Command hooks vs bathroom suction cups

Have you heard all of the commercials saying that Command Hooks are now made for the bathroom and they hold BETTER than suction cups in the shower? Yeah. Let's just say this house has one hell of a panel of product testers... There are SIX command hooks with outdoor adhesive on this submarine....

Aaand go!

Review- Infantino Squeeze Station and Fresh Squeezed Product Line

Today we tried the Infantino Squeeze Station and Fresh Squeezed Line. Let me start by saying that I received no free products, these were purchases that I made and have chosen to review here.

The Squeeze Station comes with ten disposable packets and lids. I was impressed with the quality of everything in the station, including the disposable packets. If you know me, you know that I don't LIKE Disposable. At all. We don't DO Disposable. We reuse everything. We cloth diaper, we use cloth wipes, mama cloth, the whole deal. I didn't order the disposable refills, but instead I ordered the Infantino Keeper Squeeze Pouches (two of them, one for the main course, and one for the dessert... just to try and see if they were what we would like.) The Keeper Squeeze Pouches seem to be taking longer to arrive than the station itself... I will update the review when I receive them.

Happy Babe

Now, for US, the idea behind the squeeze station was to find a portable method for feeding baby that wasn't messy and didn't require me to take glass baby food jars or a thermos container, or spoons, etc... everywhere we went. This isn't a big deal when you have like, your first child.... but when you have three kids and two of them are in school in different school districts and you spend more time driving back and forth than you care to think about, there are times when your baby is hungry and you just don't know what the heck you will do. There isn't a high chair. There isn't a wipeable surface surrounding them. I need something small, portable, and simple that creates little mess. I don't need a baby spoon that baby swats away and splatters food all over. I don't need to worry about keeping said spoon clean in the bottom of a crumb infested diaper bag. I just need simple and efficient.

I have three kids. I am not ashamed to admit that I have done LOTS of things as far as baby food. I've done Baby Led Weaning (BLW) and Annabel Karmel books and recipes. I've made my own purees and other homemade baby food recipes. I've purchased baby food in glass jars and plastic rectangular lidded packs. I've received food purees free from WIC. This gives me the opportunity to give a pretty full review.

Let's start by saying that the pouches hold a surprisingly generous amount of food for their slim and portable size. Baby Ewyn (I know you can't pronounce it. Haven't you people ever heard of Ewan McGregor? well, just think "yoo-win" and you've got it. Scottish. Gaelic. It's not that hard people.) is 7 months old in 40 minutes. His puree spitting techniques are spot on, although he is usually more interested in getting things down the hatch. Feeding him does take a lot of time and it makes a big mess. I usually feed him naked and I HATE feeding him in public because it's much easier to "lift shirt, attach boobie" than do the baby feeding gig. I hate public highchairs (assuming you can find one) and for a while I was taking my own high chair here and there and I had an okay (although stressful) system down where I had everything in a ziploc bag inside the tray lid and I also took a dry washcloth and a wet washcloth (we don't DO disposable wipes, remember) but I felt like it took 22.75 hours of planning to leave the house (I doth exxagerate) and so this was a much better solution.

Pouch baby food that can be pre-purchased has a few issues. You can't control ingredients. Lots of waste (garbage) that isn't green minded. Prices are higher than regular or homemade baby purees. WhatKindOfCancerCausingChemicalsAreInThatSpaceAgedPackaging?! Can you heat it?

My biggest issue is, that I see parents feeding the babies squeeze pouch food all the time. At home. At daycare. At babysitters. And all I can envision is the futuristic people in Wall-E. When will our kids learn to use spoons and forks? Using utensils is a skill that you hope your child develops at a decent age, and feeding them every meal in a squeeze pouch is likely going to hamper that skillset. This is why I am only using pouches when away from home in an inconvenient setting. At home I will still be using spoon. I think. Although there are also spoons that can attach TO the pouches. I don't believe these are the devil, but I do know that they aren't going to mesh with me "cleaner eating away from home" plan that I envision in my head. I will try them later. At this point the reviews on them are not promising.

I purchased the fresh squeezed line and pouches and tested them with items like applesauce for the big kids, and also homemade purees and store bought baby food.

Trying out the Squeeze Station

To start, the Station allows you to be filling three pouches at once, and they can be filled with the same or different purees. You have three chambers to fill and ONE Plunger (aka Infantino Food Press) that comes with the kit. You can purchase additional plungers (which I did, although they also have not arrived yet and it wasn't a HUGE pain to just quickly rinse the plunger between purees if needed.) You can purchase an additional funnel ($20 on amazon?!) and it seriously is NOT necessary. The opening is plenty wide to pour into and if you can't hit that opening, you have bigger issues. I do like to use these tiny spatulas (I have a bunch of them) to get remains out of food processor and baby food jars. These are slick little guys. I bought them back with baby #2 when I got smart.

Station Includes Three Tubes, but one plunger.

You attach the pouches to the station by sliding them into the grooves. They don't "secure" in place until you screw a tube on to the top. The tube secures directly on to the pouch, the stand just sort of "holds" them upright for you. As another reviewer stated, you can easily do this without the stand at all. If Infantino wasn't in the money making business, I am thinking they could sell the pouches and one plunger/tube for less than $10 and still make everyone happy. But I can see if you are doing lots of baby food (homemade) that this stand and doing several pouches at a time would be much nicer and less time consuming than doing it by hand. So that said, you can fill the pouches without the stand itself. I do like that the stand is versatile and allows you to store all the pieces inside when you are finished, which takes up less space and prevents your cupboards from having all these pieces roaming around to be lost in the depths.

I only made a few at a time as the fridge life is very short.

The plunger isn't a complete tight fit, but it does create a nice seal in the tube. The downside is that you can be plunging the pouches full of air (which would be worse if the plunger fit super tight.) Once I fill a tube with puree, I insert the plunger but tilt it slightly to one side so that there isn't a "seal" created until the plunger is flush with the puree. Then I straighten the plunger to create the seal and press the puree down into the bag completely. This prevents you from injecting a bunch of air into the bag. Remember to unscrew the bag slightly before retracting the plunger or the puree will be sucked back out of the packet. A little puree will leak around the top of the packet when you unscrew, but it's minimal. If it's your first baby, just sterilize the pouch spout with bleach or alcohol before putting the lid on. If it's your third, just lick it and put the lid on. (kidding. About the bleach and alcohol part, not the licking part.)

The upside is that these packets can be frozen (and of course they sell a packet organizer.) The downside is that they aren't shelf stable like a purchased packet and they only recommend keeping them in the fridge for 48 hours (yes, again.... if it's your

I don't get it mom.

first baby you'll listen. If you're me, you might go a week:) Another downside? These packets can't be microwaved or boiled. I assume you could put them in a hot glass of water to warm the food if you wanted, or maybe a bottle warmer? Some baby food is good cold or room temperture, but Ewyn made a horrid face at me when I tried to serve him cold green beans "ala packet" today.

The "tubes" have marks on the sides of them. The lowest mark is approximately the equivalent of a Gerber First Foods Plastic pack of puree. The second mark is about the equivalent of a standard Gerber/Beechnut baby food Jar (not the tiny ones that meats come in) and you can get two Gerber Puree Packets (plastic lidded smaller packs) into one fresh squeezed pouch. You can also get an entire jar of baby food in a pouch with wiggle room.

I think I can. I think I can.

My kids wouldn't eat green beans or peas. Ardyn would gag and puke. Marek and Ewyn just gag and spit and refused to swallow them at all. They were much happier with orange veggies like Squash, Carrots, and Sweet Potatoes. This time around I learned that mixing green beans or peas with fruit (seriously) is a big yum-o for baby and that I can get them to eat green beans and peas NO PROBLEMO if I mix them. Green Beans with Pears is a big hit with Ewyn. It's really nice because if I was trying to feed green beans on the go I would have to have a way to mix them with pears... or mix them at home ahead of time. In this case I mixed them right in the station tubes. I used the lines on the tubes to pour equal amounts of pears and beans into each tube and then mixed with my little spatula and pressed the mixes right into the packets. This would work well with homemade purees as well. Voila, green beans and pears on the go.

Aha! Suction!!!!

Of course the directions say do NOT reuse pouches (yes I tried it. yes it worked. No it isn't all super sterile and clean.) but the pouches do write on very nicely with a fine sharpie. I would recommend labeling them BEFORE filling *duh*

I also have purchased some of these really cool spout toppers that are silicbooginhead pouches (which I already have four of because the big kids pack them for snacks and lunches in place of disposable applesauce pouches.) However, the threading on the tube doesn't match the threading on the booginhead SqueezEms... and they must thread in order to work. Unfortunate. The alternative would be to OPEN the top of the squeezems pouch by booginhead, and using the tube and plunger in a handheld manner, you may be able to fill the pouches. I am not sure if this would be more difficult than just spooning into the SqueezeEms like I have been doing... because that seems like more hands might be needed than God has graced me with. Booginhead pouches are dishwasher, microwave, and freezer safe.... which is quite the edge over the Infantino Line. Although I have yet to get the reusable Infantino pouches to compare. In the product photo it appears that the infantino reusables are more of a bottle than a pouch, and I wonder about the "squeezeability" of them as well as how easy it would be for a baby to self feed with one when all they have is a suck reflex and can't properly squeeze the food out with their hands.

Gross Mom! Who Leaked??

one and I hope that they fit these infantino packets. They make the opening all soft and easier to suck food through, which should be a big plus for little babes. And will help protect from chewers too I hope. The infantino packets might be a little tricky because I get the idea they aren't the industry standard as far as spout/threading/size goes. I was hoping to use the station with my reusable

That leads me to another angle. Mess. At first I was disappointed because it seemed that these pouches were going to cause as much mess or MORE than spoon feeding. Baby wanted to grab the pouch and squeeze it all over. Think Juice box... aha! How about using this little device to solve some of that "excitable squeezing" ?? I have one or two somewhere around here but haven't been able to figure out WHERE so that I can test that theory... but I bet it would work nicely! Or it could become a baby projectile object....

At first Ewyn had a hard time figuring out how to suck the puree out. I was discouraged because as a breastfeeder he has major suck power. But he needed mom to help squeeze and it was practically impossible to do because I couldn't SEE what I was squeezing into his mouth so it was constantly an overflow situation. And he would just let the excess drool out below the pouch where I couldn't see it. Annoying when you have a high chair tray under baby, catastrophic when you do not have a high chair (away from home.) By pouch four, I was feeling much better about it, as he had mastered sucking the food from the pouch with very little waste. Much improved. I think this might be the solution we've been searching for!

Stay tuned for updates on other items that I am waiting for! and while you're at it... WATCH the video!

Antiquities Photo Shoot, and Chickens

Ardyn is at school this morning and Marek and I are hanging out at home. We took baths (which I really needed.... every time in the last two weeks that I have attempted to shave I have gotten interrupted and had to get out early and never got to it) and it has been nice and quiet. Marek played cars and monster trucks and I have actually been able to have full conversations with him without him being interrupted or talked over. Nice!

Trick or Treat was fun last night. At first Marek was all worked up about not wanting his costume on, and he fought me, just like he did for the costume party, but as soon as he got into the wagon he got a huge smile on his face, and at the first house he marched up and puffed out his chest and said "I a robot!" so proudly. He didn't wear his helmet at all to trick or treat, but it is awkward and he doesn't like it on, and the costume worked fine without it, so it was okay. He won "Most Original" for his costume in his preschool age group at the community halloween party.

This week is fairly laid back. We have lots going on, but none of it is really stressful. Except I have to get the house picked up by Friday for the cleaning ladies. The kitchen is picked up, and I cleaned all the robot costume making supplies off the dining room table, but there is laundry to fold and put away, and both the kids rooms appear destroyed again. We have date night tonight and we get to go pick up photos that the kids had taken from an Antiquities Photo Fundraiser. Basically you buy a $10 ticket and then they do a photo shoot in which they provide the props and clothing. Then you get a free storyboard that is 10x13 and the option to buy more if you want. The best thing that I liked about it was the props of course, but at the same time they were the downfall. Some of the photos I thought had TOO MANY Props, and some had really icky props (IMHO) like cheap plastic flower sticks that looked like they cost $1.50 at Walmart, for "bouquets." Ick. I tried to eliminate icky photo props for the kids but the photographer was an older man and he kept sticking things in the photos that I really disliked. So we shall see. Marek got to wear a tuxedo that was ADORABLE with a top hat, and that might just be my favorite, but when he was taking Marek's pic in the tuxedo he had a REALLY cool black and white patterned background, but then stuck an ugly white pillar in the picture. So I am not sure about that. Hopefully some were actually really good. The kids cooperated really well and had a great time. The ticket and the fundraising organizers said that we could pick one set of outfits and then switch, but the photographer wasn't cooperative about that, which I found really really frustrating. They had a really cool motorcycle that Marek wanted to get his picture on, but instead of letting me put his jeans back on with the leather motorcycle jacket, the photographer kept his tux on but removed the jacket. I had picked a cool outfit for Ardyn to wear in that shot and for her to stand next to Marek on the motorcycle, but he was rushing and although I rushed out and swapped outfits in like 3 minutes or less, he only allowed me one photo with the two of them together in those clothes, and by the way Ardyn was positioned in front of the background divider I could tell he had no intention of making it an actual shot, and that it would probably be scrapped and he was just appeasing me enough to get me out of his way. I think that as a perfectionist and a photographer myself, I am overly sensitive to that type of thing, but attention to detail is very important to me for good photos, and if they actually intended me to PURCHASE any from them, it would have been helpful if they would have been accommodating and also asked which props I actually liked. He took a ton of photos of Ardyn with a teaset and a mirror and pearls, and while those will probably be cool in sepia, I felt like he spent way too much time on Ardyn and not enough with Marek or much with the two of them together, which is more what I wanted and expected. Oh well. It was certainly worth $10 and I know the organization was pleased with their fund-raising results, so the goal was achieved. All I could think is what FUN I could have with a little tuxedo and my OWN camera.... Which means that when Marek is ring bearer for Darrel and Leslea, I will just have to be especially sure to use a camera to my fullest advantage. I am excited about seeing the pictures tonight, but a little worried about exactly what poses and prop photos they will put in this "storyboard" because I am sure it's already printed and I can't choose which shots I want in it.

On another front, Chickens! We have had some strange chicken happenings lately. Yesterday morning we went outside to find a missing chicken, which shortly changed over to a dead chicken. It was one of our beautiful Buff Orpingtons that we had raised from a chick. You probably know or recall that we started with six and that FOUR of those ended up being roosters that we donated to new homes. That left us with TWO Buff Hens that were just gorgeous. We also had three hens given to us by Jeremy and Cherie of Meadowhaven Farms, and when we were overwhelmed with lots of chickens, I gave one of those away to a friend in need of a hen. Now we have two of those left, which left a total of four hens. So one was missing when we went out yesterday, and shortly after I found her dead, unharmed, between the garden and the picket fence. It appeared that she had crawled in between the space in the boards because she felt safe in there, and was basically "roosting" outside for the night, which isn't entirely shocking around here. Boyd keeps all predators at bay in the fence, and we have never had any issues. But I think what happened was that it rained that night and got down to freezing temp, and I think she got chilled and died. I don't know. She had appeared totally healthy. So the kids and I put her in a box and took her to the farm. That afternoon when we got back home, we put Marek down for a nap and Ardyn and I set to working outside in the yard. We filled the back of the old blue truck with dead weeds that we pulled. We burned all the cardboard. We trimmed the forsythia and picked up the trimmings, we shoveled an entire wheelbarrow of chicken poo and wood chip bedding into the composter. We lit up our Halloween lights on the fence and fed and watered all the animals. We picked up trash around the house and when one of Cherie's hens walked by me, she was limping. I looked closer and sure enough her leg had swollen and totally engulfed the leg band on one of her feet. Uh oh. It did NOT look good. I picked her up and decided we needed to cut the leg band off. When I touched it, it started oozing grey pus (gross) and I was like, this is not pretty. Best we can do is cut it off, medicate it, and see what happens. It will either drain and heal, or it will kill her. So as I am holding her, I notice another problem, she has a hernia on her butt. Oy. and it's not pretty at all. So on second thought, I realize that she just needs to be put down. Too much hassle and worry for a chicken that is already past laying age and not healthy anymore. So now, we have TWO hens. We went from NINE chickens to TWO in a matter of like two months, and no predators were involved. Yikes! I am really sad. I want more hens so badly right now, but everyone I have asked is not in the position to sell or donate any. Buying a full grown hen is expensive from a hatchery, because the shipping is KILLER. It costs more to Ship a hen than to buy one. Problem is, I can't raise from chicks right now (I don't think) because winter is upon us, and even though I would start them in the basement, I am pretty sure they wouldn't survive going outside in the winter until they are much much older. So now all that hard work and we are down to two laying hens and I worry that the two of them together won't make it through the winter. Not enough friends to huddle up with! So if you hear of anyone who has nice healthy hens to part with, I could use a couple. Most people I have found are giving away older hens, that are like 3 years old. Which would be a warm body, but they tend to have health issues and are done laying or close to it, so that's not really what I am looking for. I finally found some pullets for sale on Craigslist, and am investigating that avenue... Brahmas and Javas :)