Baby Led Solids

NaBloPoMo - November 2011 - Day 3

2011-11-03T18:04:00.000-07:00

Good evening all!

It's 9:04 and I have had a busy day! Work, Costco, Dinner, Clearing out basement! I've done a great job on all!

I am flying solo tonight, my husband is at a work function and the kids are with their grandparents. I hope they are having fun and that the grandparents are enjoying every moment. Visits like this don't happen very often!

Food. Lists. Snacks for kids. I'm working on it. I think I am going to go to bed and take advantage of this me time. Sorry blogsphere, I'll have something for you tomorrow. Food related. I promise!

#1492.

2011-11-02T19:19:00.001-07:00

Wow - many women are blogging this month - awesome. I guess I better start reading blogs again!

#1492 out of 1853. Cool. Happy that I have given myself this challenge.

BlogHer

I should point out that all is well so far in the "chest" department. Haven't nursed in 15 hours.

NaBloPoMo - November 2011 - Day 2

2011-11-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

Oh boy - I am late for this blog post too, it's past 10pm!

Lily and Johnny left this morning with Mamie and are now in the hands of Grandma and Grandpa. I hope they are having fun! And that they are sleeping by now!

I've been reading about what "healthy and tasty" snacks the kids should be eating and frankly, I think that I am a bit disappointed in myself a bit. I mean, we eat about 80% healthy and 20% not so much and except for the occasional frozen pizza or fast food, we don't eat much processed foods in our house.

So, I think that the reason I am a little disappointed in myself is because of the lack of variety in healthy and tasty snacks that we offer the kids. On the lists I was looking at, I read: tofu, kale, lentils, homemade granola, fruits and vegetables we don't buy/eat etc.

I'll be sharing some of the things we eat on a weekly basis at home and then the lists I have been reading in the next couple of days.

Following that, I have decided that when the kids come home on Sunday (so far away... sniff sniff!) that the rest of my blogs will be about new healthy and tasty snacks the kids are eating.

You know, a baby feeding blog.

NaBloPoMo - November 2011

2011-11-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone - I am back. And I have challenged myself to participate in the NaBloPoMo. I don't know much about it, but I do know that the challenge is held by BlogHer and the topic is: Blogging for the sake of blogging.

I can do that. I think. It's a short month. 30 days, I can handle this. Except that I have been thinking about it all day, since it is the first of the month and it's 9:30 and I am just now sitting down and writing my first blog entry. That's ok. I will do it earlier tomorrow and get my grove going for the rest of the 29 days.

It's been a busy night here. As you all know, I have an almost 3 year old, Lily, and a 13 month old, John aka Johnny, JJ or Jack Jack. They are AWESOME. My mom, their Mamie has been here for the last month staying with them during the day while I went back to work. It's been great.

And tomorrow morning, Mamie is taking Lily and John for a long weekend away. Gasp. We'll miss Lily like crazy, but she is going to play with her cousins and have a blast. She will be with her grandparents, her pepere, her aunt and uncle, her matantes and mononcles and her cousins. She won't miss us - well, she'll miss her daddy for sure.

However, Johnny is another story. I will miss Johnny, daddy will miss Johnny. And MY boobs will miss him! I have recently night weaned Johnny (another AWESOME Mamie help!!!!) and day weaned him because I have gone to work, BUT, at the moment, I am still nursing in the evenings and in the morning (sometimes) not nursing for more than 24-36 hours might be a bit difficult for him, but I think that the fact that he will be "away" from me will be best for him and a bit hard for me. Anyways.

My 2 kids are leaving daddy and I for 5 days. I'm sure we'll keep busy.

Yahoooooooo!!!!!!!

I'll have something interesting to blog about tomorrow, I'm just getting the hamster wheel going.

Johnny Led Solids....

2011-03-23T17:24:00.000-07:00

March 22, 2011. 5 months 22 days - 8 days shy of 6 months.

For the last couple of days, Johnny has been sitting at the table while we eat and has been drooling, staring and salivating looking at us eat. To say that it hasn't been fun for him or for us is an understatement. Johnny is 18lbs and is a tall boy, he is hungry.

All the signs are there that he is ready for some "real" food (as if breast milk isn't real food!) He is sitting up on his own, he doesn't seem satisfied after having a large nurse, he takes a huge interest in what we are eating and he can turn his head/hands away to indicate that he is no longer interested in what I am trying to give him.

Johnny had an apt with our pediatrician on March 16th, so a week ago. I'm so thankful that I found her, she might not agree with us co-sleeping, but eh, I didn't ask for her advice on this, but she is a staunch follower of Health Canada, the WHO and AAP recommendations when it comes to nutrition for babies. We did discuss that technically he was ready, but that it was my choice on when to actually start.

So, after thinking about it all day (March 22), and weighing the pros and the cons, and also since I had some fresh fruit on the counter, I went for it.

I took a fresh pear, mashed it up and put some on the spoon and he started licking it. He ate the equivalent of 3 teaspoons.

After having a few pieces of fruit, he had his first cookie!

Pickle sucking and first sippy cup.

2011-03-08T19:31:00.001-08:00

Yep, we had pickles with our dinner and Jayson put a pickle in Johnny's mouth and he liked it. That lasted about 4 seconds and that was that.

It's really hard resisting the temptation to not give in and give him food. He is as ready as he will ever be.

Except he is not 6 months.

It's March 8th today. 24 more days to go.

Although, he has spent a few minutes here and there with Lily alone, so who knows what she has given him, she is just a little over 2 years old, so she hears the word "share" often during the day.

Oh and Johnny got his first sippy cup of water today.

Loblaws - what are they thinking?

2011-03-05T17:08:00.000-08:00

In my local Loblaws flyer of the week, there is a special insert entitled "five tips for good health". Tip 1 is about diabetes, tip 2 is about managing your weight and tip 3 is about managing cholesterol. I know nothing of these of these 3 tips. Don't care really (right now anyways).

Tip 4 is: Reducing your risk of life-threatening food allergies. Below this tip is adverts for a few products including "Enfagrow toddler formula powder" and "Pediasure complete toddler nutritional supplement" - I'm not sure how these products are in any way related to the header, but I bet that there are parents who think that giving these products to their kids will help reduce the chances of them having allergies and might introduce foods earlier that recommended.

Tip 5 is where I get a little frustrated. "Food safety during pregnancy" - pictured adverts are: PC Arrow-root cookies (Huh?), Tums (I get), Jameson Prenatal Vitamins (Great), Jameson Folic Acid (Awesome), Enfamil vitamin drops (Huh?), Born Free Eco twin pack bottles (Might be needed for pumping mamas), and the next item is the one that frustrates me, Similac or Isomil infant formula with Omega (HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO FOOD SAFETY DURING PREGNANCY?) I don't understand, why is infant formula pushed and advertised everywhere when it's clearly not something pregnant women need. I understand companies need to make money, but there has to a line drawn somewhere.

Come on Canadian company - you couldn't have put adverts for other products there, like your bakery (fresh grains) or your organic fruits and vegetables on sale or something that is actually good for a pregnant woman's body?

6 weeks to go!

2011-02-19T05:15:00.000-08:00

I'm having a little countdown until Johnny can start solids. He'll be 6 months on April 1, but that all depends on if he is ready at that time.

He is sitting up and holding his head quite well at 4.5 months so that's good, however after nursing too much he sometimes, most times actually, spits up quite a bit. He nurses on demand and doesn't seem to know when he is full, so I will keep monitoring this up until it's solids time. I don't want him to be eating solids and then spitting it back out all the time.

Johnny sits at the table in Lily's old high chair and he definitely checks us out while we're eating. I understand how it could be easy to slip him some food, but with all the different health organizations saying to wait 6 months, we're not giving in! I strongly believe in this and 6 weeks will go by fast!

Speaking of 6 week timelines, it has been 6 weeks since I have been at home with both kids and I love it! Next week I am working on pictures so I will be posting some of Lily eating solids that have never been posted.

I have been getting some comments and I love it! I've also gotten some emails asking questions about BLS, send me some more!

Happy Family Day on Monday in Ontario!

2 under 2 makes maman very busy!

2011-02-10T13:05:00.001-08:00

Wow - life sure changes when you have 2 babies. Well, Lily technically isn't a baby anymore, she is almost 26 months and is full of life. John is a little over 4 months and is growing fast and steady. He nurses on demand and is getting taller and taller by the day.

This blog was started so that I could chronicle Lily's solids eating... and now, it will continue with Johnny's once he turns 6 months and is ready.

Having 2 kids that are 22 months apart sure makes day to day stuff interesting. We had Lily in daycare for the first 3 months and since the second week of January she has been home with me and John. This is part one of our "me not going back to work in October" plan - which is another story, but so far I love having both kids at home.

Back to the day to day stuff.... when I heard in the past that SAHM (Stay at home moms) didn't have time to brush their teeth, I'd be thinking "whatever!" well, I think that last Tuesday I brushed my teeth before I went to bed! I can never go to the bathroom alone and since John is just 4 months and I can't seem to coordinate lunch time with his nap, I end up eating standing up with one hand and him in the other hand, sometimes I put him in the carrier. Our playroom is downstairs and I love having it, however that's where our laundry room is, and every time I go up or down I am always carrying a kid, so that means that sometimes I have to race back up or down to bring something up or down. I get lots of stair exercise for free!

We also just took a couple of weeks vacation and went to Florida, right outside Tampa to visit with Jayson's parents. They had rented a house by a canal with a pool and a hot tub and invited us. The weather wasn't perfect every day, but it's a million times better than here in Toronto! Lily loved going n the hot tub and I think she went in everyday. Back to food I guess....

WOW eating in the States is SO CHEAP. There are many restaurants, chains and independents on every corner and they all offer good deals. I am ashamed to say that Lily (and the rest of us!) ate like pigs at every meals. IHOP, McDonald's, Bob Evans, Subway, Steak n Shake and the list continues, it was incredible the amount of food you get for the cost. We did manage an all you can eat fish fry at Catches Seafood and more in New Port Richey where Lily ate some fish, which she loves and we ate the most awesome Mexican food at http://www.estelas.com/ a plug I have to make since we went there twice it was so good. Lily had the chicken burrito and it was probably the best burrito any of us had ever had.

Lily is tugging at me, more to come... she is watching a movie and she needs her popcorn!

No solids before 6 months!

2010-08-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-08-12T22:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-07-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-07-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-07-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

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!:

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

Snack time!

18 months already!

2010-06-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-05-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

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:

November 6, 2009 - 10m25d - Paté Chinois!

2009-11-06T03:49:00.000-08:00

Also known as Sheppard's Pie. However, you will probably never hear me call it this because paté chinois is my favorite comfort food. My mom used to make it often when I was a child and to this day, my brother and sister probably have this as their comfort food as well!

Paté chinois (the way we make it) is basically ground beef, creamed corn and mashed potatoes on top. It was a cold November day today, so it was a perfect time to eat some yummy comfort food! Daddy also made it which made it even better because he is an awesome cook and well, I got to play with Lily while he made it.

The dish coming out of the oven:

And after I put her bowl down with a spoon, it didn't take long for Lily to go to town and look like this:

This one looks a little weird, that's because I had the flash on and poor Lily got it right in the eyes!

November 3, 2009 - 10m22d - Beef & Green Beans!

2009-11-03T17:56:00.000-08:00

Daddy was at his hockey game tonight, so it was just Lily and Mommy for dinner. I had made a beef roast in the crock pot and opened a can of green beans for dinner. Meat and vegetables, healthy and delicious! I sat Lily in her high chair and gave her this:Not the best picture - but the food is in focus and she is not, weird. She then dumped the food out of the bowl:
After picking at it for a few minutes, I thought she wasn't hungry. NOPE, that was NOT the case. I was eating at the living room table and she wanted to come and eat with me. Out of my plate. So this our new food arrangement:

Lily managed to eat LOTS of beef and some green beans. It was very yummy! Surprisingly, no food ended up on the floor.

November 3, 2009 - 10m22d - Soup!

2009-11-03T14:35:00.000-08:00

In the last few weeks, Lily has been very active. She seems to be getting from point A to point B a lot quicker now, and she's not walking yet! She crawls very fast and she has her firetruck that she pushes around... she is practicing walking and we think that by the end of November she will have made her first real steps. She stands for a couple of seconds on her own before realizing that she is not holding on to anything and then drops to the ground.

That said, with all this energy, she needs fuel! For the last few days, she has had breakfast (usually oatmeal and yogurt) and then for lunch this week, I started giving her soup. Today was a cold fall day and we had pea soup. I didn't want to give her canned soup since it has so much salt in it, but I figure that everything else she puts in her mouth we make & cooked it so I can be a little more lenient with the soups. I will try to make more homemade soups for her though so that I know exactly what is in them.

Here she is eating her soup:

This is the soup we ate for lunch:
Stop with the pictures already - just feed me!

I'll be honest with you all, sometimes, when I am making something to eat and I know that it will be a BIG mess, I sometimes spoon feed her (gasp!) however, she is very clear on when she is done and I don't try to force more on her.

So, after soup, I gave her some avocado, she loves it! I just peel and cut into chunks and give it to her and she eats it all.

She kept pointing at the counter because she wanted some oranges, but she already had one today so I gave her some raspberries. Wow, she can eat a whole container in a matter of minutes!

Notice the cookies in her tray - she didn't even want to eat them!

She ate them all, I had these leftover for tomorrow, but nope, she wanted them now!
After her afternoon nap, I was eating a cookie, therefore Lily wanted a cookie as well! I figured that since I made these cookies from scratch at home and she was wearing a cookie shirt that it was ok that she had a small piece. Most of the cookie ended up on her face and on the floor! She was still cute eating it though!

October 20, 2009 - 10m8d - daddy's birthday!

2009-10-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

Today is daddy's birthday! Instead of making daddy a cake, I made him a HUUUUGE chocolate chip cookie - from scratch I might add! It's hard to have food in front of, or near Lily and not give her any. Of course, we are making sure that we don't give her foods that she is not allowed to eat (nuts, strawberries, uncooked eggs, fish, dairy etc) but a little treat should be ok.

Daddy was just going to share one little piece. As if!
As you can see from this picture, she has had more than one bite and is looking for more! Lots more!

October 2, 2009 - 9m21d - apples!

2009-10-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

Well, this was a huge success! I peeled an apple and let Lily loose with it! She had an apple as a snack a few days in a row, here are some pictures of her chowing down on it. Lily has one tooth now and even though we let her eat a whole apple, we were close by, making sure that she didn't chomp down on a big piece and choke.

Daddy also posted a video here of Lily eating an apple. Let's just say that this was entertainment for us a few days, watching Lily eat an apple.

Wordless Wednesday - September 2, 2009

2009-09-02T03:28:00.000-07:00

Lily's first time seeing farm animals!

August 26, 2009 - 8m14d - Carrots

2009-08-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of Lily eating carrots. I cut them julienne style and then I steam them. She loves carrots! Because she doesn't have any teeth yet, it's mostly chunks that she is swallowing, and they go right through her! (nope, I don't have pictures of that!!! And nope, it doesn't smell like the same thing going out as it does going in!)

August 21,2009 - 8m9d - Corn on the cob

2009-08-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

This was the most fun we've had seeing Lily eat. As soon as the Ontario grown corn on the cob was put on her tray she grabbed it and started chomping on it. Her face lit up and I am sure that she was thinking "mmm something new tonight, this tastes fresh, juicy and yummy, must suck on it fast!".

It took Lily about 10 seconds before putting the corn in her mouth like this:
She had a HUGE smile after she managed to suck a few corns off:She likes to examine her food. She was smiling and laughing the whole time that she was eating her corn. Jayson and I think that it was great fun watching her!
Oh so concentrated!
Here's a great picture of Lily and daddy smiling for the camera. Lily is saying, enough with the pictures & videos, let me eat in peace!The corn was a great success! It's corn season now, so I'm sure that she will be eating a lot more in the near future!

Wordless Wednesday - August 19, 2009

2009-08-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

Long wait at the check-out counter!

Wordless Wednesday - August 12, 2009

2009-08-12T13:41:00.000-07:00

Yum Yum Asparagus!

Wordless Wednesday - August 5, 2009

2009-08-05T18:25:00.000-07:00

Get the hose out!

Wordless Wednesday - July 29, 2009

2009-07-29T18:31:00.000-07:00

Pincer grip!

Wordless Wednesday - July 2, 2009

2009-07-22T18:28:00.000-07:00

Eating breakfast with my cousin Zack!

July 22 - 7m10d - Arrowroot cookies

2009-07-22T02:47:00.000-07:00

I don't think that Lily was sure that she liked Arrowroot cookies (aka baby cookies) the first time she had one. I would give her one and find it on the floor among her toys, down her diaper, under my foot. These cookies are messy, and they get all gluey when becoming wet. I guess that this is why they are considered a "safe" food for babies. Unless the baby puts a big piece (or the whole thing!) in their mouths, it would be hard to choke on muck.

This post is being added a little later than I would have wanted, and it took me a while to take a picture of Lily eating a cookie, but today, finally, while we were at an amusement park, I finally snapped her taking a few bites.

Here's a little tip. Once your baby can eat these as an occasional snack, since they are dry and probably won't rot, keep a few in a container in the car, in your diaper bag, in your swimming bag etc. I keep a few with a toy in my swimming bag, so that when we are finished swimming, she'll eat a cookie while I take her wet diaper off.

And make sure you always have a wet cloth handy because they are messy when wet!

July 14 - 7m2d - Green Beans

2009-07-14T03:31:00.000-07:00

I guess Lily likes green vegetables! I gave her a couple of green beans and she liked to suck the juice out of them. I'm happy she liked them because they are my favorite vegetable!

July 8 - 6m26d - Sweet Potato Sticks

2009-07-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

Today was something new for all of us. In the over 6 years that Jayson and I have been together, we have never eaten sweet potato, never bought it, never ordered it, never even looked at it at the grocery store.

In many sites that I read, sweet potato sticks was something that was recommended to give to your baby if you are doing baby led weaning. Today was the day.

I looked for a recipe online. This was it:

1 sweet potato, medium size
2 tsp cinnamon
olive oil cooking spray

Peel the potato.
Cut it into "fries" - around 1/4in thick and 4in long.
Put the strips in a bowl and spray very lightly with the oil.
Sprinkle on the cinnamon, then toss together.
Line a baking sheet with foil and place your sweet potato fries on it in a single layer.
Bake at 350 deg F, 180 deg C for around 45 mins.

So, I followed the recipe.

I don't think that Jayson or I will be eating this again, however, Lily seemed to enjoy it.

She has to empty the bowl first.

She looked at them for a long time, we weren't sure that she was going to end up eating any!

After her first bite:

She seemed to like the sweet potato sticks after a few bites.

She loves to examine what she is about to put in her mouth (only when it's food!) otherwise, she just shoves it in, no matter what it is!

See what I mean:

July 6 - 6m25d - Rice cakes

2009-07-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

I wasn't ready to give Lily an arrowroot cookie yet, but I wanted to give her something that would be healthy and crunchy that she could eat a few times a week if she like it. So, I got some organic plain rice cakes.

She didn't really like them and she was able to gum a whole piece off and I was too scared that she was going to choke. So no pictures!

July 2 - 6m20d - Interview & Oranges with a little honeydew melon

2009-07-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

Today was a big day! The Toronto Star selected us to do an interview on Baby Led Solids! After cleaning the house like crazy and putting Lily in the prettiest dress we waited for the photographer and reporter to come.

This is us being interviewed:

The link to the article is here: Baby Knows Best

During the interview, Lily was given broccoli because it's her favorite and because it would look great in pictures!(it's so messy!). Lily was also given honeydew melon which she sucked a little but didn't really eat any so we'll try this fruit another day. We did give Lily a few pieces of orange which she really liked as well.

The article was printed on July 11th. Since Lily and I were out of town visiting family, Jayson took pictures of the article, it was very impressive to see our baby girl make the first page of the Toronto Star!

June 30, 6m18d - Cucumber & Baba ganoush

2009-06-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

I wasn't sure what to give Lily today, so I thought that I would give her some cucumber, and then some baba ganoush dip. I'm not sure that she liked it or not, she did eat some (and managed to chomp off a piece!) and I saw it in her diaper output. she did enjoy dipping the cucumber in the bowl of dip and sucking it.

I don't think that I will be attempting this vegetable again as it was a little scary when she bit the piece off, and maybe I'll wait until daddy is around to introduce new foods. It's more fun that way too!

You can see where she chomped a chunk off.

I am impressed with how well she does with a spoon. She knows (most times) which end to put in food and then in mouth. Usually, nothing ends up on the spoon because we are still working on her aim.Of course, put bowl in mouth.

June 23, 6m11d - Broccoli!

2009-06-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

There are no words to describe how Lily loves broccoli.

Sometimes, I'll give her toast and broccoli and she chooses what she wants to eat.

Lily went to Ikea and it was lunch time, so got myself a plate of fish and chips and asked for a couple of pieces of broccoli. The nice lunch lady said that I had to buy a plate of vegetables for a dollar, I said fine, but all I want it broccoli, so just give me 5-6 pieces and I will be happy.

She takes her large spoon, a plate and puts some vegetables on it. It had 3 pieces of broccoli and about 20 carrots. This is Lily eating them. I was so happy that I could sit my little girl down and let her eat while I wolfed down my food. After, she needed to nurse, so I just plopped her on my lap, and she drank. This is easy.

June 22, 6m,10d - applesauce

2009-06-22T03:06:00.000-07:00

Lily has been enjoying sitting in her chair and eating. Her favorite thing so far is toast and she gets a piece once a day. Instead of adding a little margarine, we thought that we would add some applesauce to it. She did not like that at all. She didn't like grabbing onto the toast, maybe she is like mommy and doesn't like weird textures (I am a little picky!)

That's my hand putting the sauce on the toast.

This is what Lily thought of it.

So, I decided to hand her the spoon and see what she would do with it. Not bad, she put it right away in her mouth.

After taking off her dress, I put some applesauce in a bowl and let her have a go at it.

Let's just say that this was very messy. I was wiping off applesauce on everything, but she enjoyed it and I think that next time, she might get a little help from mommy and daddy when eating liquid fruit.

June 18 - 6m,6d - Pizza crust

2009-06-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

So far, I would have to say that Lily's favorite thing, besides breastmilk of course, is toast. She has gotten some for the last few days. She enjoys sitting in her chair, sucking the toast dry and then eating it. We know that she is actually getting some in her because of her diaper output.

I am a little more relaxed now with her eating, and I am looking forward to trying new things soon. Tonight, we had pizza and we let her eat the crust.

June 15 - 6m3d - Wholewheat toast

2009-06-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

I know we're supposed to wait a few days between foods to ensure that the baby doesn't have allergies, but since banana and avocado weren't a big hit, we're trying something new today.

Toast. I toasted bread on the darker side, then I put a little margarine on them and cut them up in 4 slices. Toast is a little messy, but she sure loved them. Her diaper output was an indicator of this.

It doesn't take too many times for Lily to figure out that once she is sitting in her high chair, something yummy must be coming!

Once she gets the piece of toast, she looks at it, squishes it and then makes a funny face:

But it doesn't take her long before she has a piece in her mouth:

We re-introduced a piece of banana and she ate a little:

Mamie thought it would be funny to give Lily a cup of coffee too!

Giving Lily toast was a success!

June 14th - 6m2d - Avocado

2009-06-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

It's funny how once your baby reaches 6 months, you think that you need to feed her lots of solids, but in reality, you don't, breastmilk (or formula) is the only source of nutrition they need. Good thing, because I don't think that Lily enjoyed eating banana so far. Now, today, we've given her some avocado.
Check it out:

Must always empty bowl.
Must stare at food.
And she tastes it.

Feels funny when going down throat!But, she keeps eating!
She ate a few pieces, so avocado was a success!

June 13 - 6m1d - Banana

2009-06-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

After doing all my research, we decided to start with bananas.

Lily's cousins & aunt and were in town, so it was fun to have an audience.
I had been researching how to introduce solids into Lily's life for a while... I discovered that you don't have to buy baby food and/or mush all your baby's food for them to eat. I'm glad that we did a little web surfing for this as it just didn't make sense to us to mush her food. I'm not sure if we are succeeding or not, but we are trying our best to parent in a "back to basics" kind of way and at the same time, we're trying to be as green as possible.

I'll explain more on "back to basics" and being green as possible later...

When thinking about how to proceed with something related to Lily, I always think, what were they doing a hundred years ago, before marketing executives existed? That usually points me in the direction that I want to go.

The purpose of this blog is basically to keep a diary of how Lily has been introduced to foods. I'll be posting as often as a new mom can and I will try to post lots of pictures. There are not too many blogs out there on Baby Led Solids so I thought that I would add my 2 cents for the world to see.

I'll also keep a detailed list of when and what foods Lily was introduced to.

On June 13th, Lily was given her first pieces of banana:
After touching the pieces and squishing, she put a piece in her mouth:

And she actually chewed a piece off:
For anyone who is thinking of introducing solids, please make sure that you are always looking at your baby eating and know the difference between choking and gagging.

Lily gagged a few times on the banana, and because of her daddy keeping me calm, we are still doing Baby Led Solids.

When done, throw on the floor:

Get ready. Get solids.

2009-06-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

Lily Pauline Ambrose was born on December 12, 2008.
Lily was born at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto weighing in at 7lbs3oz. I'll be keeping a log of her weight checks on this blog. I'll also be keeping a log of the foods that we have introduced.

After being breastfed exclusively for 6 months + one day, Daddy J and I decided that we were going to go the "Baby Led Solids" method of feeding Lily. I'll be posting more about this feeding method in later blog posts.

Our adventure starts now!