In six days Scoopy (or Scoops, as we have taken to calling her - I don't know, this girl has a lot of nicknames and they don't all make sense. Past nicknames include but are not limited to: Glowworm, Glow, Indiglow, Bug and Indy-Bug) will be 10 months old! Sheesh! This year is going by way too fast. I can't believe I'll be planning her first birthday party soon. Also, cool weather equals baby cuteness! Who can resist a bundled up baby?!

I would like to start a new monthly post of Indigo Lily updates called "Eats and Feats"! These are admittedly completely self-indulgent, haha. Anyways, this one is a little early, cause I couldn't wait til the 23rd once I had the idea. . .

Eats:

Indy just recently started taking in enough solid food for it to be worth anything. Breastmilk is still about 90% of her diet, but she's enjoying some of the new tasy additions. She will also only eat any respectable amount of food if its off the floor. She was previously being fed mostly in her chair, but she would throw almost all of her food on the floor, so I would sigh and figure she was done and didn't want anymore, and put her down to play. Only later she would go back and eat all of the food off the floor! Silly baby. Apparently she just doesn't want to eat while restrained. So now she rugs around and plays and goes back periodically to eat a little and then goes and plays again.

Some of her favorite foods this month include:

• egg yolk
• fresh and freeze dried strawberries
• cheerios
• apples
• guacamole
• rice and beans
• tomatoes (she goes back and forth on this one)
• mangos
• bananas
• cooked carrots/sweet peppers
• and anything ethnic: particularly pho and panang curry (what can I say, I ate a lot of these two while I was pregnant)

Feats:

Her mobility/motility has greatly increased:

• she speed crawls everywhere (as evidenced by the sometimes rug burn on her little baby knees)
• pulls to a stand easily on everything
• climbs steps, and tries to climb other less climbable things like pillows and piles of toys
• she loves taking things in and out of boxes and baskets (she thinks she's being helpful on laundry day)

Physical feats:

• she's getting in her two top teeth
• her hair is growing! Oh it's so cute!

Oh, and she throws tantrums now. Is that really a feat? I don't know. Does it matter? She's ridiculously cute. And also sometimes a little smug. . .

I went to school in Grand Rapids, MI, which is where I lived when Alan and I met and started dating, and there is this restaurant up there called Marie Catribs (think farm-to-table seasonal and local produce, amazing vegan, vegetarian {and not}, options, made from scratch with some awesome middle-eastern inspiration sprinkled throughout) which I always loved and then became one of our favorite spots together as well. Anyways, besides the most amazing Turkish coffee and duck egg chocolate pudding, they have a sandwich called the Trenton, which is what we usually shared when we went there. When we moved back to Chicago, we needed some way to satisfy our Trenton hankerings that didn't involve jumping in the car and driving 3 hours, and so the TJ's egg sammy was born. I know it's not rocket science, it's just an egg sandwich, but it was such a food staple in the early, tiny studio apartment days of our marriage that I'm rather nostalgic about it and wanted to share it anyways.

We love Trader Joe's. We do about 90% of our grocery shopping there, and all but one of the ingredients in this sandwich are from there. Feel free to substitute whatever you would like for the bread, eggs, and bacon, but the cheese and mayo are key flavours, so no messing!

You will need:

• Bread - I recommend Trader Joe's Challah, but we had their 7 grains sprouted on hand, so that's what I used.
• Eggs - Free Range Organic Brown with Omega 3's (obviously, whatever you fancy, but please, free range).
• Bacon - we use Oscar Meyer's turkey bacon (the only non - TJ's ingredient), but TJ's has their own turkey bacon (which is alright) or an applewood smoked bacon I've always been curious to try.
• Cheese - TJ's Quattro Formaggio
• Mayo - TJ's Organic Mayonnaise
• Greens - optional

Start by frying your eggs to your desired hardness, I like over medium (one or two per sandwich, I take one, Alan takes two). . .

Indy gets an egg yolk out of this. . .

She eats it off the floor. . . her favorite place to receive food these days. . . yum!

Meanwhile, toast your bread and spread cheese on the bottom slice (we keep ours frozen, since this is the only thing we use it for, but the hot egg melts it). . .

Nestle egg on top of the cheese. . .

Cook your bacon (tip: we rarely use bacon, so when I get it home from the store I section it off into groups of 4, wrap it in saran wrap and put it in the freezer, then I microwave one of those when I need it). . .

Try to protect baby from bacon splatter if she comes and tries to steal your dish towels again. . .

Meanwhile spread mayo on the top slice. . .

Finally add your bacon, and eat up!