teething and baby food hack

Okay so I'm not really sure if this is a "hack" per se, but I've always wanted to do a hack and since I'm not super handydandy and can turn an IKEA product into something amazing, here's my best shot.

I think Blaise is teething. He's actually been quite a happy little guy for the past couple months and happier as the days go by. Until a couple days ago. So as a Mama to a baby, you can always blame it on teething. Regardless of the actual cause, it's teething.
And of course he could care less for Sophie or any other teething toy we have, preferring our knuckles or fingers or his toes.
Today I opened our fridge, peeled a carrot, washed it with previously boiled water and then handed the still-cold carrot to Blaise.

Success! He gnawed and licked and drooled all over that carrot like it was the best thing since sliced bread {of which he has no knowledge of, of course}.

And when he got bored or tired enough that I thought he needed a nap, I just rinsed off the carrot, stuck it back in the fridge and gave it back to him this afternoon.

And when you think the carrot has reached its limit, chop it up, boil it until tender, and then blend/mash it to the desired baby food consistency. Voila! A teether and baby food all in one!

*Please do not leave your baby unattended with a carrot and watch to make sure s/he doesn't bite off any little bits. I did not have any issues with Blaise biting off bits, but please make sure to watch your baby.

Jude's food

I've been trying to keep introducing new foods to Jude so he doesn't become as picky as Noah was/is. But that requires planning. Which I'm sorta bad at.

But we have had a few successes and a couple of failures.

Yesterday was Jude's first taste of ground beef and he loved it! I was actually quite surprised, but he really loved it.

He gobbled up some bbq'd chicken we had on Friday. Previously he wasn't so much into the chicken, but he really liked it on Friday so that was good.

He has tried cauliflower a few times, but so far he's not a fan.

I'm not really pureeing food for him any more so that's a lot easier.

Usually I just stick a sweet potato in the toaster oven for an hour or so (depending on how big it is) and then scoop out the flesh and cut it into squares for a few meals. He loves sweet potato so that works really well.

He also eats soup which is nice.

He could eat Cheerios all day every day, but I'm trying not to default to that. I'm struggling with breakfast foods, but most mornings he usually eats oatmeal and something else - whether it's yogurt or fruit or toast.

Oh yes. He usually likes yogurt.

All in all, he's a growing boy and still chunking up so I guess everything is where it should be!

becoming more adventurous

I'm way more adventurous and confident in feeding Jude (solids) than I was with Noah. I didn't know anything about introducing solids with Noah. This time I'm letting Jude get in his food more and um, I'm making my own baby food too. The other day I let Jude go nuts with a Farley's Biscuit and he did really well!Today I peeled a banana and Jude's grabby hands went straight for it and he broke about the top half off of it. So I let him have at it. He was so cute as he totally recognized the taste and was loving it!

Nom nom nom

Going...

Going...

Gone!

Baby Food in pictures

Earlier this week I made my own baby food! I always wanted to with Noah but never got around to it. By the time we were introducing solids to Noah we were in Africa with limited options and being a new Mom I had no idea what I could and couldn't give him. So we did the jarred food thing and then just kept at it once we got home.

But this time I decided I wanted to try my hand at home made baby food - and see if it would save money.

I tried pears, butternut squash and sweet potatoes.

First up were the pears.
I steamed them as they weren't super ripe.

Then I pureed them. I tried the potato ricer but it wasn't doing anything except squeezing out the juice. Then I tried my soup blender.

The chunks were too big and it wasn't working. So I stuck a bunch of slices into the Magic Bullet and voila! Pear puree! I didn't even have to add any liquid.

Next up were the butternut squash. I cut them in half and baked them in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Then I scooped out the flesh and pureed it in the magic bullet as well and ended up with a lot of puree.

Finally were the sweet potatoes. I baked them for over an hour and they easily slipped out of their skins. Pureed them in the magic bullet with a bit of water and got a nice, smooth puree.

I filled several ice cube trays with the puree and froze it all.

Today I took out a little ice cube (from my Ikea tray) of sweet potato.

Jude likes it just as much as rice cereal. I think I'll save the pears for a little later as I took a taste of it and it was SWEET!

Yum.