Time saving tips

These things may seem pretty obvious, but it was a while before I started doing them, and after that, I wondered why I hadn't started earlier!

• Use a Sharpie pen to mark the date that you opened the baby food jar, cereal box, etc. If it is in a container that you don't want permanently marked, have some masking tape handy to write on and apply.

• Prepare a whole week's (or several days) worth of cereal at once. When Kyle is sees food, he is immediately starving and wants it NOW. He doesn't want to stand around waiting for me to measure out cereal into his bowl. So I have six of the Gerber bowls with lids and I prepare 3 or 4 of those at a time and have them ready for his breakfast the next morning. Of course, the next problem is where to find the room to store the filled bowls!

• If you are going for the fresh foods route, rather than jarred, it was much easier for me to make up a huge batch at once and then freeze all of it in an ice cube tray. Each cube was about 1 oz, so I could defrost 3-4 at a time as needed. However, be careful about making up TOO much in advance. Kyle moved on to finger foods pretty quickly, so now I have a freezer full of pureed veggies that I need to throw away or find someone to donate them to! You can also freeze prepared finger foods to save some prep time..

• For those who use formula, I would premeasure the water the night before to save a little time when making up formula for Kyle's morning cereal. Again, he had little patience to stand there watching me trying to get the volume right! Having a formula dispenser ready helped too, although most of the time I tended just to scoop out of the container anyway.