Baby Food

Our Avery will be seven months old tomorrow. I am officially the cliched mom, desperately trying to figure out where all the time went. Photos prove that yes, she has grown from 7 pounds, 7 ounces all the way up to 15 pounds, 12 ounces, but these past few months have flashed by so quickly that I feel like I've missed them.

Breastfeeding this baby girl is one of the pure joys of my life. Sure, it's the most difficult thing I've ever done. In the early weeks, the huge hormonal shift combined with extreme sleep deprivation almost led me to give it up more than once. It would have been so easy to throw a bottle at Mike and curl up back to sleep. But you know I'm stubborn, and I'm so glad I stuck with it.

So it's a surprisingly bittersweet thing to me that she's growing up and ready for real food. I was so proud (and completely in awe) of the fact that all her nutrition up to six months came directly through me. But the signs were there: while Mike and I were eating, she was VERY interested, so we decided to give it a shot, planning to just let her have tastes here and there and to take it one day at a time.

I cried. And cried.

Even though I'm still nursing her, somehow it completely broke my heart that she was no longer so dependent on me. And then Aunt Nancy gave me this:

The Williams-Sonoma Beaba BabyCook. Of course I could have just used a steamer pot and blender, but neither of those are dishwasher safe in my kitchen. And this only messes up one pot! AND it's SO EASY. I didn't even read the directions (didn't have time to!) - just peeled and chopped up a sweet potato, added some water, and turned the dial to steam. Once the little light went off, I dumped the sweet potato back into the water and pureed it to my heart's content. Then I poured it into the freezer trays, and voila!

I'm still making Avery's food!

Since then, she and I have taken the produce section by storm. Her favorites are sweet potato, English peas, and broccoli. I've also fed her bananas, apples, zucchini, summer squash, acorn squash, peaches, avocado, grapes, prunes, sugar snap peas, carrots, chicken, egg yolks, blackeyed peas, butter beans, watermelon, Brussels sprouts,

green beans,
pears,
and sweet potato. It's her favorite. Lots and lots of sweet potato.
I've yet to buy a jar of baby food, and I don't know why I ever would. Maybe when she has two or three little siblings running around, or I'm too busy to make it, I might, but why make a trip to the store when you can just dig around in the fridge and find something she'll love?
Maybe it's not as sweet or mess-free as a nursing session, but it sure is fun.