Fairytale Town and the Sacramento Zoo

Fairytale Town was really fun.  It's a park themed with Nursery Rhymes and Fairytales.  Although we weren't able to a whole lot with our eight month old baby, as it staged for older children, we still had a lot of fun.  I think Remy just liked being outside.  Believe it or not, adults are not allowed in Fairytale Town unless accompanied by a child.

The entrance.  Adults have to bend forward to enter, but children can go right through

The old lady and her shoe slide.

Ben went down with Remy

And then I went down with Remy.

I like this Hippo water fountain.

Remy loves sitting on Ben's shoulders.  His favorite thing to do up there is hit his dad on the head.  

They had a small petting area, complete with Eeyore the donkey...

and Daisy, the cow.

This is Owl's House, from Winnie the Pooh.

The Crooked Man, Path, and House.

Then, there were the Three Little Pigs, with their houses.

The Three Billy Goats

And Jack and the Beanstalk.

Cinderella's Carriage.

Peter Rabbit and siblings.

Flopsey and Mopsey

Peter and Cottontail

Remy and I had fun sitting on the Turtle

King Arthur's Court and the Knights of the Round Table

After we got done with Fairytale Town, we headed over to the Zoo.  They are just across the street from one another so they were a perfect activity for our afternoon.   Although the Sacramento Zoo seemed smaller than the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake, but we came at the perfect time because all the animals were out feeding.

I thought this picture was hilarious because it looks like the ostrich is hiding its head.

The ostrich finally looked up.

The giraffes.

The snow leopard

The giant anteater.  I learned that it will not eat an entire colony.  It stops feeding when the alert goes out with the soldier ants, and then comes back later for more.

The sleeping male lion.

While we were standing there, a female lion came running up to the fence.  It about made me pee my pants. 

Remy and I chilling in the shade under a mister.  It looks like I'm posing, but Ben took the picture while I was fixing my headband.

The tiger.

Kangeroos.

Remy in the Phil and Ted Stroller.

Just want to say, the more I use it, the more I love it.

The first time we put Remy's head in one of these, he decided he wanted to eat it.

So we put the pacifier in his mouth.

The spider's kind of creepy, but I love his smile.

   

The flamingos.  Their pink color comes directly from the amount of shrimp they eat.  

As you can see, the Sacramento Zoo feeds their flamingos really well.

We stopped by the gift shop on the way out, and bought a souvenir magnet to commemorate our trip.

California!

On Saturday, we came back from our week long vacation in California.  We went to visit Ben's grandparents who live in Garden Valley.  It's a really small town up in the mountains of northern California, and you have to travel to get to almost anything.  It is beautiful up there though, and we had great company.

We were hoping for warm summer weather while we there, would have been a nice contrast from the rainy spring we've experienced in Utah this year.  We were disappointed however.  On Sunday, the day after we arrived, it snowed!  We did get two days of good weather, during which Ben and I took Remy to the Sacramento Zoo and Fairytale Town (see next post).

One highlight of our trip was meeting Hannah, Remy's second cousin.  Ben's cousin Sarah is just 20 days older than Ben, and keeping with tradition, her daughter Hannah is six weeks older than Remy.  We took some pictures of them playing together.

Remy latched onto Hannah's purple rubber duck quickly.

Tired little man needs a nap after all the playing.

My son has a faux hawk

 The flash was doing weird things here

You can see Remy better in these pictures

Teeth? Check. Hair? Check.

Big news!  Today, Ben and I felt Remy's first tooth coming in.  Our little boy is officially teething!  He's outgrowing his gummy and toothless, albeit, cute smile.  He seems to be just as happy as ever, and even slept for 10 hours straight last night.  Now, if we could just make that a regular thing.

In other news, Remy's hair is growing in so he doesn't look so bald.  It's looking more red, so I keep my fingers crossed it stays that way.  Remy looks so much like Ben, he needs to have at least one feature that I can claim credit for.  And my hair?, it's my best feature, so I'm more than happy to pass it on to my progeny.

Homemade Baby food

About two years ago, I was hunting around on Williams and Sonoma's website, casually browsing for kitchen tools, when I stumbled upon the Beaba Babycook.   After watching the video at the bottom of the product page, I developed a severe case of the "I wants."  I immediately called my sister Ashley, directed her to the site.  I told her I wanted it as a babyshower gift, regardless of the fact that I wasn't pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant at the time.

A year and half later with Remy on the way, and I became the proud owner of my own baby food maker.  Thanks again Ashley!

Me at my Baby Shower

Recently, Remy's been eating solids, but I've been so busy with work, I hadn't given a second thought to making my own baby food.  This past week, I finally decided to pull out the Beaba Babycook and give it a try.  After making just a few purees, like carrot, spinach, sweet potato, apple, blueberry, and pear, I have literally fallen in love with the Babycook.  While it is possible to make your own babyfood using other methods, I like the Babycook because I can do everything in it, so there is less mess and dishes to clean up.  It not only steams the food and blends the food, but it can also reheat and defrost food as well.

Here's a photo chronology of  fruit to puree:

 

Fresh apples

Cut apples steaming in the basket

Removing the steam basket
Note the water at the bottom, this is reserved so that you can thin out the puree to the right consistency

 Cooked apples ready to blend

 

 Voila! applesauce

 

Puree in freezer container

I started out freezing the purees in individual containers, like the ones pictured below, but that got to be a hassle.  The containers weren't airtight, and it was annoying to have more little containers to wash.

My mistake

As an alternative, I purchased the Beaba portion trays and flexible cube trays for freezing the purees, as well as the Beaba babyfood containers, for reheating the purees in the Babycook.  I like the fact these flexible trays allow you to pop out the puree once frozen for further storage in plastic freezer bags.  You could use regular ice cube trays, but the food is harder to get out.  Trust me, I tried it.

Individual portions stored in a freezer bag.

A further bonus of the Beaba?  This justifies more purchases of fruits and vegetables from Costco.  Ben and I aren't able to eat the bulk produce as quickly as we'd like, so he typically limits me to two fruit and two vegetable items.  Now that I'm making baby food, I can expand past our typical purchases.

Remy's New Duds

The other day I was going through the baby clothes we had been gifted from Remy's baby shower, and I stumbled upon this corduroy overall outfit.  After putting Remy in it, I had to take pictures because he looked so cute.