Eating Extravaganza

Since Andrew began eating foods (around 5.5 months), his habits have been less than stellar. I followed the books and started out with rice cereal - he didn't enjoy this experience one bit. We stuck with it (approx 10 days) and could barely get him to take any. He would shake his head no and whimper every time he saw the spoon coming close to his lips. So, I tried oatmeal - same reaction - very frustrated - I decided to skip the cereal phase and go to the real stuff! I pulled out the Beaba, went to baby food making class and was ready to go. I had been told not to expose Andrew to sweet foods first as then you may have a problem giving them vegetables later, so we were going to start with Butternut Squash. The squash was prepared and we started the adventure...at first Andrew took a couple bites and seemed to enjoy it or at least tolerate it. However, that quickly changed - this little man was simply not interested in food - the head shaking and whimpering would start as soon as he was placed into the high chair. On rare occasions, he would relent and allow us to shove some pureed mush into his mouth. Extremely frustrated, I caved and bought some peaches. Imagine the surprise to us when he took the first bite with much hesitation, swallowed and then opened wide for another bite. I was so excited, I no longer cared if he was only going to eat peaches for the rest of his life, he finally was accepting "food". So, I decided to go back and try an array of foods since he now "liked" to eat. We had avocado, sweet potato, banana, oatmeal (again) and it wasn't happening, this little man likes his peaches and only peaches - well, mangos too, but he can definitely tell the difference. This has been the hardest part of motherhood thus far, worrying that Andrew wasn't eating enough, but Dr. Starr has assured me that he will eat when he is hungry and will not starve. I've come to accept it and go with the flow as much as possible and hope Andrew doesn't turn orange from all of the peaches he is eating.

UPDATE: We have had a couple of great food days with Andrew. He is now eating 2 meals at daycare - breakfast (oatmeal and yogurt) and lunch (a veggie and peaches). He has dinner at home and I couldn't believe my eyes last night when he actually opened his mouth as he saw the spoon coming towards him and didn't flinch when it was filled with green beans and rice. Let's hope this was not just a one-time deal as I'm about to stock up on more veggies!

Baby of the Month!

Over the weekend, Creme de la Creme had an open house, so we stopped by for a little fun on Saturday. Nana and Papa joined us, but we didn't get there until the tail end of the event, so there was not too much going on. It looked like they had a fun line-up earlier in the afternoon. Andrew scored his first balloon animal, a yellow teddy bear and we were able to snag the last bit of guacamole and a couple pieces of pizza. On our way out, one of the directors mentioned to us that Andrew was Baby of the Month, we had no idea! His picture is featured on the rolling computer screen that keeps the families updated to what is going on...clearly we don't look at it! Here are a few of the pictures from his "Baby of the Month" photoshoot.