High Chairs are for Suckers

How many times has Nathaniel sat in his high chair over the last few weeks?  Probably once and that's pushing it. He takes his meals either in bed or from the coffee table now.  I think he thinks we live in a mansion and I'm his butler.  Whether it's him handing me his finished milk and saying, 'Take it mommy' or him snacking on cut fruit in my bed while watching a cartoon ... this kid is starting to live like a celebrity.  Ok ok so I exaggerate.  Maybe.

Remember a few weeks ago he got SPOTS!  I was trying anything to get him to eat so I broke any and all rules.  Of course just a few days of anything sets a precedence in this house.  Ever since then he has become a bit of grazer.  He tends to eat less and get fussy in the high chair so I let him graze while he runs around doing other things.  He is so on the go that he hates sitting anywhere for very long.  I figure as long as he is eating I'm actually not too stuck on him having to eat at the table (at least for breakfast and lunch) (at least for a while)  This is a phase, right? :)  

I like a lot of what Dr. Sears says and he seems to think grazing is fine.  I'll follow the advice in that book for right now.  haha.  I'll just follow whatever methodology fits the phase.  I know I know, it will be important for him to behave and eat like a normal person eventually, but for right now I guess I'm serving my little prince in bed or wherever he demands it.  

Rough life (yes that is Kona his feet are on)

Time to relax I guess

Something is keeping me from finishing the felt board

Pregnant?

No not me silly! Gotcha! I figured this was a fun way to let everyone know that Nathaniel loves pickles. :) He can almost say the word too. Every once in awhile this kid surprises me with a love of some food that I hadn't thought about giving him. I guess I need to start experimenting more. I definitely get in a food rut with him. It is so easy to just give him stuff I know he likes and is easy to prepare.

 

Beyond the pickles he still LOVES fruit. Almost all fruit. Bananas are so so and cherries aren't going over well this season, but everything else is fair game... melons, strawberries, peaches, grapes.... he especially loves blueberries and pears. Meat is murder is still his mantra (more proof that he is my kid) Ok ok, he doesn't quite say that, but meat is still spit out. Veggies go over quite well too. Carrots, broccoli, green beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers. He doesn't like potatoes, even with cheese on them. But, he will eat an occasional french fry (if I bend and give him a few). Pancakes, waffles, Macaroni and cheese, cheese quesadilla and scrambled eggs are his favorite main entree. Occasionally he likes noodles and red sauce. He snacks on crackers, veggie stix, wheat chex, O's, smoothies, yogurt, but his most requested is tortilla chips. He still likes a lot of milk throughout the day and he gets a pouch or two of pureed mixes.

 

I know kind of boring, but I figured a few years from now I won't remember what he liked (what am I saying I probably won't remember a month from now) Pickles are still one of the biggest surprises for me. Oh I guess he likes sucking on lemons too... maybe the sour thing is his thing.

 

I amost forgot and guess I should mention that the only ice cream he has tried that he likes is mint chip (granted we haven't had a lot of ice cream, but chocolate and cake batter were duds)

Veggies

Thus far vegetables have not been Nathaniel's favorite. Actually I take that back, he eats plenty of vegetables as long as they are pureed (not including my homemade puree (little booger) or from a restaurant. For some reason any whole vegetables that I make at home get the big *toss to the floor* or the *no no no headshake*. I know it is a little weird to still be giving him pureed anything, but I decided if it gets him a serving or two of veggies/fruit/protein why not? He still gets plenty of the finger foods to go along with it.

 

Like a Sherlock Holmes mystery I tried to figure out what the restaurant vegetables had that mine didn't. There was the obvious BUTTER/oil. Maybe it was just the excitement of eating out. Maybe the spices. My main conclusion was that mine were a little squishier than a restaurants. I tend to steam a whole batch and freeze it. The defrost process doesn't always leave the freshest tasting veggies. So I tried a different cooking method. I just do a small batch in the microwave and add a tiny bit of organic real butter and PRESTO. Green beans, broccoli, cauliflower and peas have all been eaten. I wouldn't say it is his favorite thing ever, but he eats them. Woo hoo. He has also suddenly started to love grape tomatoes and cucumbers. Those are so easy to fix, like fruit, so I am excited

 

In general Nathaniel is going through a little bit of an eating change. He is starting to turn down any of the puree's from a jar and his daily oatmeal. So while I solve one problem (veggies) other problems arise... murphy's law right. The oatmeal is more worrisome than the puree. He still doesn't eat meat. Not that I have tried a ton, but every time he is offered any he spits it back out. I think it is the texture. The puree's I'd choose always have some protein so he is missing out on a bit of that, but I can replace that in other areas. The oatmeal had some good vitamins, fiber and grains, which I don't have a great replacement for yet. Maybe the oatmeal will just be a phase. In the mean time I'm going to put a little undetectable wheat germ here or there.

 

On a side note he is getting better at using a spoon and fork. He ate 2/3 of a yogurt the other day with a spoon. Pretty good for him. Normally he uses the spoon for about 3 bites and gets bored. The fork is a little bit funny. He likes to poke at the food and then take it off the fork and eat it. I know some people push for a toddler to use a fork and spoon, but for now I figure as long as he gets what the point of it is I'm happy. I don't even always remember to give him a fork or spoon so that probably doesn't help haha. He will use them in due time and for the rest of his life, it is the only time you can eat like a cave man and no one cares :)

 

On another side note this poor kid is getting several teeth. Every time I get a glimpse in his mouth I swear I see another molar coming in. Right now I think he has four teeth that are half way erupted. 3 molars and the fourth one on the bottom front. He is drooling a bit and chewing on stuff. I assume because it feels good. I can't blame him.

Toddler Food Expansion Paradox

First of all, it seems weird to use the word toddler.  Is Nathaniel a toddler?  I don't know, probably, so I guess I'll use that term to describe my little baby boy.

 

 

Ok, to the topic at hand.  The toddler food expansion paradox.  It was just a hypothesis in the beginning, but now I'm convinced. The theory is that babies/toddlers can turn a tiny portion of food into a much larger portion through some sort of magic. A portion of food - through magic - ends up being 10x more than when it started once the food touches the toddler. The key is that the food has to touch the toddler for the expansion to occur. While the expansion part of the theory can clearly be seen, more research will have to be performed to figure out the exact mechanics of the magic.

 

For example - Nathaniel usually gets a little oatmeal around his mouth when I feed him in the morning. Let's say a little amount is roughly the size of a small pea. Somehow he can rub that little bit onto his hand and smear it on his eye, through his hair and by his ear. The oatmeal clearly multiplies. If I took that same amount off his face and rubbed it in my hair, eye and ear, I wouldn't even have enough to show up in my hair. Now, he has roughly 15 bites of oatmeal, let's say half of those are messy. This amounts to basically a full facial and hair mask by the time we are done eating. How does such a little amount of oatmeal end up everywhere. It seems impossible. Clearly toddler magic is happening.

 

Another example is spaghetti sauce. I barely add enough sauce to even have sauce on each noodle. But afterwards it looks like he had an entire jar of sauce. Seriously, I add probably 2/3 of an ice cube of sauce to about 15 noodles. That sauce is everywhere staining everything.

 

 

Have you experienced this? Is my toddler the only one that holds the power of food expansion magic? Overall, Nathaniel is a pretty clean eater, which is why I'm always amazed at how much still gets in his hair etc. I don't get it. How does such a little amount of food get everywhere..... I'm telling you toddler touch + *magic*

Here You Go

 

Nathaniel has a new thing he does A LOT. He hands you whatever he is holding 'Here you go'. If he is playing with his new egg set he will hand you one. If he is playing with any of his toys he will hand you one. He will hand you a book to read and then grab one for himself. If he is eating he wants to give you a taste of his squished up piece of fruit, bread or whatever. I've noticed he tends to give you the one he doesn't want. If he hands you one he wants he actually will take it back. The dogs love this new behavior since he now holds out food to them. It is impossible to keep the dogs away while he eats now. I mean they are dogs. If someone is going to hand out food you are going to be there for the taking. Nate hands Mocha his dog toy to chew on even. The problem with this is that he kind of shoves it in his face. Luckily Mocha just moves over a bit. Besides not understanding *gentle* with the dogs, Nate hasn't quite learned distance yet. He will try to hand me something from across the room - when I don't grab it he kind of looks disappointed.  He always looks quite pleased with himself after you take his gift ;) 


Nate Note: Nathaniel was standing by the coffee table and Mocha kept walking right by him ... over and over again... Mocha had a toy in his mouth and wanted to play I guess. What was cute though was that Nathaniel would laugh out loud every time Mocha rubbed up against him as he walked by. It was a tight squeeze and he just thought it was so funny. The more Nate laughed the more Mocha would walk by him.

 

Here are some FALL pictures

 

A first glimpse at his Halloween costume

He looks like he was trying to be scary like the ghost :)

    

What sound does a cow make?

 

MMmmmmoooo. Yes, this is a common sentence in our household. Actually I think I *MOO* most during Old McDonald had a Farm. The big thing about cows these days is that Nathaniel started drinking milk. He passed that big first birthday so we started to transition him to milk. I always think that it is funny that at a year they can have milk. As if their digestive systems magically change on their birthday and they can handle a lot more stuff. I assume some testing etc. went into determining this special year milestone. Probably tests showing how efficiently the body can break down certain proteins and minerals. I decided to slowly transition to milk instead of going cold turkey. I figured this way if his digestive system seemed irritated I could back off a bit. I went with a 50%formula/50%whole milk mix. I do still heat up the formula portion so the mix isn't cold. I figured I'd slowly transition to the *cold* temperature of milk too.

 

So far he hasn't skipped a beat. His diapers have been a little more inconsistent, but I'm hoping they will start to follow a pattern again soon. I probably could have went cold turkey since this kid doesn't seem to ever be bothered by much, but I was gun shy. I'll probably go two weeks with a 50/50 mix and get to a cold temperature by the end of the second week.

 

The part I haven't transitioned him from is using a bottle. He mostly just plays with his sippy cups. He knows how to use them (including a straw), but would rather chew on them or bang them on the table then actually drink from them. I did try using one in place of a bottle a week or so ago and he threw it on the floor. Yes, that was some real attitude indeed! Instead of forcing it, I figured I'd wait until after the milk transition. Yep, I sort of wimped out and decided what is a few weeks?? (I may eat those words when he is 4 still using a bottle)

 

One thing that is super annoying about the whole milk I bought is that it is in a carton. Seems innocent, right? Well, for some reason I always dribble some on the counter and down the side of the carton. It is hard to pour 2 oz. into a bottle. (or I am just horribly uncoordinated). But EVERY single time I'm wiping down the counter and the side of the carton. Oh yeah and I can't believe how thick whole milk is... wow is that stuff thick!

 

In honor of Nathaniel starting milk make sure you put on your best milk mustache/smile and *cheers*

The Secret Ingredient

Let me first exclaim that I know I'm not the first to figure this out or the last and I'm sure it isn't some super secret, but for me I had never heard about it so it is now my secret ingredient success story.

Nathaniel hasn't been a bad or good eater. I figure he probably falls somewhere in the middle. Sometimes he will quickly eat up his puree and other times not so much. To be fair to the little guy I'd say he eats good a lot more than he eats bad. When he eats poorly it is definitely a test of patience as you sit in the kitchen staring at each other as he spits it back at you or just flails his arms in some sort of baby revolt. His spitting is mostly just pushing the food back out of his mouth. This in turn gets all over his hands and usually ends up pretty much everywhere since he then rubs his eyes, his hair, etc. He does the spitting with all the food whether he likes it or not. Sometimes I guess he is just in a mood. The puree's he doesn't like he just gives stink face and pretty much turns his head from you.

He has been doing better with finger foods. I think he likes his independence. The problem with finger foods is that he tends to 'squirrel' a lot of the more starchy finger foods (pasta, bread). By squirreling I mean he just packs it in but doesn't swallow. Eventually he will have 10 pieces of pasta in his mouth. As he stuffs more in a few fall out, but overall his cheeks just get bigger and bigger.  He does eat beans, cheese, melons, blueberries and cheerios like a champ still. I haven't tried pasta or bread in a while so I might soon just to see if the 'squirreling' phase is over.

Ok, back to the puree's that get super stink face. Green beans, carrots and chicken are probably the worst offenders.

Quick side story. I go through some work to make homemade food for Nathaniel. I buy organically grown fresh veggies and fruit and I steam or bake them, puree then freeze. I use jarred or pouch foods if we aren't at home, if it is food that I don't know how to make *prunes* or if I leave Kevin home to feed him. Well, it always seems like Nathaniel gobbles up these foods much quicker than mine. Little punk! Maybe he likes them more because the consistency is smoother. Or maybe they just taste better... who knows. But, it is a little offensive ;) Even though on occasion I feel like just giving him the store bought organic food all of the time - I continue to primarily use the food I make because overall I think they retain more vitamins when compared to the jarred. I have been using more jars/pouches that have spinach mixed in the puree. I can't puree spinach and if you remember he is low on iron so I do add those store bought ones to the rotation. Ask me again in a few weeks and maybe I'll have transitioned to store bought haha.

On to the secret... not 'The Secret' the famous book by Rhonda Byrne... but my little secret.

So green beans (both jarred and mine - yes I performed a mini experiment), carrots and chicken are big stink face causers. But but but they go down successfully with my secret ingredient. Drum roll please........ pear or apple sauce. I add a tiny bit of pear puree to carrots and you'd think they were sweet potatoes (one of his favorites). A little bit of apple puree in broccoli and down the hatch it goes. Pear and green beans is a winning combination. The secret ingredient for chicken seems to be squash (not pear or apple, but I'll take it). I've decided to change the classic Mary Poppin song 'a little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down' to 'a little bit of apple or pear makes the veggies go down, the veggies go down, the veggies go down'

You might be thinking that I am going to run into trouble when he eats these veggies as real food since I can't mask the flavor. I figure I will tackle that problem when it comes. For now he is getting these essential veggies and learning to at least like the flavor even though it is slightly diluted since it is still primarily carrot or green bean, just with a ** shhhh** secret yummy ingredient.

Squash and Sweet Potatoes...check

The little dude has now eaten veggies for over a week. He has only eaten 2 kinds of veggies, squash and sweet potatoes, but he seems to enjoy them both. I do think playing with the spoon is still the best part for him.


*Knowledgeable* sources always recommend a short list of first foods and it seems like half of them are bright orange. I think they want you to start with the most staining, messy color first so everything else seems like a cake walk. Seriously, the high chair straps, the steam basket, Nathaniel's baby fingernails, the dog's head, wash cloths, bibs... you name it they have all been *ORANGED*. So many of the high chairs have white or beige straps - what were those engineers thinking?!? Already in the works for my sewing to-do list is two velcro covers for the high chair straps. These covers will be easily removable and washable. 

I think it is funny that Nate's nails are stained. I was looking at them and I was thinking to myself why are your nails turning colors and then the light bulb went off...'oh yeah the orange food'... I haven't even gotten to carrots yet. If I don't watch out Nathaniel himself will turn orange from eating so many orange foods. (If I remember the story correctly, Kevin's mom turned him a little orange when he was a baby - haha)
 

In light of this and Nate's ever so slight constipation I believe I am switching to *GREEN*. Yep, peas are next. I have used my Baby Baeba to make both the sweet potatoes and peas. It is so easy to make his food. The machine steams it, I then just dump the steam basket in the lower bowl and then puree it. I add a bit more water and pour into ice cube trays. Wa La. A quick 20-30 seconds in the microwave to melt the cube and his meal is served.

You might of noticed I mentioned a high chair above. We did indeed buy a high chair. After some reading and asking for advice from other moms we decided on a Fisher-Price Space Saver. It is a chair that attaches to your dining room chair. It reclines, cleans up pretty easy (minus the beige straps) and doesn't take up hardly any room. We figured it worked for his and our needs for this stage. I had hurt my rib leaning over the tub the other day while giving Nathaniel a bath (insert *old* joke here). This was making it hard for me to hold Nate in certain ways so if I was going to feed him at all we needed a high chair and quick. The Fisher-Price one was easy to find locally and got good reviews.

Update: Peas went down the hatch fine too. He looked like he had been slimed, but happy nonetheless. Remember that show 'You can't do that on television'? If you said something like, 'I don't know' you would get green slime dumped on your head. He kind of looked like that ;)

Ready - Set - Go

Get Ready, Get Set, GGGOOOO...This is what we say now before we eat. It is like we are practicing for one of those competitive Hot Dog eating contests (minus the hot dogs). We just open our mouths and push the food down our throat ...nice visual huh?   

I was lucky enough to not have chronic indigestion or heartburn during pregnancy, but now I may have self inflicted indigestion and heartburn. What happens is when I think Nathaniel is sleepy and/or actually sleeping in my arms, I lay him down, observe for about 5 min. to make sure the *sleepies* took and then I rush off to eat. He doesn't exactly like to sleep so if the *sleepies* didn't take I have about 10 minutes before he realizes what happened to him. Once he realizes that he isn't being carried around and rocked like the King of England he pouts and starts crying and demands to be held again. Ok, ok we don't spoil him that much (or do we) and he does actually calm himself sometimes, but sadly the little dude doesn't cry himself to sleep very well. I can tell now when he will calm down or just get worse... THE RASPBERRIES. If there are raspberries he isn't going to stop crying, if it is other noises he'll usually whimper himself to sleep.

 

 

Anyway, back to the hot dog eating contest... In those 10 minutes I power down a bowl of cereal or something that is easy and quick. Those of you that know me know I'm not exactly the worlds fastest eater so this new speed in which I eat is quite the change. I wait for him to be in a deep sleep before I attempt a decent lunch for sure.
 

Kevin and I have now mentally adjusted and know that the days of leisurely meals are gone, for awhile anyways. At night when Nathaniel is entering fussy period #2 Kevin and I eat one by one switching off who eats the colder meal. This was a better solution than both of us blundering around not eating until 10 when he sleeps (don't laugh that happened a few times where we realized we hadn't eaten and it was SUPER late).

I actually teased Kevin the other day when he headed to grab a tv tray and get all set up like the old days... I was like, 'How long do you think you have to eat'... of course I was just calculating how cold my meal would be if he wasted ANY time. There is an occasional meal here or there that we actually do get to eat together, but this is definitely random and usually happens if we eat an early bird special before the fussy period. The problem with the early bird special is when you eat at 5pm and it is dark outside suddenly you are putting your pjs on at 6:30 and calling it a night HAHA. You are thinking to yourself it must be 10pm, but it isn't and you realize the dogs haven't even eaten yet - it is that early!

The normal 'old' everyday has changed... for the better of course, I mean how many people can write competitive speed eater on their resume ;)