The Baby Diet

Eliot and I have been enjoying two of my favorite things around the house today:  trying new foods and cleaning.

I had mentioned about a week ago that I was worrying over Eliot not feeding himself.  I think it really came down to a few things.  I hadn't been giving him that many opportunities to do so since he has been developing his eating habits cautiously.  He didn't eat a thing until he was six and a half months old.  This was after a month of offering various solids every day.  It wasn't that long ago that I had to break his puffs in half or he would choke.  He teethed a little later than usual, I guess, and just got his top two teeth about two (maybe three) weeks ago.  He'd eat whatever we were eating, but these foods (black beans, rice, avocado pieces, dices of tomato, and so on) weren't finger foods.

Anyway, today we split a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch.  After showing him a few times, he picked up a piece and fed himself!  So he can do it.  He just needs more chances to.  Then he proceeded to throw the sandwich pieces on his lap and had me feed him some, but, you know, it is a start.

For lunch, he also had guacamole, puffs, half a sippy cup of mango juice, and a little bit of spinach and black beans.  We should all eat like Eliot does.

I have had food on the brain a lot lately.  And as weird as it sounds, I have been trying to eat like Eliot does.  Chris and I always talked about how we'd need to change our eating habits when we had kids.  It's not that we ate bad, just weird.  Also, I'd skip meals frequently and ended up eating a lot of cheese and crackers during grad school.  With Eliot around, though, I have been trying to eat mostly vegetables and fruits with beans for protein instead of meat.  Last night, I made avocados and tofu breaded with panko over brown rice for dinner.  That is definitely an Eliot meal.  He loved it aside from the rice.  What's the deal?  Doesn't like brown rice, but loves Mexican rice?

Growing up, I was a terribly picky eater.  There were a lot of foods that I never had until I started pushing myself in college.  It was certainly not my parents' fault--they tried, but I refused.  But it has been fun showing Eliot new foods and watching him enjoy them.  He won't eat all baby foods, but he'll eat almost anything from out plates.  So far, he has just said no to eggs, brown rice, and baked dessert-y foods, like pumpkin bread and muffins--and I'm sure he'll come around.  I'm trying to keep him well-rounded and give him a full, extensive palate while avoiding some of the typical "kid" junk foods.  I want to avoid having a kid that will only eat pizza.  That was probably me growing up.

After lunch, Eliot played for a while and we read some books.  Then we came upstairs to play with Neko in bed, have a bottle, and take a nap.  Eliot loves animals.  He seems to especially adore Neko and has been saying some form of "kitty cat" when he goes after her.  It's so precious.