No solids before 6 months!

For anyone thinking of going the Baby Led Solids route, or the homemade baby food route, or the store bought baby food route, this is important information:

The following organizations recommend that all babies be exclusively breastfed (no cereal, juice or any other foods) for the first 6 months of life (not the first 4-6 months):

* World Health Organization
* UNICEF
* US Department of Health & Human Services
* American Academy of Pediatrics (breastfeeding group)
* American Academy of Family Physicians
* American Dietetic Association
* Australian National Health and Medical Research Council
* Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
* Health Canada

You are not starving your baby if you wait until the 6 month mark (with readiness signs!) and your baby will not sleep longer if you fill them up more (common myth!) - so listen to the experts out there!

I am quite aware that this post comes when my little flower is 20 months old and I am 8 months pregnant, so not timely at all, it's just that it really irks me when we see babies being stuffed with food or other liquids when all these organizations say that it's NOT SAFE AND NOT RECOMMENDED! We understand a parent's right to chose (what they feel is right) when it comes to stuff like cloth or not, co-sleep or not, pacifier or not, daycare or nanny, but when it comes to things that are either unsafe (no or uncorrect car seat, solids before 6 months), or take away a baby's rights (circumcision) I will speak out.

We'll be going the baby led solids route again for baby #2 - only 8 more weeks to go, excited and nervous!!

20 months!

Wow, Lily turned 20 months today! She's as awesome, sweet and adorable as the day we brought her into this world. However, now she can voice her opinion (no! up! down! MORE!), but at the same time, she says "merci", can listen to our commands, haha, like put your shoes away, come here, let's go outside, sit in your seat etc.

It's very fun having a little girl in the house with Jayson and I.

Food wise, nothing much has been going on... we were visiting our families for 2 weeks (hence the silence on my part) and our little flower had a great time visiting with her cousins, aunts, uncles, mamie, papie, pepere, grandma, papa - she definately spent some good quality time with everyone and it was nice to see everyone, especially since most people hadn't seen Lily (or us!) since Christmas.

It's always hard to eat as well as you want when you are away from your house and daily routine, but overall, I think that Lily ate a good balance of healthy foods with a few treats included. She did love eating crepes that her mamie made and ribs that her grandpa made! (pictures to come shortly!)

Lily, for your 20th month birthday, your daddy and I played hooky from work and went to see a baseball game! It was a great afternoon!

Also, tonight, for the first time, since we ate dinner quite early (before 6pm!) and then went to the park so you can run around, we gave you a bowl of Cherios after bath. You ate TWO whole (little) bowls... I had put milk in the bowl, but you didn't really drink any of it, it just went all over your arms and on the tray. I think that this was your first time eating a bowl of cereal with milk. We'll see how tonight goes, I hope that you aren't allergic or have any reactions to it (note that I had to give up dairy while breastfeeding you for the first year because of bad reactions from you).

You love your cheese though, so I hope all goes well tonight.

Next morning update: Not a good night, Lily tossed and turned and woke up so many times during the night! Unfortunately, it seems as if Lily has started having nightmares, boo for her! And as for the tossing and turning, I think we might have to do a little research on why you do it so much. You need your rest little girl!

Summer Snacking

We have been so lucky lately, the weather in Toronto has been awesome! It truly feels like summer! I've already posted a picture of Lily eating a popsicle, so I thought that I would also post a picture of her eating some ice cream. This was taken a few weeks ago when I was working late and daddy and Lily were enjoying a treat together. We don't buy any baby food, or foods targeted to babies/toddlers (except for Arrowroot cookies!) but we did find these mini cones, which are perfect for little kids. Pint-sized treat!


Lily is a super cute little girl, however, I have to say that this is not her most flattering picture (Miss Piggy nose, haha) She will not like to read this one day, but if you can't laugh (in a nice way!) with (at!) your children, who can you laugh at. Je t'aime ma belle!

Making changes...

I can't believe that I have 13 followers! How cool is that - I'll be working hard on my blog for the next few months and learning a bit more about blogger. Keep coming back, I will have new posts every week - I promise!
And now, I am following my followers too, so I'll be reading all about you.

Don't you just love Baby Led Solids!!!! It's so fun!!!

Summertime in the city!

It has been hot for the last few months in Toronto, and even hotter these last few weeks! It's awesome, so of course, with summertime, comes the summer snacks - ice cream and popsicles!

Favorite foods at 19 months! And more....

I've really got to stay on top of this blog, or else weeks will go by and I will keep forgetting what Lily loves to eat! Lily turned 19 months on the 12th of July. She is such a sweetheart. During the first 6 months, you notice your baby changing because they are growing taller and bigger and then at 6months, you start feeding your baby so every day is a new adventure and they keep getting bigger and bigger and crawling and then poof, they walk!

Since 15 months, the big changes have been her sturdiness on her feet, the babbling is starting to get coherent, although in our case, I speak only in French to Lily and daddy speaks English to her, so her language development is a little slower than a one language family. Another huge change is seeing Lily grow is her eating habits. Lily and I are so lucky, we have a great husband and awesome daddy who loves to cook. In the last month, he has made yummy beef stew, chicken penne (with sundried tomatoes and mushrooms) and ribs. We have had these 3 meals very often since mid May actually and Lily loves all 3!

Here are a few pictures of her polishing off some of daddy's yummy meals!


Yummy stew:
Yummy Burrito!




For the last 3 weekends, we have been getting out and doing some family activities. This has been so much fun as Jayson and I are allowing Lily to explore and see different things. Even though she cannot talk (much yet!) she is learning so much. Jayson and I are constantly telling her what she is seeing, but even more importantly, we are letting her explore and experience different things on her own. (We are the anti-helicopter parents, but that's a whole other blog idea!) We have attachment parenting values, but our little flower is an independant one. We love it!

While we are out and about on different adventures, I have been preparing and packing a little picnic for us to have. She has been loving blackberries, blueberries, watermelon cubes, chocolate chips cookes and hard boiled eggs. She loves her eggs. Many mornings a week, Jayson makes Lily some yummy scrambled eggs which she devoures. I usually make about 6 hard boiled eggs and she likes taking a bite out of 3-4 eggs, maybe she is trying to claim her territory. Haha.



I'm at 28 weeks pregnant now, I'm quite big (in the belly!), and things are going well. Lily loves kissing my belly and giving it high-5's. I'm noticing that she is playing with her dolls more and this morning, she even had me put a diaper on her favorite doll. So cute. I'm kind of hoping that she starts hating diapers and gets better at using the toilet. We're still having some luck with her using the potty, and some not so good luck. Lily spends most of her time diaper-free with us at home. We're getting there.

I'll be back sooner rather than later! We're planning a road trip next week and we're heading to Ottawa & Gatineau to visit our families. We keep telling Lily that she will play with her cousins and a baby and she seems to understand a bit.

Having a breakfast picnic with her cousin Justin and Zack (this was in May!):





Lily was at the grocery store and she didn't want any other snacks, she wanted a corn on the cob, she ate was eating it throughout the whole time we were in the store and then on the way to the car and then in the car.






This was the first time Lily ate outside with just her maman and daddy! She really liked it!

She still loves her broccoli!:

18 months already!

Lily turned 18 months on June 12th, 2010! Time has flown! It's been so fun having her in our family. For the last month, Lily has not really tried new foods, however, Jayson and I have been trying to give her more healthy foods. More organics, more flavours and more smaller meals throughout the day. The good thing is that we didn't really have to change our diet as we don't buy many processed foods and we eat well about 80-85% of the time, so that's good!

She is loving certain vegetables right now, especially corn on the cob, since it's in season, cucumbers, and she loves tomatoes, although we think that she might be allergic to them.

At 17 months, Lily and I both got a little sick and she was very stuffed up and was coughing a lot. Not fun times in our household. Good thing Jayson didn't get sick, he was a great caretaker! This is when Lily weaned. Boohoo hoo. Even though I think that it was time for her to wean, I am very sad about this. But, like all other breastfeeding moms know, when baby #2 arrives in October, we'll see if Lily will be jealous and if she will re-start feeding (I'm very ok with tandem nursing.)


As for things that she doesn't like, well, cow's milk, not even mixed in with chocolate milk! She doesn't like almond milk, goat's milk or soy milk. Nothing is better than mamma's milk! Oh well, she eats yogurt and cheese and that's plenty. As much as formula, baby food, diaper company's have multi-million dollar marketing companies, so do dairy companies! She eats enough healthy foods to get all the nutrients she needs to be a healthy chubby little girl!


It was father's day just last weekend and Lily made daddy some yummy cookies at Christina's with her friends. She had to have a taste though!


Here are a few pictures of Lily this month:


New House, New friends, New routine, New foods!

Lily is almost 17 months! Things have changed so much for us in the last month (April 2010). We had been living in a high rise condo on the 33rd floor just south of the Rogers Centre, but now, we have moved to a large size house in the High Park/Bloor West Village area. We have a whole main floor and Lily has a huge play room in the basement and we even have a guest bedroom and and an office down there - it's huge. We're all settled in and we're slowing getting accustomed to living in a house as opposed to a condo.

That's big news - but even bigger news is that Lily is no longer spending her days with Digna her nanny. She started at a home care with Christina and has made 3 little new friends.

Lily has some foods that she prefers, chicken legs, cheese, wraps, subs, pizza, daddy's home made penne with chicken, eggs, pasta, all the vegetables we eat, and some foods that she doesn't like too much peanut butter, hot dogs (yah!) and really, that's all I can think about.


At Christina's, Lily has been able to enjoy new foods and go to different restaurants, she's eaten kale chips, eaten mock pudding (Chia seeds, banana, cinnamon & vanilla) and more that I don't even know about probably. It's really good and we are so happy that Lily is loving it there and has made some cute little friends!

Here are a few pictures of Lily this month eating away: