Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Soulful Mothering



Hi friends! I'm blogging it up over on the luminous Amanda Soule's Soulemama today. Come find me there!

And I thought I'd share this short, silly video of Huxley. He was "singing" right before I grabbed the camera, his new, favorite thing to do. You can see how close he is to crawling in it.

Also, I've been reading, and laughing and seriously overall enjoying, Matthew Amster-Burton's book Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise An Adventurous Eater. While Huxley's not quite ready for carne asada or chiles rellenos, he's getting closer by the day. Matthew's book is a great read for those of us wondering what in the heck to feed our littles while knowing we don't to go the jarred baby food or rice cereal route.

16 comments:

mandi said...

I'm over from SouleMama. I loved your words over there today. I'm into 7 1/2 years of this mama business, and the lessons keep coming every day!

I'm excited to find your blog. I've seen your books, we are cut from the same cloth!

amanda said...

enjoyed your guest post~ I especially liked the way you worded only having the moment we are in now... beautiful.

introducing babes to the world of food certainly is a fun time~ my girl loved hard boiled (then pureed) egg yolks, mashed avocado, and mashed sweet potatoes as her firsts. The book you mention sounds fun, I'll have to give it a look!

krista said...

loved your guest post, and guess what....those floors look pretty darn clean to me!

Starr said...

Very funny coincidence...but I just bought your Dairy book and then read your post on SouleMama today. Without going into too much I will say that it's the best one I've read so far.

Dorothy said...

Visiting from Soule Mama... Your words met me right where I am at right now: a difficult season in so many ways that is leading me to enjoy the little moments in my daily life with a toddling 13 month old and spirited three year old.

As for the transition from breast to food, I'd highly recommend "Baby-Led Weaning," which skips the pureed baby food phase altogether and dives right in to what the family is actually eating when the baby becomes interested. This is the approach we have taken with our youngest, and I really wish we had done this with our first. It is so much easier, and, really, so much more appetizing for a little one's first food experiences.

Best of luck.

sherri s. said...

OK, good grief, the cuteness factor here is off the scale! He's amazing.

Your books are on my wish list, so fingers crossed that my hubby catches on! I'm not a mama, but your words about letting go over on SouleMama hit so close to home--it's something I struggle with daily, as a matter of fact. No matter how hard we sometimes wish that things were other than they are, sometimes they just ARE what they are and we need to accept that, embrace it, and live our lives. Cheers!

GroovyMoments said...

Love, love, LOVE, your amazing post over @ Soulemama. SO timely. Thanks!

Kristin Marsh Shepard said...

Great guest post, Ashley.

I second what Dorothy said about considering just sharing (non-chokable) food right from your plate rather than making special baby food.

Apseed said...

Your guest post is very wise. I agree with you that we have only this moment and knowing this we have to value and "use" it.

Your little one is so cute and funny!

Liesl and Myles said...

I really loved your guest post...its wonderful!

Julie said...

Loved your guest post! And dare I ask where those gorgeous earrings are from?

ashley english said...

julie-they're from a local jeweler, sarah english. you can view some of her pieces here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/sarahenglish

The Bitten One said...

I am over from SouleMama, too. Up until you came to the Twisted ovary (I skipped that one) I thought you could be writing about me. My little fellow is turning 11 months now and I had to let go and like you I start to enjoy letting go and experiencing a new freedom of non organization and "doing as you go". It was lovely to read, that I am not alone ;-) tnx for that!

Unknown said...

If you like his book I suggest his podcast, Spilled Milk. He's really funny!

Jasmine said...

Just another two cents on the baby transitioning to food thing... (disclaimer, I'm not a mama yet! But I had a very good mama myself...)

When I was starting to eat real foods, my mom would just feed me what the family was eating that night... I know it might sound gross, but she would chew bites of food and then feed it to me. It serves a similar function to puree-ing, but the enzymes that are in our saliva do a huge amount of digesting for us, and babies switching from breastmilk- their bodies are only just learning to produce the appropriate enzymes to digest 'real' foods. So I got an enzyme kickstart from her, was a part of the family's eating ritual and felt included, and got "baby food" all at the same time.

That said, apparently my firt solid foods were peas and tomatoes, that I pulled off the vine while in a carrier on my mom's back while she was weeding the garden! And they're two of my faves to this day!

nic said...

I just wanted to thank you for your post at SouleMama. I am a new first-time mom and struggling with the adjustment and working to reframe my expectations. I love forward to reading more!