Finger Food Fun…

Bottles(or nursing) every 4 hours…no big deal, I figured that out.  Add in some pureed baby food every so often just for them to start trying things…I got the hang of that too.  I made some of my own, bought other organic things and we were good.  She didn’t start with rice cereal because I read a lot…maybe too much…and a ton of different sources and other moms said it can give babies gas so start with avocados or bananas or some low allergen food. We started with avocados… figured that stage out eventually.

But let me tell you…the half puree, half finger food, still drinking bottles every 4ish hours…that stage drove me bat sh*t cray cray. For some reason I could not wrap my mind around what worked the best…when to give her what, how much to give her…how big of chunks.  I knew she was supposed to experiment and explore and that includes squishing and playing with her food…I didn’t like that either. Don’t get me wrong, chubby little fingers squishing food is pretty cute.

And as she (and we) got more comfortable with finger foods, it was so cute to watch her feed herself. Scoop things up and shove it in her little two teeth mouth. Unfortunately…spaghetti is one of her favorites, and the messiest.

But after the cuteness factor wears off and you realize there is a giant mess with food EVERYWHERE…well that part kind of seriously sucks. Thank God for our dog/floor cleaner.
I guess I eventually figured out that half and half bull crap stage… and then we moved onto the full food and whole milk stage (good bye formula…hello more money each month, that junk is EXPENSIVE).  This stage is a little easier for us, not as convenient as throwing a bottle in your diaper bag but waaaay better then the beginning of finger foods. 

The thing I notice the most about this stage in her eating development is that it requires waaaaay more planning on my part.  It also calls dramatic attention to my own diet.  I am constantly trying to come up with new healthy things for her to eat and then realize I need to eat healthier too…blah! But seriously, gone are the days of bottles and puffs, now I have to either pack food for her or make sure where ever we are going there are things for her to eat too.  This is a little tricky because she still isn’t eating meat (may never…not sure yet, save that topic for another lengthy post) and I try to feed her healthy things and sometimes restaurants don’t have healthy options. Either way…I think the husband and I are finally getting the hang of this whole eating thing for her. 

It is so crazy how all of this happens within a year…so much change, and she is getting so big, but it is all exciting and never boring.   She is in the 97% for weight so we must be doing something right.  Anyone else have a hard time with any of these feeding stages?!?!?

At least she is happy and loves meal time and I guess that is all I can ask for.