Real food and Amy

Amy loves food. 

The end. 

Just kidding. So I put off starting Amy on solids because I'm lazy. First off, it's such a mess to feed a baby solids! Not just because of the process to get them in the baby, but also when it comes out. Breastfed baby poop is delightfully non-stinky and water-soluble. I can just toss the diapers into the wash without any other steps. Not so once said baby begins solid food. Secondly, I have to prepare baby food. I have to buy it, cook it, purée it, and then thaw it when she's ready to eat it. It's way easier just to pop out a boob. Thirdly, I have to pack some for our outings. On top of the food I already pack for the boys. And sometimes myself. It's just... a lot of work I wasn't going to start doing until I had to. 

Then she started grabbing our food and sticking it in her mouth. Like my pizza. Or John's forkful of enchilada. So I started her on food. 

Her first "official" food was puréed and thinned avocado. She wasn't real impressed. 

So I took that to mean she wasn't ready and waited a few weeks. Her first real food was half a cucumber, because I thought she was teething and I figured a cold cucumber with sharp-ish points on it would be a welcome relief. Then she hollowed out the middle with her gums and ate it... Oops. I didn't really intend for that to be her first official food, but oh well! No pictures to show for it either. 

Then she ate half a peach because I was busy cooking up apples for applesauce and Amy was losing her mind in the high chair. So I handed her half a peach. And I'll be damned if she didn't eat most of it. 

Since then, I've managed to purée some foods for Amy and she's loved nearly all of them. Carrots, brown rice, yogurt, apples, mango, and sweet potatoes are what she's tried thus far. She gnaws on full slices of watermelon, too, and LOVES IT. So far the only food she has flat out hated is bananas. A little strange, that. I thought all kids loved bananas. 

She will eat purées, but much prefers larger chunks of food (like Hank's quesadilla...). She would also much rather steer the spoon herself. She's already quite independent! 

Red cake

I feel like many moms on facebook are often saying something like, "Kid1 and I made brownies today! Then we busted out eight kinds of cookies and decorated them perfectly with royal icing. And to top it off, we made our own baked, painted and glazed some clay plates, so we could put the cookies on them and hand them out to our neighbors. It was SO MUCH FUN!"
I am not one of those moms. I made brownies with Johnny once, when he was about 27 months and I ended up with three broken eggs on the floor, wet brownie mix on the floor, in my hair and all over Johnny's head. The brownies were good, mind you, but it was not what I would call SO MUCH FUN.

So I decided to try again today. The boys were asking for cake and I agreed to give them some as long as we made it at home. I got out all of the cake mix flavors I had so they could choose a flavor (red velvet, because Johnny wanted a purple cake and it was closest I could get), then I got out the step stool so we could all mix up the ingredients. Johnny lost interest before I even set up the step stool, preferring to sit at the counter eating Goldfish demanding cake right this instant. Meanwhile, Hank stood on the stool and added the water and oil (with my guidance) and tried to crack an egg, but was not okay with having a hand covered in egg whites. Then he was done. Down he went to stand at the back door asking to be let outside to paint. I finished the rest of the mixing, pan greasing, batter pouring, cake baking and frosting making to end up with a cake.

I may have done the majority of the work, but they thought otherwise and man, they were so proud of the cake they made. And they were so cute eating the cake and saying "Mmmmm! Great cake, Hank/Johnny!" that it was completely worth it.

Stuffing their faces

I think they approved.

And now I have a ridiculous amount of cake left.

I have come to the conclusion that when a parent says, "My 18-month-old and I made chocolate cookies today!" What they really mean is, "I mixed up the cookies, dropped them onto baking sheets and baked them while my 18-month-old added a cup of sugar and then decided that pulling everything out of the kitchen cabinets was more interesting."

20 months

I'm 20 months old today!

I have completely left those teen months behind and am barreling headfirst into my '20s. Before I know it I'll be 2! Holy moly! 

Well, the last month has been full of talking since I know lots and lots of words. Most of these words are one syllable, but I can say "Johnny" and "Daddy". Any other multisyllabic words or phrases get turned into monosyllabic words (like "tank" = "thank you"). Some adults may not understand what it is I'm saying, but luckily Mom totally gets it. Someday I might put these words together to make sentences!! So far the only phrase I can say is "Hey you!" which would get me in trouble in places like restaurants if I wasn't so darn cute. 

As you can see from the photo above, I eat all kinds of foods now. I have enough teeth to take bites out of larger foods or eat things like ribs off the bone. I use a fork or a spoon occasionally, though I tend to get over it pretty quickly and eat with my hands. More evidence of my carnivory:

I take a nap almost every day now at about the same time and have even given Mommy a break by not fighting it too hard. Bedtime, however, is a completely different story. Go big or go home, right, Daddy?

Breaking the fast

Johnny is bad at eating breakfast. The problem is that he's on the go the moment he wakes up and the last thing he wants to do is stop and eat. I guess I should be grateful that he'd rather play all day than eat all day, but sometimes I go a little crazy when I KNOW he's hungry and he just won't eat (that's what happened here). Therefore, when I find a food that he looks forward to eating in the morning, or even better asking for in the morning, I know I've struck pay dirt.

This is Johnny's new favorite breakfast:

Mini whole grain whole wheat bagel with vegetable cream cheese spread. I made the spread myself from a recipe in this gem of a book:

My friend Jackie, who works for an organic foods certifying agency, gave us this cookbook along with some other gifts for Johnny and Hank when we saw her a few weeks ago. So far? The recipes have been a hit. There are some really delicious-sounding ones in there like pumpkin polenta, which I think Johnny will like. And some puree recipes that I'm looking forward to making for Hank when he gets there. The author has all kinds of great recipes that have vegetables in them (like the cream cheese spread Johnny is eating) as well as healthy versions of junk food, like baked French fries, which I'll be making this weekend.

I'm really digging this cookbook and so is Johnny... obviously:

Food as toys

Lately, Johnny has needed a lot of attention and has wanted me to hold him for most of the late afternoon. This really makes getting dinner ready difficult [insert know-it-all reader comment here: "Wait until you have TWO babies!" I know, I've used this before, but I've been getting that comment a lot lately.]. Of course, while he's being so needy his usual toys can't hold his interest. So, I have to improvise to distract Johnny from my legs for a few minutes while I get dinner ready. You've already seen the spray bottle and the apple below worked well, too.

The problem with food as toys, however, is it often generates a lot of work for later. See, every time Johnny took a bite of the apple, instead of swallowing it, as most children or adults would do, he would spit that piece out.

Blech, apples.

Notice the apple pieces stuck in the collar of his shirt.

Apple bits strewn about the floor where they were stepped on and tracked through the kitchen.

Messy? Yes. Effective time filler? Yes. Worth the ordeal of picking up the pieces and mopping the floor? Perhaps, depending on how desperate I am to finish the task at hand.

Freedom Garden

I've been working on trying to grow some of my own vegetables both as a hobby and because I want Johnny to learn about where food comes from when he's old enough. I figure that I need to do some practicing before Johnny's old enough to watch seeds grow. Turns out I'm not too bad at growing eggplants.

After a mere six months of growth, I finally have eggplants growing! Yay!!!

What's a blender like you doing in a place like this?

 My life has been taken over by this fire engine red appliance and I could not be happier. And double score because Johnny digs it, too. Every day this blender is used in the morning and in the evening; yes, TWICE in one day. Because it is awesome.

After our walk, Johnny and I blend up a protein shake which we share (he gets 75% milk and 25% protein shake in his sippy cup). Then in the afternoon I whip up a spinach and fruit smoothie so that we can both get some raw greens in our diet easily. Believe me, the spinach and fruit smoothies are more delicious than they sound. The Vitamix came with a cookbook that has recipes for such things and every single one I have tried has been a success.

Smoothie drinking is serious business.

 I must credit my husband for getting a screaming deal on the Vitamix and then surprising me with it. He just came home from work one day with this appliance from heaven under his arm and told me about how long he had been searching for just the right deal on one. My husband = the awesome.

Thanksgiving

Last week was Thanksgiving and our little family traveled to Grand Junction, Colorado, to spend time with my stepmom's family. Getting there was a bit of a trial, not gonna lie. First we had to drive to LA on Wednesday since our flight left from LAX early Thanksgiving morning. No problem, right? We'll just drive up there during Johnny's nap time, he'll sleep in the car and we'll stay the night at John's sister's house. Easy.

Well, Johnny slept a solid 40 minutes in the car and that was it for the rest of the day. No more naps for Johnny! You might say, "At least that means he'll sleep well at night!" This is not the case with my child. The more sleep-deprived he gets, the harder time he has falling back asleep when he wakes during the night. So, Johnny goes down at 7PM and gets back up at 2AM. I attempted to get him back to sleep until about 2:45AM and almost succeeded... key word: almost. At this point, even John was awake and he suggested we just get up since our alarms were set for 4AM anyway. We got up, got dressed, got some breakfast and headed to the airport. The flight was fine since Johnny did some eating and then passed out across our laps with his blankee for the last half hour.

After our arrival, it was fun, fun, and more fun! The Motzes are really fun people and very easy to be around. Plus, they are SUPER generous, evidenced by my step-cousin who volunteered her house for us to stay at since she and her family were going elsewhere for Thanksgiving. The best part? She has a baby, too, so everything was (pretty much) baby-proofed, there were age-appropriate toys and a crib for Johnny to stay in. Since we got to stay at her house, we got to sleep all night every night because Johnny had his own space to sleep in... he's not a cuddler. Never has been, never will be. Basically, it made the trip that much better since we got to sleep every night.

Thanksgiving itself was filled with delicious foods (except for green Jell-O... ick) and Johnny CHOWED DOWN! I mean, he ate everything we put in front of him: turkey (white and dark), sweet potato, stuffing, cranberries (whole ones out of the sauce), mashed potatoes, corn casserole, and even green Jell-O.*

The rest of the weekend was spent chatting, watching football, eating and enjoying the beautiful weather. Oh, and attending Kelly and Jake's engagement party on Saturday which was very nice. I had a great time catching up with all of my step-relatives, John had a great time shooting guns with all of his step-relatives-in-law, and Johnny enjoyed taking toys and poking the faces of his step-second-cousins. Too cute.

So thank you for hosting us, Motz family! We had an AWESOME time!

Johnny meeting Mickey the dog for the first time.

LOVE this picture! Kaden is all indignant that Johnny keeps taking his car and Johnny's like "What?"

 

The nice lady at Enstrom's gave Johnny his first sucker.

He wasn't too pleased with it.

 

Just in case you didn't notice, we have another top tooth! Tooth count is now up to 5. Yay!

Eating on the move

 I try to take Johnny on a walk every morning, though lately that's been a little difficult since the mornings have been wet. The best thing about Johnny being able to feed himself is that I can take food wherever we go and I don't have to worry about giving it to him, he can do it himself! Lately, we've been finishing his breakfast on the walk (he takes forever to finish his multigrain flax waffle... it sounds awful, but it's delicious, I promise) and it really helps keep him from getting fussy halfway through the walk. Yay for being a big boy!

The Pincer Grasp

Johnny has finally managed what is called the "pincer grasp," where he can grab something between his thumb and index finger. He's been trying to pick up Cheerios (and yogurt melts and bits of my foods) for awhile and up until now has only managed to pull them into his palm and hold them there. Now he can pick them up and put them in his mouth. Oh! And he waves now, too! Just not on command and only to certain people... like the pretty girl who bags our groceries at Sprouts... flirt.

Eating solid food

I tried giving a Johnny half of a banana unsmashed (closely supervised, of course) to see how he would do with it. He ate about half of it and then I finally remembered to get out the video camera.

Click here to watch on YouTube.
At the end of the recording (there was a minute more), he got the banana stuck on his finger and then flung it on the floor. Ah, a small glimpse into what feeding a toddler will be like...

Peaches

Remember that time about a month ago, when people voted on what Johnny should eat next? Well, I had this great plan to take pictures of him eating the food with the most votes and then post them so everyone could see how well he liked their choice... and then Johnny stopped playing independently and required my attention every minute and only napped in the stroller while walking or in the car while driving. Obviously, no time to blog. Then we went on vacation to Lake Powell and I'm finally now getting back in the swing of things.

Sorry for taking so long to blog!

Anyway. Peaches had the most votes on the last poll, so he ate peaches.

Click here to view on YouTube.
I think he liked them... what do you think?

Solid food update

Last time I checked in about Johnny's eating, he was only having rice cereal with enough breastmilk to make it super runny... like breastmilk. Well, we have since moved on to bigger and more exciting things. Here are the things we have tried:
baby oatmeal
avocado
banana
sweet potato
mango

He likes everything except for avocado. He'll eat the avocado, but he's definitely not a big fan of it. Hence the face below:

Yeah, not real wild about the avocado. Banana, however, he could eat that all day long!

Next we'll be trying asparagus, then probably egg yolks. Yay! Trying new foods is so much fun!

Solids!

We have finally started Johnny on solid food. However, "solid food" is definitely a misnomer. For those of you who do not have children, the first food is generally rice cereal which is mixed with enough breastmilk or formula to make it only slightly thicker than a normal meal. It is supposed to run off the spoon... so really, it's just thickened breastmilk for Johnny. Using a spoon was new though, so we worked on that skill a little.

So adorable, right? Here is video of his first "solid" meal, as taken by myself and John.

To watch video on YouTube, click here.