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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

What Carter Eats

I've been thinking about writing this post for a while, and finally got around to doing it! I know I always appreciate seeing what other parents are feeding their babies, especially since I make all Carter's food. Sometimes I feel like we get in a rut with the same few foods, so adding to our repertoire is always good.

This will be a pretty long post, as I figured I would cover all the solids Carter has eaten up until this point, and then do periodic updates.

So we started Carter on solids at 5 months. She was more than ready, as she had been sitting (supported) for a little while and had started reaching for our food and pretending to chew while we ate. We started with runny rice cereal, and she gobbled it down.


We started feeding it to her once a day around lunchtime for a few days, but then we ran into a problem with constipation. We always made the cereal very runny, and gave her a few sips of water with it, but her tummy and the rice cereal did not get along. She also got a cold right around this time, and we didn't worry about solids while she was sick, so it was a week or two before we started again.

The next couple things we gave Carter were sweet potato, squash, apple, and banana. For the sweet potato and squash I roasted them and scooped out the insides to puree in our food processor. The apples I steamed in my steamer basket on the stove and pureed them. The bananas I just pureed. We keep Carter's food frozen, so I would put the purees in a ziploc bag (for easier dispensing) and pipe them into freezer trays. After a few hours they would be frozen and I would put them in a freezer bag labeled with the food and the date. Easy peasy!


We rotated with these four foods for a while, as they were easy for her to eat and digest and I had made a fair amount of them. We have also worked with Carter to put the spoon in her own mouth, so pretty much from the get go we have put the food on the spoon and she has put it in her mouth. It was initially a bit messier, but now she is a pro!



When Carter 6.5 months or so we gave peas a try. This was the first food that she didn't really like. She would eat it, but would make a face and wouldn't eat it nearly as fast. We also started giving her a few puffs before or after her lunch so she would work on her hand-eye coordination and pincer grip.



We also introduced pears around this time and she loved them. A few times I would mix pear or apple in with the peas to make them more appealing to her. 

Also around this time we also tried plain greek yogurt. She loved it, but it resulted in some pretty explosive diapers, so we decided to table it and come back to it.

Around 7 months we started giving her chunks of foods to feed herself. We started with avocado, which previously I had mixed into a few of her purees if I happened to be eating one that day. She was a fan of the avocado but it was pretty slippery for her to hold onto. I tried crushing up some puffs and rolling it in that, which helped some, but she preferred to eat it from her mesh feeder. I also have given her a few slivers of my toast, which she loved to slobber on until it got soft. Then she gummed it and swallowed. 


A few weeks ago I made waffles with greek yogurt and was reheating them during the week for breakfasts. Just to see how she did, I gave Carter one of my toasted waffle quarters. She loved it! Similar to the toast, she would gnaw on it until it became slobbery and them gum it. She only ate about a third of the quarter, but loved every bite she got!


Since she was doing so well with the puffs, toast, and waffle, I wanted to see if she would feed herself really soft cooked veggies and fruits. We gave steamed carrots a try, but they were a no go.



This was the first time Carter flat out refused food.

We also tried scrambled egg yolk around this time. She liked it ok, but it was hard for her to eat. I think we need to find a different way for her to eat it.



At Easter dinner Carter got to have some squash, applesauce, and (plain) mashed potatoes. She was in heaven!

Next we tried spinach, I know some people don't do spinach because of the nitrates, but our doctor said it was fine in small doses. I just make sure to space it out :) Surprisingly she liked it!


I mentioned earlier that we sometimes use a mesh feeder. Occasionally, depending on what Carter is eating that day or if I need to eat at the same time, we use a mesh feeder and Carter feeds herself. She really likes being independent! When she was teething we would put a piece of frozen banana in there. Here she had avocado, sweet potato, and banana.


She clearly was enjoying it!

In the last week or so we have also tried carrots (in puree this time but still not a fan) and mango (which she likes). No photos of these though!

I think that's about all I can think of. I'm planning to make up some green beans as soon as I can get my hands on some fresh ones, and I think we'll be trying yogurt again sometime soon. Any other suggestions?

Monday, April 20, 2015

Sun Shiny Weekend and a Menu

It was a beautiful weekend and we had a lot of time outside to enjoy it! Friday we took Carter to the park and met up with our friends Sara and Madison. Carter hadn't been to the park before, and we discovered she could care less about slides, but loved the swing!


Best buds!


Isn't that a great photo? My friend Sara took it and I just love it :)

Saturday we all enjoyed breakfast on the porch. 


We cleaned the house, ran a few errands, and worked outside while it was still light out.

We also went on a walk!


The sunglasses lasted all of 15 seconds, but they were cute :)

Here's our week's eats:
Monday: Hot dogs and salads
Wednesday: Lefovers
Friday: Leftovers/eat out
Saturday: Homemade pizza and tater tots

Baking: I'll definitely be baking apple pie bars for my (almost) sister-in-laws bridal shower this weekend. I'm not sure if I'll make anything else. Last week I made flourless peanut butter brownies and they were to die for!

This week I'm linking up with Motivation Monday and orgjunkie.com

Monday, April 13, 2015

Spring Weather and Our Menu

This weekend was the first peek of spring weather, and it was so nice! Today is even more beautiful, and it kills me that I have to work all day :)

Carter thoroughly enjoyed her lunch on Saturday, which was avocado, sweet potato, and banana. She also had some baby puffs, as you can see ;)


After that meal her pjs were trashed, so we played in a blanket for a while before getting dressed for the day :)


We also went for a family walk and enjoyed subs and wings from the pizzeria for dinner (the adults, not Carter!)

Sunday was the usual busyness of church, work, and small group. Only 1 more Sunday and then I wont work on weekends for the summer. I don't mind working Sundays, but once the weather gets nice its always hard to go into work for a few hours!

Here's what our menu looks like this week:

Monday: hot dogs on the grill and corn
Tuesday: hotdogs and green beans
Wednesday: Roast Beef dipped Sandwiches and salads
Thursday: Leftovers (repurpose the beef?)
Friday: Tacos
Saturday: Quesadillas

This week I'm baking Flourless Fudgy Peanut Butter Bars. They look yummy!

Linking up with Motivation Monday and orgjunkie.com 

Monday, April 6, 2015

Easter Weekend and Weekly Menu

I hope you all had a lovely Easter! Ours was really nice despite the snow (yes, snow!) that we had all weekend. I feel bad for everyone who was doing egg hunts!

I had Friday off, and spent the day running errands and snuggling the wee beast (Carter). We had dinner with my parents for Zach's birthday which consisted of pizza and wings and leftover desserts. It was nice not to have to cook!

Saturday we hung out around the house, did some chores, and rearranged our living room. We have a fairly large living room with three ways to enter/exit, so it can be kind of challenging to get all the furniture in there so that it's functional and looks ok. I'm not sure if we will keep it the way it is now or not- we need to bring the elliptical back up from the basement and go from there. We played a lot with Carter, who seemed to love having both of us home!




We also babysat for our friends Saturday night! Their daughter is a few months older than Carter, and they always have a good time playing. She has started cruising so she was tons of fun!



Normally we go to the Sunrise Easter service which is held outdoors, but due to the time (6:30am) and the weather (30 degrees) we decided that with Carter that wasn't the best option. We ended up going to our usual service and man, it was packed! They had to keep pulling out folding chairs to accommodate everyone, which I guess is a good problem to have.

Easter dinner was at my in-laws, and my parents were invited too so it was a one-stop day for us. Can I tell you how nice it is that my in-laws and parents are friends? My parents stayed later than we did! Dinner was yummy and everyone was happy to let Carter entertain them. My mom set up a mini photo shoot and Carter lasted about 2 minutes before she was over it ;) We did get a few cute photos though!


Our eats this week will look like this:
Monday: Leftover pizza and tater tots
Tuesday: Leftover Easter dinner
Wednesday: Salmon and broccoli
Thursday: the hubs requested deviled eggs and we will probably have something else too
Friday: Hot dogs and a side

Jury's still out on whether or not I will bake this week. We've had a lot of desserts in the house, and I think a few days without would be a good thing!

Linking up with orgjunkie.com today!