Reasons why I have decided to create my own baby food rather than feed my daughter, Mika, store-bought food:

1. Bottled baby food is bottled, therefore, not fresh.

2. Store-bought baby food has additives that I don’t think are necessary for my child.

3. Why should I limit my child to only the few selections the store carries.

4. I want my daughter to be exposed to spices.

5. I am home with her so why not use some of my time to make food for her.

6. I put myself in my daughters shoes; would I want to eat processed food everyday?

7. It’s simple.

8. Transitioning into adult food will be easier because she will be used to the flavors that I eat.

9. It’s fun.

* Notice that I did not put “It’s less expensive” on my list.  Some items are cheap to make, however, that is not one of my reasons for making baby food.

Website: http://www.citycakescafe.com/

Twitter: @citycakescafe

Facebook: City Cakes & Cafe

Today I meandered down to City Cakes & Cafe located on the corner of 900 south and 300 east in Salt Lake City.  I thought maybe it might be a great idea to do reviews on local places so this is my first.

Upon arrival I was a bit disappointed because there was no wheelchair ramp.  These days I always have a stroller so when I didn’t see a ramp I was a bit annoyed (isn’t it a law?).  I might have to invest in a stroller lock for these such encounters. The overall appearance is very nice and modern.  I love the cozy feel it has.

City Cakes & Cafe is a vegan friendly bakery and coffeehouse although I do believe they have traditional pastries as well. I ordered the chocolate dipped banana cupcake (for myself), tiramisu (for Liji), and a fresh grape-pear juice. The service wasn’t great and it wasn’t bad, it was just mediocre.

The juice: 5/5

The juice was amazing! It is hard to find fresh juice anywhere so I was very happy when I saw that they have fresh juice each day. Liji also loved the juice.  I plan on going back to have the fresh juice more often.  I wish that City Cakes & Cafe would use their twitter account to tweet the fresh juice of the day.

The cupcake: 3/5

The cupcake was really sweet. It was almost too sweet for my liking. I actually cut it in half and ate the second half the next day because it was so rich.  My favorite part of the cupcake was the frosting.  I hate butter-cream frosting, but since this is a vegan bakery the frosting was not butter-cream.  I am not sure what it was made of, but it was so delicious.  It was a vanilla frosting with a little chocolate ganache on top.

The tiramisu: 2/5 (from Liji)

Liji did not like the tiramisu much.  He said the coffee on it tasted burnt and he prefers tiramisu with lady fingers rather than cake.  I am not a tiramisu person, but I did have a couple bites and I really liked it.  I actually think the soaked cake tasted better than lady fingers.

Overall, City Cakes & Cafe was a great.  They also have a menu with savory items as well. I will go back and try some other items (I’m thinking the vegan mac & cheese).

I love being a mom more than I ever thought I would. Mika makes me a happy mama.

I had been married to my husband, Liji, for nearly six years when I found out I was pregnant.  Previously, we had decided that we didn’t want children.  We weren’t doing anything to prevent having a child and for the past six years nothing happened so we just figured that we couldn’t have children.  Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves we decided that it was okay that we couldn’t have kids and that our lives were pretty great.

It was Saturday morning September 25, 2010 that Liji and I were on our walk to the downtown farmers market and I started to feel a little icky.  As we got to the market I continued to feel worse and worse.  I got to the point where I couldn’t even stand up and I felt like vomiting.  Liji walked back to the house to get the car and came back to pick me up.  We started to discuss what could be wrong and that discussion led us to the store to purchase a pregnancy test. I took the test and it was positive.  A major rush of emotions ran through me. I began sobbing and sobbing and no they were NOT tears of joy.  I was utterly distraught.  I literally felt like my life was over.

I cried for a couple more weeks and then eventually got used to the idea that I was going to have a child.  Over the next nine months I actually became excited about the whole idea of being a mother.  The funnest part was to hear the comments my fifth grade students made throughout the pregnancy. They made comments about how big my belly was getting and how many times I would go to the bathroom. They always inquired about what I was going to do with the baby after it was born.  They wanted to know if it was going to be a vegetarian like me and if I would take it to India.  The suspense of not knowing if it was a boy or girl was just as fun for them as it was for me.

On May 11 Liji and I went to see our friend Nick’s show Urine Town and decided to stop for a late night piece of pizza at The Pie Hole afterwards.  When we got home, I went to bed and woke up around 1:00 am with a tummy ache.  I went to the bathroom thinking that I would feel better, but I couldn’t go so I went back to bed. 20 min later the same pain came back, but I ignored it and kept sleeping.  The pain came back again and I decided to wake Liji because it was so intense I felt like crying.  He insisted that we go to the hospital. I still didn’t think it was labor at this point because I wasn’t due for five more days. When we got to the hospital they told me that I was in labor.  I took birthing classes so I felt ready to do it as natural as possible with no medicine.

I stood for most of the labor because that is what felt best for me.  At around hour 16ish I was getting to the point where the pain was getting really, really, really bad. I was dilated to a ten but my water still had not broke.  The nurse was off to my side getting everything ready to break my water when I told her that I couldn’t take the pain anymore and I had to push.  I screamed and pushed and my water broke.  It felt like a water balloon popping and blood and water shot out across the room. After that point I threw the birthing class out the window.  I was taught to be calm and breath and focus.  Ha ha ha I was everything but calm.  I was screaming like a mad woman.  It was so painful.  I was pushing and screaming and sweating for I think around three hours. It wasn’t the best thing I have ever done, but it was definitely the most painful. It wasn’t the most beautiful thing either, but it was very weird.

The entire time Liji was so supportive.  He did everything in his power to make me feel more comfortable.  The doctors and staff were also great.  They didn’t offer me an epidural because I asked them not to even mention it.  All in all I did it without any medication.  The only thing I had while in the hospital was 3/4 bag of saline solution through an IV.  We had to ask the doctor if it was a boy or girl because they forgot to tell us right away.  The doctor pointed her toward us and said “What is it?”  It’s a girl! Having Mika on my chest immediately was such an indescribable feeling.  I felt so happy at that moment.

Last week I decided to go to the grand opening of Winco, a store that is comparable to Wal-Mart.  The parking lot was packed with vehicles and people.  Once I got into the store I thought that I would be able to walk through and check out some of the bargains, but I was sorely mistaken.  There were hundreds of people throughout the store.  There was no way to causally stroll down the aisles.  I was surrounded by people on all sides and trying to pick up some of the great advertised deals.  While I was near the bulk almonds and waiting my turn there were shoppers all around trying to get some of the other bulk items near me.  It was at this moment when I started to get paranoid.  I realized most of the shoppers around me were male and I began to imagine that they were going to touch me inappropriately.  I tried to maneuver myself so that I was out of there way and so that there was no way they could touch me, but as soon as I moved out of the way of one male shopper I was in the way of another. After a few seconds of paranoid thoughts and maneuvers my mind started to say, “This is not India, this is Utah.  Men won’t do that here.”  I would then start to feel more relaxed, but then a male would reach close to me to get a product and all the paranoia would start again.

I was in the crowded store for an hour and a half and not once did a male try to touch me.  NOT ONCE!  If I were walking to the crowded vegetable market in Kochi, the number of times that someone would try to touch me, or succeed at doing so, would definitely be in the double  digits.

Will this fear that a man in a crowd is going to touch me ever go away?  Will I always feel paranoid when I am in a crowd of men?  Will this disease of the mind that originated in Kochi, where male perversion runs high, ever leave me?