're ready for game day! The Vikings won today, all thanks to Sophie's cheerleading.

Sophie met Santa Claus this weekend and had some pictures taken (this is just one I snapped with my camera). She was wearing her "I *heart* Santa" outfit.

Monday, December 8, 2008

I *heart* Rudolph

Thanksgiving + more

Saw the web address to this blog on our Christmas card? Thanks for stopping by! Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.

Sophie in her Bumbo chair, hanging out with Sophie La Girafe.

Sitting on the pool table at Sarah's house, with Rick and Mary (all Mom's co-workers).

Nom-nomming on some rice cereal in her high chair. Sophie has also tried avocado and apple sauce.

Still loves taking her bath every night.

Her shirt reads, "I'm pooping right now".

On her shirt: "Baby's 1st Thanksgiving" with jars of turkey, sweet potatoes and green beans.
Watching football with Uncle Adam at Grandma Linda's house during Thanksgiving.

Sophie has been going to daycare for about 2 months and is doing well. We spent Thanksgiving at Grandma Linda's house and look forward to Sophie's first Christmas with the Hanson family.

Be sure to bookmark this website and check back for updates! Happy Holidays!