What's for Dinner?

Shortly after you turned 4 months old, your dad and I went to Babies R Us to buy you a high chair.  You were "protesting" your bouncer on the floor during dinner time and I knew that you would be much happier if you" joined the party" with us at the table.  You were getting pretty good at sitting up (with help of course) and I knew as long as you were strapped in you would love it...and you did!  Dinner time was much more enjoyable as you sat happily in your high chair with some of your favorite toys and we thought it would stay like that for a while until you were ready to start solids.

Happy girl in her big girl chair!

"Wow!  This toy is so cool, it spins and makes noises and everything...how does it do that?"

 Just sitting in your high chair at dinner time was very short lived.  A few days after we bought it, you decided that you HATED sleep.  You were awake all the time, during the day, in the middle of the night...you name it and you were up!  After a few sleepless nights (and days) I was desperate for a solution!  I thought we were doing it all right, we had a bedtime routine, we tried adjusting your bedtime, we tried letting you cry (only for a few minutes), we tried soothing you, eventually I just gave in and nursed you back to sleep.  I decided to give the pediatrician a phone call and they told me to start you on some rice cereal and then introduce solids.  They claimed that you were waking up because you were hungry and that eating solids would keep you full longer.  Although this was against my original "plan" of waiting until 6 months, I decided that you were showing some signs that you were ready.  You were loving your high chair and you appeared very interested in what we were eating.  You would stare us down as we ate.  I thought we would give it a try and if it was a total disaster than I would just hold off a few weeks and try again.  I was very hopeful that this would be the solution to our sleepless nights....WRONG!  It didn't help your sleep AT ALL (no worries, we eventually did find a solution - check back at your 6 month post for more info!)

Back to the food - we started with the rice cereal and you weren't really a fan.  You made such a mess the first time that I'm pretty sure nothing actually got in your mouth.  We stuck to it though and after a few days you were doing much better with this and we decided to give sweet potatoes a try.  You HATED them!  I mean you made a face, gagging, spitting it out...you did it all!  I felt so bad for you, but it was hilarious and your dad and I couldn't help but laugh.  We also took a video and if I figure out how to post it I will add it later!   After a few days you decided that sweet potatoes weren't that bad and you didn't happily eat them, but you didn't protest them either.  I considered this a success!  The pediatrician recommended to introduce you to a new food every 3-4 days, so that's what we did.  Next up we did apples and then pears, with a little bit of prune juice thrown it there - I'm sure you can read between the lines to figure out why.  You loved all 3 of those things and started to love eating!  Since then you've also tried green beans, avocado, squash, and bananas.  I would say right now the favorites are squash and avocado, but you will eat just about anything that I give you!  You are a happy girl who loves her food and your chubby thighs are proof of that!

What's for dinner next you ask?  I just made you some peas and I'm sure you will love them!

"Mom, what is that stuff?  It's orange and disgusting, gross!"

"Hmm...actually it's not so bad!  It would be even better with some cinnamon sugar though!"

"More please!"

My first baby food making day was a success:  avocado, sweet potatoes, squash, and apples!