How to eat cereal

Here's how to eat a bowl of cheerios with fruit and milk according to Boo:

Remove cheerios and fruit from bowl and set on table.
Drink milk out of bowl.
Hold up bowl and ask for "mo muk".
Finally pick cheerios off of table and eat one at a time along with fruit.

Gotta love it!

Reflecting on the Journey

Boo is now 17 months old. He eats a variety of foods with a variety of textures and flavors. I have always offered a variety of things, whether they appeared "kid friendly" or not. The one alteration I make is that things are not as spicy as I would like them. This is both for the benefit of my husband and for Boo. Boo has tried spicy salsas and stuff though when I have them out. And I would say it's looking like he's going to take after his mama in that department!

Would I do BLW again? Absolutely. Boo always has been in charge of what goes into his mouth. He's always been able to select from his tray what he wants. If he doesn't eat much of a certain meal or even on a certain day he makes up for it. I've never had a problem with Boo being able to handle a food that he could get into his mouth. If it was something he wasn't ready to swallow he just spit it out after tasting it. No harm done. Granted, some obvious hazards were not given to him. It does require some common sense.

We will continue with BLW and the spirit of BLW will live long after he's weaned. I hope that food continues to feel adventurous to him and that he continues to live tasting a wide variety of foods.

Boo Amazes Me

Boo continues to amaze me with the variety of foods that he will eat. Yesterday's daycare menu had a couple of new foods on it. We had Italian Bread and Cheese Soup. It was so yummy! I'd post the recipe, but I got it from a cookbook, so I'm pretty sure that would be a copyright violation. I got it out of a cookbook entitled, "Simple Suppers." It's a Moosewood Restaurant cookbook. Boo loved his soup and scarfed it down. Of course he ate the cheese off of the top first and then ate the rest of the soup. He loves cheese!

Afternoon snack was green olive tapenade on whole grain melba. I didn't have high hopes with this one. Nope - he scarfed it down. I'd love to say that it was this lovely homemade tapenade, but no, it was a jar of store bought tapenade. He actually ate the tapenade first and then started in on the melba. Although, that's the way he does with almost any topping!

Sick Boo and Thankful To Be Nursing

Sadly Boo has not been eating much these past few days. He's sick. He has an ear infection and a sinus infection. I've tried to get him to eat and he'll take a bite here and there, but mostly just throws it. He's nursing like a newborn though. I'm really thankful that he's still nursing actually because that's about all he'll eat right now while sick. He will drink water also. Interestingly enough, I tried Pedialyte and he won't touch it. He'll drink his water, but not Pedialyte. I really think the nursing has helped though as I've been watching him for signs of dehydration. He's got a bit of diarrhea due to the antibiotic.

All in all, I'm thankful to be nursing him still. I think I'd be a lot more panicked about his level of food intake if he wasn't nursing right now. Not to mention he feels like complete crap and it's so comforting to him. Nothing comforts him like a nursing session does. I would encourage anyone who tries to do BLW to try extended nursing along with it. I'm a little amazed at how natural it all seems and how much we both seem to enjoy this.

How to eat a rice cake w/ almond butter and banana

According to Boo:


1. Pick off banana slices and put on side of plate.
2. Pick off almond butter with fingers and suck off until rice cake is almost clean.
3. Eat rice cake.

Chili

Given the cooler weather I felt that it was time for a nice pot of chili. So I threw everything together this morning and set the crockpot to go. It was a great lunch for the daycare, as I didn't have to mess with it much. I did tweak the recipe a bit. The recipe is one that I found online. Here's a link:

Crock Pot Chili Recipe

I added a few more cans of diced tomatoes, a couple of cans of tomato paste, and some water. I don't like my chili thick. If you like thick chili then I'd leave this recipe alone as far as that goes. I didn't add the jalopenos as I had two toddlers partaking. I especially wasn't sure how the dc kiddo would do with spice, so I kept the "kick factor" down a bit. I added 1/2 teaspoon less tabasco. I think if I was making this just for the family, I'd add the jalopeno, the amount of tabasco in the recipe, and a bit more chili powder. But anyways, it turned out absolutely delicious!

If I'd been thinking about it I would've taken pictures. Both boys decided that their chili did not belong in the bowl, but on the table. What a mess!

Sitting at the Big Boy Table

For at least 2, maybe 3 weeks Boo has been eating many meals at a small table instead of the highchair. I'm in the process of building a home daycare business and we have one full-time dc kid right now who's a few months older than Boo. Boo is now 15 months old. So I decided to try them on the table as previously Boo was in a highchair and the dc kiddo was in a booster seat. Well, he does wonderfully at the table. He definitely needs reminders to sit at the table, but I think he does wonderful. For dinner he's often in the highchair simply because we're eating at the big table as a family. But I think it's great that he's gotten so much practice eating at a real table. He also does really well with an open cup. Yes, there are still times when he chooses to dump his drink all over himself rather than drink it. But overall, he does really well. I know I'm boasting here. I can't help it. I get so proud of all the little things that he learns to do!

He is a bit pickier now that he's a big toddler, but he still does really great overall. There are some days where he looks at a food and I can just hear his brain saying, "Really? This is for lunch. You've got to be kidding me."