That carnival post, and a recipe

My cosleeping post is finally up! Yes, I know you've been holding your breath for it. Well, you can finally go on with life knowing our journey to become part-time cosleepers.

Since I wrote that post for the November Carnival of Natural Parenting, we've had some ups and downs, especially as the baby's been sick. Lately he's been waking up a lot, I think due to separation anxiety. It's weird because he's never minded being on his own before, but this is the age for it. I've found that all it takes is for me to be nearby -- either lying beside him, or standing by the crib with my hand on his back. (Guess which is easier?)

Marko still sleeps most of the night in his crib, but I am glad to have cosleeping as an option.

Here's a baby-led weaning recipe I devised the other day. Marko loves his pumpkin, and I mean LOVES, but it's a huge mess. He'd be coated with it, the high chair would be coated with it, and the carpet would have little blobs of pumpkin. So I was hesitant to give it to him because I knew it would be a huge production: high chair on a drop cloth, nice outfit off, bib on, then a huge wipe-down and/or bath. I ended up using potato starch to make the pumpkin into some yummy fritters!

Grainfree Pumpkin Fritters

1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
2 tablespoons potato starch
oil -- whatever you have introduced; I've used olive oil and bacon drippings

Mix pumpkin and molasses. (The molasses is rich in iron, important for babies, especially if they're not eating fortified cereals like mine isn't!) Add the potato starch, a little at a time, until the pumpkin is thickened a bit. (You can add more to make a dough, if you want to be able to shape them. The more starch, the chewier a fritter you'll get.) Heat the oil over medium heat and drop in the pumpkin mixture by spoonfuls. Flatten a bit with the spoon if you can. Turn them once they're relatively firm to the touch on the bottom (you don't want them to be too crispy or brown for little babies) and cook the other side till it's firm too.

Dice into tiny pieces for babies, or leave whole for toddlers and grownups. It's a great finger food that doesn't require any grains!