Kari Eats a Grape and Britta's Bathtime Fun

Kari is notoriously picky with her eating.  Like, the only fruit she eats is applesauce.  No veggies.  No milk.  No meat.  She basically survives on breakfast foods, grilled cheese, go-gurts, snack foods like pretzels, water, and apple juice.  So, when she agreed to try a grape one night, I had to document it.  Sadly, even though she "liked" it, it has not made it into her regular rotation of foods.  {Sigh}

And...on to the happiest baby on earth!  This girl loves her baths and kicks and splashes to her little heart's content.  Isn't she DARLING?!

Britta's First Food Attempts

Here are some of Britta's first reactions to trying her first food (rice cereal)!

 She actually liked it pretty well!  (Better, in fact, than most of her siblings!)  And, unlike the others who never really took to eating the rice and oatmeal cereals, she still really likes it!  (She also still loves holding a spoon while she's eating too.)  Love this girl!

Treats and Eats

Emily has been interested in cooking lately. She has wanted to help me in the kitchen and asked about cooking classes! I looked online and saw that Hy-Vee offers a kids cooking class periodically. So, back in December, she went! She was so excited and had a lot of fun! They did a hot chocolate mix, a white chili, and (below) reindeer ritz cracker faces. Emily came home with big ideas and a couple of times a week (when we remember!) she helps me out with dinner. Bon appetit!

Next up in the goodie-department was Christmas baking! As you can see below, there were some different approaches to how this baking took place....Emily helped by cutting out the cookies...While Christian helped...himself :-). Christian loves his sweets!Finally, with our little Kari's food allergies (milk, eggs, soy and corn), we've been doing our best to make food she can eat with the family. Below, I found a way to make pizza that she can eat and really seemed to enjoy it! (The "cheese" is vegetable-based (non-soy) and comes from Whole Foods. She didn't seem to mind!) So, while we wait for Kari to outgrow these allergies, it's actually been a good kind of challenge to find Kari-safe foods and has broadened my horizens on the different ways food can be made and prepared. It's certainly made me become more aware of what's in all of the food that we eat!

SA-WEET POTATOES!

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's finally happened! Kari has finally eaten an entire container of baby food!!! (Well, she ate half of the jar yesterday, and finished the rest today, but hey, this is still a first for her!)

Kari is 8 1/2 months old. She loves to nurse and loves to eat biter biscuits, arrowroot cookies, wagon wheels, sucking on apples, and any "real" food that I put in her mesh strainer. She even likes bits of chicken, dinner rolls, and apple crisp :-). Basically, anything that she can feed herself. Ever since we started trying various baby foods and cereals at 6 months, she has either grabbed the spoon or just buttoned up and refused to eat more than one or two bites. I didn't want to act like it was a big deal or cause any food aversions so I didn't push it. But, I did try and stay persistant with the little efforts. It may just be starting to pay off! To see her open-wide for her sweet potatoes was big stuff for this little one!

From Tuesday at midnight through yesterday evening, Kari has been a BEAR. She came down with a really awful cold/mild croup and even got some steriod medicine at the doctor's office on Wednesday. Well, it must've jump-started her appetite b/c ever since then, she's wanted to eat food instead of just nursing! (A blessing in disguise perhaps??) She's doing much better today and, apparently, is still wanting to eat!

This is my happy girl, amidst her finished sweet potatoes and half of the waffle that she destroyed. (The other half is in her lap.) I'm not sure how much of the waffle got into her tummy, but she sure had fun with it!

A First and A Second

This is Emily's first brownie. Ever. (She's never wanted to try one before.) She liked it!

This is Christian's second brownie. Of the night. This kid loves anything chocolate.

We Have Cucumbers!

So. My first attempt at gardening had mixed results this year. The squash, that I thought would do so well, got too much water and rotted out. The carrots, though they did well, were stumpy b/c we didn't dig down deep enough and the couldn't push through the clay to get longer. The peas grew okay, but there weren't that many. The cucumbers, however, really came through! I had to replant the seeds in June (they didn't take in May) and since then, they really have grown! I could hardly believe my eyes when I finally got out there today (after rain and humidity all week) and there were sooo many! I picked a dozen large ones today and that was just the first batch! Anyone know any good cucumber recipes??

Christian looked so cute in both of these pictures...I had to post them both :-).