A Mouse!

this adorable little sweet potato came from our garden, it was just asking for a little boy to eat it.

Peachy Keen

In our foray into solids thus far we have found that the little one loves peaches. I decided to stock up this past week at the farmer's market and put them in the freezer. I ended up doing peaches 3 ways and I thought I'd share. After I had peeled and pitted them I went ahead and sliced up half of them and put them in gallon bags and put them in the freezer to use for smoothies. Then I took the other half and did a quick mash with a fork so they weren't really mushy but the chunks were pretty small little triangles for Q to gnaw on. I went ahead and put them into little snack size bags with about 1/4 cup of peach chunks in each. This will hopefully be about two servings worth for him. The idea is that I'll be able to pull one bag out of the freezer and pop it in the fridge, when it comes time to eat I can put half right onto his tray and let him go to town. I also took a half of a peach or so and put it in our food processor. We haven't given Q any purees yet and I sort of wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I have to say that it was a lot of fun giving him puree and spoon feeding him - we both enjoyed it actually.
It was probably more about the fun of the spoon than the food on it, but he did consume quite a bit more food in puree form since it didn't gag him as easily. If I was really concerned with him needing more nutrition than breastmilk right now I might do more spoon feeding but as it is I think we'll be keeping it a good mix of all forms of feeding (spoon, puree, chunks, finger foods, off mom's finger, etc)

He wasn't always so sure about whole spoon thing though

Join us for dinner won't you?

We're having spinach, pasta, and a chunky veggie red sauce that we like to make
The cool weather makes me want to light a candle on our dinner table.



The littlest one is having avocado for the first time.

edited to add:
I'm not sure how much he actually ate

Solids.... the beginning

We're planning on starting solids soon and so I've been doing lots of reading on the subject lately. We're planning on going with a combination of baby led weaning (child-led solids) and purees. Since Q is exclusively breastfed I'm not overly concerned with him getting lots of nutrition from his food just yet. Not like I'm gonna give him junk food or anything, but I just don't plan on giving him a lot of food yet. We're planning on delaying grains, dairy and meat for now. At some point I think we'll open the flood gates and let him eat whatever we're eating but for now, it'll be fruits and veggies one at a time.

One of the things I like about blw (baby led weaning) the most is allowing Q to hold the food and feed himself. He'll be able to gauge how much he wants, and as most people remind me - for the first couple months he won't consume a lot and it'll be mostly for play and to explore flavors and textures.

Honestly, I've been on the fence about starting solids. I LOVE LOVE LOVE our breastfeeding relationship and don't want to do anything to jeopardize it or change it. I see that Q has an interest in what we're eating and a strong interest putting it in his mouth but I'm just not sure his little gut is ready yet. At least that's what my grown up gut is telling me. I do find myself wanting to give him food at dinnertime - something to hold and play with and gum. So you know what? I did. I followed the advice of other blw moms and opened a banana up, exposing some of the 'meat' while still leaving the peel on for him to hold onto.

Here's how it went:


He mostly nursed the end of the banana until he got some off and then smacked it around in his mouth for a little bit. He made some hilarious faces, gagged a couple times, spit it out on his shirt, and gagged quite a bit more. I practiced a trick for gagging babies that my mom learned in Mexico.

I'm fairly certain no actual banana was ingested. It was fun though and we'll definitely be trying again - maybe mashed up on a spoon or maybe like this again....