ice cream at the folk festival!

photos credited to my friend L.M.

eleven and a half months

Iris has made huge progress with eating in the last few days. She now eats nectarines, tortellini with tomato sauce, herbed harvati cheese, whole wheat crackers, hummus, ice cream, and baby carrots! I knew she would start eating when she was ready to, not when anyone else wanted her to. For right now, she likes me to hold her while we eat together and she sticks out her little tongue for me to place a bit of food there. The whole process can take up to an hour, which hurts my arm but is so worth it to see her enjoying it!

Iris has also made some pretty big leaps in terms of intellect. She recognizes cats with no prompting, either in books, printed on clothing and most recently the kitty I made for her out of felt. She knows the colors red and blue (at least when we're playing with colored links in the bath). She can put a cylindrical shaped block into the circle hole on her shape sorter and brings books over to me to read. Iris also loves to hold objects out to people and 'show' them what she has. She likes when we name what the object is and will also share. 

Much to our surprise, Iris recently started calling her Dada... Papa! She says "Papapapa!" and loves him so very much. When I hand her a comb and ask, "what do you do with a comb?" she combs her hair and then tries to comb mine! She also mostly grasps the difference between a hair brush, paint brush and tooth brush. She knows what "excuse me" means, moving out of the way a bit before I even need to show her why. I expect she understands about a fourth of what I say now and surprises me daily with her comprehension. Yesterday, I asked her if she wanted to feed her stuffed kitty some "memems" (milk) and she pushed the kitty at my chest with a delighted squeal. 

She constantly points to things she finds interesting! She has pointed to me and said "mama!" She has pointed to a picture of her Papa and said "papa!" When she's in the mood, she also says "meme", "kitty" and "meow!" She has 8 teeth and I assume more are coming considering how much she still wakes up crying at night. She is standing on her own now and walks while holding only one of my hands. She'd rather walk than crawl these days! She's definitely giving the Kitty some good exercise! She also starts clapping when I tell her it's bath time and will spend a good half an hour splashing around. She is also in love with the dish washer and enjoys helping me with laundry.

Almost a year old... oh, where did the time go?

wordless wednesday.

we have a winner!

After three months of offering food, 

I've finally found something

Iris genuinely enjoys

opens her mouth for

tries to get her hands on

wants more of...

She was so excited to dip her carrot into the container of hummus!

It was adorable!

the toast.

the banana.

What in the world...?

This feels like dirty diap...

SMELLS LIKE DIRTY DIAP!

"what's taters precious?"

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about feeding a baby? Did you think breast vs. bottle? Well, that's an entirely different debate. I am talking about Gerber. You know, those stacks of little jars you find in the 'baby aisle' of the grocery store labeled with that sweet, chubby cheeked child. Gerber was started in 1928 and became known to every person in America by their slogan "shouldn't your baby be a Gerber baby?" 

Their website says that they are "your trusted resource to help nurture your child's healthy development from pregnancy to preschool." Their line now consists of far more than just those little jars of pureed food. They have expanded to be a completely prepackaged diet, going so far as to sell water and create menus with their products for parents to follow.

Since when do parents trust everyone but themselves? This company preps the food, packages it and tells you when to feed your baby with it. Where are your decisions coming in? How much research have you done? Are you really going to trust that this massive corporation (owned by Nestlé , by the way) knows better than you do? 

One of my first revelations as a parent was that when it came to my baby, I trusted my own judgment implicitly. The jarred foods just did not feel right to me or my husband, never mind the expense! I'll admit the idea actually makes me gag a little. Why would I want to give my baby food from a jar when I could make it fresh myself? I considered getting a product like this to make it easy. But the more I thought about it, the term 'baby food' in general confuses me. Babies are humans too, aren't they? Would you eat pureed or smashed up food at every meal and be happy about it? I didn't think so. 

It was around this time I started considering other options and came across the term Baby Led Weaning. BLW is based on the premise that babies instinctively know when they are ready for solid food and are perfectly capable of teaching themselves how to eat, no pureeing required. Supervision is the first rule of BLW. Your baby should also be showing signs that she is ready for solids such as sitting up up unassisted, basic use of the pincer grasp, loss of the tongue thrust reflex, and interest in food. The idea is that babies are learning to chew before learning to swallow and are less likely to choke on their food. All babies will gag on their food, as their gag reflex is much further forward in their mouths than an adult but that does not mean that they are choking. It also promotes hand-eye coordination and goes hand in hand with baby's natural development.

As long as you are trained in CPR and the Heimlich (which you should know anyway) and baby is being supervised at all times, finger foods are offered to explore. Harder vegetables are steamed to make them easier to 'gum' and babies, who are instinctively exploring the world with their mouths, learn what food is and are free to figure it out themselves. They learn about texture, smell, taste and color on their own terms, without being pressured. If you are shocked by this, consider history. How did babies eat before What To Expect the First Year? Before food processors and blenders? Before Gerber? During Roman times? 

Iris had her 6 month birthday yesterday and Marius and I decided to celebrate with offering her some sweet potato. Rice cereal is not an option for us, as I believe it has little to no nutritional value and lacks flavor. We will instead be making our own oatmeal, which has far more texture, flavor and nutrition. She has been showing signs of readiness for a while, but we wanted to wait until she was around 6 months old, as per the recommendation of the World Health Organization and American Academy of Pediatrics. 

This is how she reacted.

"What is this weird slimy thing?"

Lots of brow-furrowing ensued.

And pushing our hands away, which I'd never seen her do before.

As you can see, we even tried putting a bit of sweet potato on our fingers to show her the flavor, tried putting a bit into her mouth to give her the idea but she was not pleased. It turned into smashed potatoes and ended in a bout of crying. Obviously, she is not ready or had some serious personal problems with sweet taters! We will try again in a week, maybe with a small bowl of cooled oatmeal or a steamed broccoli floret. Until then, mama milk is still the favorite in this house!