I love making baby food.
Choosing the food,
making the grocery lists,
organizing the supplies.
Cutting, cooking, tasting.
Keeping as much as possible.
Knowing what's inside.
Putting the clean,
fresh food into the food processor.
Cooking unripe fruits, vegetables,
mixing everything together.
Seeing it go from big to small,
untouched to ready for babies.
The entire set up,
everything ready to be made for little mouths.
Putting everything in, attaching the lid,
then pushing that little button.
And BAM! what was once a pear is now pear puree,
nearly ready for little peanuts to eat.
Going from coarse to chunky.
Then from chunky to smooth in seconds.
Then freeze and organize, ahhh, choices.
I love making babyfood.
When I first started making baby food I was excited but intimidated. What would I make? Would there be enough time? Could it really be as good as those tastey bites in the jars? Would the kids eat it? Was it better? Worse? How would it travel?
The more I made, the better it was. I started with a blender then Clover bought me this awesome food processor, just like hers, for Christmas last year. I do it while the kids nap. Finding new combinations is the best part.
There are loads of books out there. Super Babyfood was what I started with. But I love, Love LOVE Annabel Karmel. She comes up with the most random and yummy combinations. Her books are beautiful just to look through. And she's a mom. I also look at store brands, Ger6er, etc, for combination ideas. There are loads of websites out there and the possibilities are endless. Right now the tomatoes only eat about ten foods or so, but we've had at least twenty to thirty combinations. It's fun to make, we know what's inside, it costs so much less and having parents buy ingredients is a great transition. Going from formula to jars of food keeps parents from moving around the grocery store with baby in mind. They go to one aisle and done. Baby is compartmentalized. When I make a grocery list, introduce new foods and talk with parents, they begin thinking about foods and baby. Before long they make suggestions of their own and this proliferates itself when finger foods enter the picture.
By dragging my feet just a little, parents get the opportunity to take initiative. This empowers them and involves them more in baby's development. It starts small, and grows out of control. I know I've done a good job when the parent thinks they no longer need me at all.
This sounds harsh, and when, in actuality, it happens, I feel frustrated and slighted. But consider the reverse.
A family of three is becoming a family of four. They invite Norah to come help when the new baby arrives. Planning to start her doctorate Norah asks if I can tag along. After a brief discussion both parents agree (I too was starting my doctorate this gave them two part timers). I'm not a conceited person, but Norah and I are amazing nannies.
So here we are, new city, new family, new schools, the nicest mother you've ever met, an absolutely adorable two year old little boy and a father that just seemed to go with the flow (and travel a lot). Did I mention mom pampered us?
It was awesome, we gave it our all. Mom ran around like a crazy person toting us with her while dad traveled. They never had to think about anything. Everything was done before they could let the tiniest part of the thought of it enter their minds. We all got along wonderfully. The kids were happy, we were happy, etc.
Then, things started to happen.
Family would go on vacation, without us, why not? things were SO easy. And two year old would get hurt. They all got sick. Another vacation, again, things happening. Standing outside of the house, lil'dude falls and has to go to the emergency room.
We didn't know it at the time but we, Norah and I, were so helpful that mom and dad had just checked out. They never needed to think about the details, so they didn't.
Things were off, but we couldn't put our fingers on it.
Then we went on vacation.
We were gone for a couple of weeks around Christmas. We had a great time and felt ready to go back to work. While we were gone though...
Apparently infant-girlie had been in bed and become so far buried under the down comforter that she couldn't breathe. When they found her she was blue.
She was fine, but needless to say it was a wake up call.
Things like this never happened when we were around but they were happening more and more when we weren't. Both having undergrad degrees in psychology we wondered if it could be Munchausen by Proxy. The type of accidents didn't seem to fit, but there was definitely something amiss.
Within a week we gave our notice and moved back to the East Coast. Not sure of the best course of action we kept in touch with the family and lived our lives. Within six weeks they were getting things back on track. No more random emergency room visits, less sickness, fewer accidents. And that's when we realized, we had been too helpful. Mom and dad were checked out and these accidents were caused because no one was paying attention. As soon as we were gone they had to get back in the game.
While we miss that beautiful city, we've never regretted our decision to leave. We still love the family and each of us has visited the other multiple times since our departure. All are well and we've remained close friends. I've intentionally left their names out of this because everyone makes mistakes and no one needs to be defined by them. You'll hear about them in regards to other things, but we'll not associate their names with this example. Suffice to say a nanny's job requires more than making the parents' lives easier. It is important to empower parents because they are the ones kids will spend their lives with, not the nanny.
