It was green bean time in our household! I had been debating what to give Jack next, and I decided on another veggie. He already has lots of fruits on his menu, so a veggie it was. He was very clingy yesterday when I was preparing them. At one point I had to wear him. I gave him his green spatula, put some on there for him and let him lick it again. He wasn’t as happy as he was with his sweet potatoes! But he kept chomping on the spatula.Probably because it just feels good on his gums.

Then came dinner time. I let him have a taste of the beans before I mixed them with sweet potatoes. Oh my, he was not happy. His face was hilarious. He spit it all out. I then had a very hard time getting anything else in his mouth. Even when I mixed it with his favorite. I am not giving up hope though. He did not like apples for a while either. Now he loves them. I know it takes several times of introducing a food before they may take a liking to it. When I told Jason this he replied “and how many times did it take him to like sweet potatoes?” Yeah yeah, there is an exception to every rule, and SP’s were that for Jack!

I know what you are trying to do and I do NOT like it!

We ended up playing for most of the meal time. I got a few good scoops in there. He didn’t wake up to eat in the middle of the night, so obviously he ate enough during the day. He was filthy! But he had a lot of fun. He was grabbing at the piles on his tray and grabbing food out of the bowl. He is really getting good at that. I have even noticed him trying to use his pincer grasp a little already!

I have also started giving him small pieces of sweet potato as finger foods.

He was trying very hard to figure this all out

Jason wants me to buy those puff things that I think Gerber makes. I have decided, however, that for now I want to prepare his finger foods too. I make all of his meal foods, why not prepare his finger foods too? I actually cut up sweet potatoes into small pieces and froze them, before cooking. Then I just steam a handful of them right from the freezer and let them cool a bit then give them to him. It is very easy.

Now I am trying to decide what I will give that is new in a few days. I am thinking I may add cinnamon to his apples. I want to try introducing some spices too.

I think I have perfected his eating schedule. (For now anyway, he is always keeping me on my toes) These are not down to exact hours. I go with when he wakes up and then when he seems hungry again. I don’t have him on an exact hourly schedule for anything. We go with the flow. I call our schedule a “theme” Many actions are the same each day, it can just vary when we do them! It seems to work for us.

Wake up: Milk (I was trying to do milk and solids but he nurses so long when he first wakes up that he was not hungry for apples and oatmeal. I decided this week that I am not going to force it anymore. He was ready to eat again in between breakfast and lunch time anyway)

Morning meal: Milk and then his apples and oatmeal (or whatever fruit and oatmeal I give him, lately it’s apples) This is usually about 2 hours or so after he wakes up for the day.

Lunch: Milk and lunch (pears and plums, pears and watermelon, sometimes SP’s and zucchini etc, jut depends) He can go about 3 hours between morning meal and lunch.

Finger food snack (just started this yesterday. He did not eat much, but I let him try) This is just whenever since I started it yesterday.

Dinner: Milk and SP’s with another veggie of some sort. He can usually go about 3-4 hours between lunch and dinner.

Bedtime: milk. This is more of just topping him off. It is usually not too long after dinner. Sometimes he eats a lot, sometimes he just snacks. But he doesn’t nurse to go to sleep. He is awake whenever I put him in his crib and he falls asleep on his own! This tends to be his time to unwind and relax from our fun filled day!