Adventures in Weaning and Playing with Food

Lola is 8 months today, I really can't believe it.  One year seems just around the corner, and then she'll be in kindergarten, then middle school, then before you know it she'll be in college.  I plan to post a detailed update with her 8 month sticker tomorrow, but for now I thought it'd be fun to post a series of Lola and food.

Lola is so playful now!  Just tonight she was chomping through one of her teething biscuits while Michael and I were eating dinner, and she kept pressing her biscuit to Michael's arm, trying to catch his attention.  As soon as he turned to her and tried to get a (pretend) bite from her biscuit, she would cackle and pull it away.  They repeated this whole game throughout dinner.

This is a new development from her recent other trick, which is to turn away and hide her biscuit from anyone who reaches out a hand requesting for a bite.  She is really protective of her food, especially the stuff she really loves.  If you try to take it from her, or get in her way -- watch out! 

This is a picture from a while back, but evidences her love for watermelon.  She was shrieking like a little banshee while quickly, hungrily and madly sucking down the fruit.  She's holding a little mesh net with a handle which is meant to assist her in the first step of her self feeding journey.  This is a fun little tool for weaning her onto bigger pieces of fruit because she can easily pick up the handle, but then quickly suck out the juices.  This little girl is a fruit monster!

 

 

For the past three months, we have been focusing on Lola trying out mostly vegetables and fruits, and then slowly some more grains, rice, oats.  Now I am trying to incorporate more protein into her diet, starting with chicken and then fish (cod and then salmon).  I have many more items on my list that I want her to try, including lentils, beans, turkey, lamb, yogurt... the list goes on and on!  I've read that this is the window for babies' willingness to try all kinds of flavors and textures, so I feel like I need to make sure I cover lots of different food groups.  

Planning out Lola's menus and diet has been way more time consuming and stressful than I had anticipated.  Many fruits and vegetables here aren't available in organic, and procuring a steady stream of diverse, fresh produce for a varied diet every day is challenging and requires forethought. When I get too worked up about it, I comfort myself with the thought that there were many foods that I didn't like early on that I've grown to like and even love.  So there is time.

Here she is being surprisingly receptive to fish.

 

Lola also learned how to sip from a straw this past month.  She picked it up remarkably quickly, actually - I think it took an afternoon and by the next day she had figured it out.  She likes water and will gulp it down quite quickly!  She's much better at the straw than the sippy cup, which I almost didn't buy anyway because I read that the shape of the sippy spout doesn't really promote proper drinking techniques.  I think the next step is to slowly improve Lola's ability to drink from a cup (she actually can drink from a small, thin rimmed cup, though not that well).

Here, she is offering bread to our nanny, then taking it back, and tussling with Michael over her favorite treat, apple.

Hmm, I'm thinking about giving you a taste

Oh, would you like this tasty morsel of bread?

Just kidding!  It's so good it's coming back to me.

Yep, in fact, I will just eat it.  Now leave me alone!

I know you want some...but I really, really like this.  Should I share?  #dilemma.

Naw, get outta here!  Get your own apples.