Drool: He's how old now?

I know most of my entries are pretty upbeat – that’s because I am generally a positive, go-get-em kind of gal.

But, (and you knew that ‘but’ was coming) I am coming to the realization that parts of parenting are actually a bit sad.

Overall, the joy of being a mom is definitely there. But as I sit and look through the photos of my son, it makes me sad to know that someday he will jump off the couch, ask for the keys and head out to do something cooler than hang with his parents. Maybe by then I will be ready for him to head out, but it’s still sad to think about.

Even as he approaches his first birthday, I miss some aspects of him being just one-month-old. He is already pushing away and becoming more independent; and with crawling right around the corner, I am sure that will only increase.

What parts of parenthood do you find sad?

I remain excited for the future, but I already miss my little baby boy. We have taught each other so much over these 7 months.

New-to-me product alert

Over the weekend, I decided to try something new with Droolface. He was in a relatively good mood and happily tearing through a magazine, so I brought out something to increase the messy, Saturday fun.

It’s a mesh feeder. I think the one I have is made by Munchkin. You can find them at most stores or online.

It features a mesh pouch where you place a piece of fruit or vegetable. Snap the lid shut and hand it to the baby to do the rest.

He loved it! I put a small piece of banana in the pouch and as soon as I handed it to Droolface he put it in his mouth and went to town.

I have seen complaints online saying this type of feeder is unsanitary. Yes, it was a bit of a pain to clean, but I was able to completely clean it with some persistence.

I will definitely be using it again because while it was very messy and sticky, it was fun for baby and fun for me to watch.

Recipe Alert!

My family recently joined a food co-op where we place an order every week for locally-grown produce, as well as freshly-baked breads and locally-made cheeses. So far, I love it!

This week we received deliciously-sweet little sweet potatoes, feta cheese and San Franciso-syle sourdough bread. So for dinner Sunday night, I decided to use our local ingredients paired with a cage-free whole chicken I had in the fridge.

For the roast chicken you will need:

• 3.5-4 pound cage-free chicken

• 1 tsp. paprika

• 1 clove garlic

• ½ tsp. salt

• ½ tsp. cloves

• 1 tsp. cumin

• 1 TB red wine vinegar

• 1 TB brown sugar

In small bowl make a paste out of the seasonings with the garlic clove. Use the tip of a knife and it goes pretty easily. Add in the vinegar and mix. Then stuff this paste under the skin of your chicken. Place chicken breast-side up on rack in a roasting pan and bake for 1 hour, 15 minutes in 400-degree oven.

At the same time as you put in the chicken, put in four locally-grown sweet potatoes on a sheet pan with a rack. I usually poke holes in the sweet potatoes with a fork after washing them. Bake for about an hour.

With about 10 minutes left, check sweet potatoes. Ours were ready. Then I toasted some of that delicious Old World Bread sourdough to put on the plate.

When chicken is ready (reaches 165-180 degrees on meat thermometer), let it rest for about 10 minutes before slicing. Place bread with some chicken and sweet potato on plate and enjoy!

For information on the local farm-fresh produce we get, visit www.hattiesgarden.com.

For information on the mesh feeder, visit www.munchkin.com/fresh-food-feeder.

Keep in mind that I do not promote these mesh feeders over any other brand, this is just the one that we have at my house and that you see in the attached picture of Droolface.

And as always, keep it real in the kingdom of drool.