Homemade Baby Food

Why make your own baby food? It's less expensive than store-bought baby food, it's more nutritious because it hasn't been through the high-heat canning process, and you can customize it to the consistency your baby likes. Here are a couple of very simple recipes to get you started.

Fruit Baby Food
This works well for apples, peaches, pears, plums, and apricots.
Wash the fruit well. Remove skins, and steam the fruit for 15-20 minutes. Cool. Remove any seeds or pits. Blend or puree until smooth. Refrigerate what you'll use within a day, and freeze the rest in ice cube trays for easy baby-sized portions.

Baked Sweet Potato & Apples
3/4 cups cooked sweet potato
1 cup applesauce or apples
1/4 cup liquid (milk, formula, or cooking water)
Preheat the oven to 350-degrees. Peel, core, and slice the apples. Mix sweet potatoes and apples in a buttered baking dish. Pour liquid over. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Puree or mash with a fork. Freeze whatever you won't use within a day.

Homemade Finger Paints

This makes a fabulous babysitting co-op shift activity (if you warn the other parents ahead of time and ask them to send their kids in "painting clothes") or a thoughtful gift for an artistic toddler or preschooler. ALL toddlers and preschoolers are artistic.

Two recipes:

The Sweet Recipe (that has to be cooked on the stove)
3 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. cornstarch
2 c. water

Combine the ingredients in a small saucepan. Warm the mixture over low/medium heat until it thickens. Cool the mixture and pour it into containers. Add food coloring to create desired colors.

The Salty Recipe (that doesn't have to be cooked)
1 c. flour
1/4 c. salt
7/8 c. cold water (1 cup minus 2 Tbs.)
A few drops of food coloring

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl until the mixture is smooth. Divide into containers, and add food coloring to create desired colors.

Enjoy!

White Chocolate Brownies--Perfect for Your Co-op Cookie Exchange

A babysitting co-op cookie exchange is a great event for the holidays. It gives all the parents in your co-op a chance to get together in an informal setting and enjoy one another's company. Any member of the co-op could plan the exchange. It's very easy to do. Just send out invitations with basic instructions (time, place, number of cookies to bring). If you like, you can have everyone bring a snack or appetizer to share and turn it into a longer party. Using an electronic invite service like evite is an easy way to keep track of who's coming and what they're bringing. Once you're at the party, everyone divides up their cookies and goes home with a gorgeous assortment of homemade treats--and all you had to do was make your own specialty.

Here's a recipe for decadent white chocolate brownies that will have everyone asking for your recipe.

White Chocolate Brownies

2 (5oz. each) bars white chocolate
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Glaze

1 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
1 teaspoon shortening

Grease a 9-inch square baking pan. In a saucepan over low heat, melt butter and one bar of white chocolate, stirring until well blended. In a large bowl, combine sugar, salt, and eggs, and beat at the highest mixer speed for about 4 minutes. Reduce the speed to low, and add melted candy bar mixture and extracts. Sift together flour and baking powder, and stir it into the candy mixture until just combined. Break up the other candy bar and stir it in. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Melt the glaze ingredients together and drizzle over the cooled brownies.

Makes 32 small (but very rich) brownies.

5 Fun Pop-up Books for the Holidays

Pop-up books make great additions to your home library. Not only can you enjoy an interactive story time with your children, but you can settle them down with the books to explore on their own while you get something done (like make dinner!). The following pop-up books would make wonderful Christmas or Hanukkah presents, either for your own kids or for your extended family or co-op friends.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Robert Sabuda

Faithful to Lewis Carroll's original story, this pop-up version is gorgeous. It includes a multifaceted foil, special effects like a Victorian peep show, and tactile elements.

The Castaway Pirates by Ray Marshall and Wilson Swain

Five pirates try to avoid being eaten by a shark when their ship springs a leak. You won't be disappointed by the elaborate pop-ups in this book: they grow more intricate with each page.

The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore

The paper engineering in this book is incredible. A Santa pops in and out of a chimney, and Rudolph flies directly at the reader. The pop-ups in this book are created entirely from plain white paper, making the shadows and dimensions truly spectacular.

Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart

Young dinosaur fans will love this book. It combines interesting factoids with gorgeous (and scary) dinosaur pop-ups. It's a great mix of education and entertainment.

Eric Carle's Dream Snow Pop-up Advent Calendar

So it's not technically a book, but this pop-up advent calendar will make your countdown to Christmas especially exciting. Each day holds an ornament to place on the pop-up tree.

Vitamin-Packed Snack: Sweet Potato Chips

Packed with Vitamin A and Vitamin C, these sweet potato chips provide good nutrition and a satisfying snack. They're easy, especially if you have a handheld slicer or a mandoline. If you don't have a special slicer, you can still cut them with a sharp knife; they just won't look quite as pretty.

2-3 sweet potatoes, peeled if desired
2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 lime

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice the sweet potatoes to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Place them in a mixing bowl and toss them with the olive oil, salt, and juice from the lime. Spread them out on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper (to make clean-up easier). Bake them for 10 minutes on each side or until the edges start curling.

Ear Infections and Babysitting Co-op

With more than 3 out of every 4 children getting an ear infection before age 3, you can bet the kids in your babysitting co-op will be dealing with this painful problem. As a co-op parent, is it wise to take a child with an ear infection to someone else's house? And is it wise to have other children at your own home for a co-op shift while your own child is sick? Let's take a look at these issues.

First, determine whether or not the ear pain is really an infection. Sometimes children experience ear pain when they're teething or when they have a cold. If the ear seems to be hurting and the child has a fever, it's a good idea to see your pediatrician.

Ear infections themselves are not contagious, so you don't have to worry about he infection spreading to other kids. However, ear infections are often secondary infections to viruses such as the common cold, and these viruses are contagious. If you determine that your child just has an ear infection without an accompanying cold, it's fine to have him around other children. If he's being cared for by another co-op parent, just let the parent know what's going on and whether or not they need to administer any antibiotics while you're gone.

If your child seems to have an underlying virus, however, be very cautious about letting him spend time with other children. The common cold is most contagious on days 3 through 5. The tell-tale signs of the common cold are a cough or a runny or stuffy nose. If your child is in this stage of a cold, call off your own co-op shifts and don't take him to anybody else's house for babysitting. You don't want to spread the cold around the whole co-op.

In the meantime, remind your kids (and the co-op kids, too) to wash their hands well after using the bathroom and before eating. Hand washing is especially important this time of year when the air is dry and sneezes can carry germs farther.

Benefits of Babysitting Co-ops

This is a picture of a business lunch. If you think that a business lunch is impossible for you because you never have time to yourself, think again. There are many things--like business lunches--that are difficult or impossible to do with young children in tow. If you could count on a few hours a week just to yourself that you don't have to pay a babysitter for, think of the things you could do: work on a hobby, build up your business, go shopping by yourself, spend quality time with your spouse, foster friendships, volunteer in your community, and more.

The following are some of the wonderful benefits of participating in a babysitting co-op:

• A sense of freedom and support for parents
• Money savings
• Socializing opportunities for children
• Peace of mind for parents (because your kids are being cared for by friends you know and trust)

If these benefits sound appealing to you, talk with your friends and neighbors about starting a babysitting co-op.