dipping

caleb loves to dip. everything. sometimes this works well... he likes fish sticks in ranch dressing, chicken nuggets in bbq sauce, chips in salsa, pita in hummus, etc. other times, not so much... anything in applesauce, anything in yogurt, fruit in anything. it's so cute! he gets so excited when i pull out a little ramekin for him... his own little dipping sauce. and heaven forbid he eat even one bite without dipping!

pink lemonade please

the other day, i was totally craving some pink lemonade. and i had to go to the store anyway so i figured i'd pick some up. no such luck. i somehow chose a store that didn't have pink lemonade. instead, i ended up with 1 bottle of sweetened sparkling water flavored with pink grapefruit, 1 bottle of sparkling regular lemonade, and 1 bottle of regular grapefruit juice. which one do you think hit the spot? which one satisfied my craving? definitely NOT the first one. it was actually kind of gross. the second was good and i did drink the whole thing that night. but it was actually the regular grapefruit juice that filled my need. and the best part is that now i get to have it every morning for breakfast!

weaned

it's official. caleb is weaned. i haven't nursed him in 1 month and he hasn't asked to be nursed in 1 week. i really wanted to be done in plenty of time so that it wouldn't be hard for caleb to see the new baby nursing. i'm hopeful that this next 5 months or so will give him time to forget... or at least move on.

weaning?

apparently, i'm weaning some more. i didn't really plan on it, it just sort of happened. once, before putting caleb down for his afternoon nap, we danced together... as usual. but this time, he fell asleep. rather than wake the sleeping baby by trying to nurse, i just put him into his crib and let him nap. the next day, i did the same thing... even though he didn't fall asleep while dancing. we just danced and then he went to bed. again today. after so much disaster the last time i tried weaning him, i was so nervous... but so far so good (knock on wood).

i'm not really a baker but...

check out this cake i made for community group a few weeks ago. mom sent me the recipe! isn't it beautiful?! it's not hard... but it is time consuming. although, i definitely did make it harder myself by not thinking to borrow a second round cake pan and having to do it in stages!

day at the farm...

we love corn mazes. specifically, we love doing corn mazes with our friends, dustin and sara. this is year five (i think) for corn mazes with dustin and three since sara's been joining us. i think so far we've done alice in wonderland, finding nemo (where we won goldfish), huskies vs. cougs, dinosaurs, and this year was aliens. it was great! these aren't just little kid corn mazes, either. they take us at least an hour to get though... and that's with using a map!! last year caleb was in the baby bjorn and this year the back pack. he seemed to like it... or at least let us have our fun.

he definitely liked looking at the pumpkins afterward. we even let him choose a couple of gourds to take home. they entertained him for a couple of days while he tried to stack them on top of each other. but once he pretty much figured out that wasn't happening, he gave them over to me to use on my dining room table.

when it was time to head home, it was later than we had planned so i hadn't brought anything for caleb's dinner. so obviously, we stopped at McDonald's! caleb had his very first happy meal. he ate 3.5 chicken mcnuggets, all but 3 slices of apple, and about 1/2 the apple juice. and he still enjoys playing with the toy in the bathtub. he was so funny while he was eating... it wasn't enough to just have one nugget, he had to have one in each hand. and he would alternate bites. after a couple bites of chicken, he would open his mouth, which was my cue to put a piece of apple in. funny boy!

weaning...

i'm weaning. as of today. yesterday i nursed caleb four times. today, three. i think it was harder for me than for him. of course. should have known. i'll stick with this 3x a day routine for a week or two. and then we'll go down to two.

will he ever stop growing up?

special lunch

even though caleb's party wasn't going to be until the 31st, i wanted to something special for caleb's actual birthday. so, that morning, i took him to his favorite toy store where we played with the trains, balls, beads, and stuffed animals.

it gets even better...

for lunch, we went to jamba juice! yum!

throwing food...

how do i stop caleb from throwing his food on the ground? i'm trying to introduce more and more finger foods to him and, while he still has issues with anything that isn't dry, he's getting better. i think quesadilla (with soy cheese) finally won him over and now he's willing to try some new things! but, he throws a lot of things on the ground. i've read a couple of places to just not make a big deal about it and he just loses the opportunity to eat the food he throws. that's fine for some, maybe, but he doesn't care. he only throws stuff that he's done eating. if he wants more, he's smart enough to keep it on his tray.

any other suggestions?

jamba juice

caleb had his first jamba juice last weekend. and he LOVED it. i didn't want to overload his little tummy with something new since it would be his first experience with citrus. so after about 4-5 straws-full, we decided he should be done.

he had other idea.

this is his current sign language capabilities... "light" while reaching for something means "i want that", "turn it on", "give me please", etc. "light" while reaching for something with eyes closed means "i need that NOW or i'm going to get very angry". and that's what he was doing at jamba. but we held firm. probably he would have been fine with more but once we said he was done, we had to stick to our guns.

again, he had other ideas.

troy was holding him and drinking his jamba (i know, rubbing it in the poor kid's face!) when, all of a sudden, caleb reached for the straw, yanked it out of his daddy's mouth, and stuck it in his own mouth. and do you think something as insignificant as a bent straw would stop him? no way! he got a mouth full and was VERY pleased with himself.

caleb's strange eating habits...

he likes his pureed food to be warm. which means he doesn't eat yogurt... except when i can get it into his mouth without it touching his lips. i have no idea why.
for finger food, he likes it to be hard (like cheerios or veggie booty) rather than soft (like banana or avocado). but he will eat soft things if i let him take a bite himself rather than breaking it up for him.

so funny!!

first signs

i think caleb signed for the first time! i've been signing with him for a long time and he knows what many of them mean, but he hasn't felt the need to participate. the other day, though, i think he did a sign for drink. what we do is make a "c" with our hand and hold it to our mouths (like we're holding a cup). what he did was hold the back of his little hand up to his mouth. at first i thought he was tired and was going to rub his eyes but then he kept just holding the hand by the mouth. finally, i caught on and he drank a lot! he hasn't done it since, but i'm excited to see it more and more (hopefully!).

goodbye chopsticks

caleb's chopstick method of picking up food is no more. and i'll miss it. not that it was effective, but, boy, was it adorable! it came to a screeching halt as soon as i introduced caleb to veggie booty. i had read about it and heard about it on a few blogs i read so finally i just went out and bought it. i thought it would make a good afternoon snack. and caleb LOVES it. the first time i gave it to him he quickly figured out how to feed himself (with either hand) and would often put two to three pieces in his mouth at a time. his fingers went from chopsticks to shovels.

spices

i'm very excited to start introducing caleb to some spices in his diet. so far we've tried cinnamon and garlic. it took him a while to warm up to the cinnamon, but the garlic he took to immediately (or else i just didn't put enough that he could actually taste it). it's yet another step in the process of getting him closer to eating "big people" food.

no more dream feed?

when janell posted a blog with the same title, she started with an explanation of what a dream is exactly. so, how about this... if you don't know what a dream feed is (and you care to know) check out her post. here's our situation... i've known for a while that caleb is old enough to not have a dream feed. but i didn't want to go back to him not sleeping through the night. so, i started to ease him out of it. we had been doing the dream feed at 11. then i moved it to 10:30. and then 10. and then, early this week, he sort of stopped. i still try to feed him, but he just won't do it. and he did start getting up once during the night again (although that may have to do with the fact that he has an ear infection). but last night... ahh, last night... caleb slept until 6. with no dream feed. ahhh.

nursing is for those who have nothing better to do...

i think that's how caleb feels about it. he refuses to eat if there are other people nearby, toys around, or if he's just woken up. the only times he'll really eat is right before it's time to go to sleep, either for a nap or for bed. it's as though at those times he's saying, "well, i've done what i needed to do: i've played, crawled, sat up, made noises, etc. i guess i'll go ahead and relax and eat now." it makes me a little nervous because i want to make sure he's getting enough milk during the day. but, first of all, he eats a lot at those times, and secondly, he'll drink more if i pump and put it in a sippy cup. crazy boy!

real meals

for the past week or so, i've really started to feel like i'm giving caleb real meals. he's eating three meals a day, plus a snack. for breakfast, he has oatmeal mixed with a fruit (usually pear or apple). for lunch, he has rice cereal mixed with something (usually sweet potato or avocado) and he has some juice. then, at snack time, i give him a little fruit (usually banana), some peach puffs, and some more juice. and finally, for dinner, he eats veggies and protein (usually peas or carrots and some egg yolk). it's fun to think about meals for him, although it makes going places a bit harder.

chopsticks...

caleb is so funny! this past week i gave him gerber peach puffs for the first time. he liked them ok when i put them in his mouth but he could not figure out how to do it on his own. which is strange since it seems to me that he puts a lot in his mouth. but not these! he thought the right way to pick them up was by making chopsticks with his two pointer fingers. if that didn't work (which it never did) and he somehow got the puff in his hand, he would shake his hand until it fell out. we had a great time watching him, but i'm sure he burned more calories than he ate... so much for a little snack!

here we go again...

for the past couple of weeks, i've noticed caleb developing a rash. it started on one arm and i thought it was just dry skin. i kept an eye on it and put on extra lotion. then, i noticed that it was also on the other arm. and on his legs. as of today, it was bad enough that i thought i should call the doctor. now, i try hard not to be a paranoid mother and the rash doesn't seem to be giving caleb problems, so i felt a little silly calling. but, the pediatric advisor website said to call if the rash lasted longer than 48 hours... and it had... a lot longer. guess what the nurse said when i described the rash to her? "has your son ever shown any signs of dairy intolerance? that sounds like a dairy rash to me..." NOOO!! i never even made the connection that about 2 weeks ago was when i started reintroducing dairy into my diet more and more. and caleb was doing so well... or so i thought. so, i'm back to no dairy. and if the rash goes away, i may be doing this no-dairy thing for at least another month. but if the rash doesn't go away, i'll have to take caleb to the doctor. i don't know which one would be worse...

table manners

when, and how, do you teach a baby table manners? here's the issue... caleb is in love with blowing raspberries, especially when he's teething (which is now). it seems to be the most fun to blow raspberries when there is food in his mouth. you can imagine the issues this brings up. food everywhere! all over the floor, all over my clothes and glasses, all over caleb and his high chair, all over the walls, you get the picture. but i don't know how to teach him when he's still so young and doesn't understand "no". here are a few things i've tried... telling him no and then (when it continues) turning his chair around in a mini time-out. he just cranes his neck around to see me and thinks we're playing a game. i've also tried holding a paper towel up to his mouth to make him stop while saying "no". he just tries to eat the paper towel. i've read the suggestion of having the meal be over, but as we're just starting out with solids 1)he doesn't care if he gets to eat them or not and 2)i want eating to be a positive experience for him. so, any suggestions for what to do (and how to get peas off the wall and out of clothes)?