Sammy's First Birthday Party

We had a blast at Sammy's first birthday party. We love to entertain, so it was really fun to have our friends and family together again in our home.  With having a baby who sleeps really lightly, having a lot of company has been on pause for a while.  I think now we are back in the swing of things!!

I was a pinning feign and found some really cute ideas for a puppy (Bailey) themed birthday party.  I ordered a printable party package for $25 and spent more than I wanted to printing everything off at office depot.  I then went to work cutting and adding ribbons (my furry helpers favorite part)

There were a few late nights, but it was nice to throw Sammy a really cute first birthday party.  Most importantly, the man of honor, Sammy had a blast mingling and eating.  He absolutely did not enjoy having people sing to him or eating cake.

Enjoy the pictures and if you were there, thanks for coming and I hope you had a great time. 

 A picture for each month

DIY Tissue Pom Poms

We had lots of food!  Veggie and Reg Chili bar with hot dogs, Corn Bread, tortilla chips, guacamole.  Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, Veggies and Dip and my friend Kim surprised us with her famous pulled pork and mac and cheese.

This is pretty much how we roll trying to keep this guy contained now that he can move on his own. 

 Smash Cake from Wegmans, I made the banner using craft tape

 I made his tie using this tutorial.  he wasn't pleased with the tie, the hat, or the signing of happy birthday.  Hopefully he has a lot more years to get used to it!

Why wait until two to state your opinion in a wild way?

 Sammy was blessed with lots of presents! 

 He loved the paper, munch munch.

 

Sammy enjoying the present from his mommy and daddy.  His little furry friend likes it too!

 Party favors: Bubbles, Play Doh, Cup, Curly Straw, Candy and Stickers

Sammy's loving Baby Led Weaning

Sammy boy, you LOVE to eat!
 

Sometime in the last week, eating for a purpose just clicked for you.  I keep looking under your highchair, to the side of your highchair, inside the pocket of your baby bjorn bib (fyi, the best bib ever) to see where all the food went.  75% used to go over board, which made Bailey a happy camper and a tad bit chubby, but it looks like somehow 95% is now going into your little belly and Bailey is back to being the grumpy middle child.  Some days, I have no idea how you put that amount of food into your little belly, but I'm trusting you and wondering if there is some sort of growth spurt I'm missing.  I do still pray, please GOD don't become the 650 lb, 30 yo virgin.  I kid, I kid. 

A few weeks into starting solids, we went into full fledged baby led weaning mode because spoon feeding Mr. Independent wasn't fun and you basically thought purees were for the birds.  You eat pancakes and fruit with me in the mornings and for lunch and dinner I give you a rendition of whatever it is I am eating.  While I no longer need to worry about Autumn stealing my food, I am having to keep a look out for you as you've nearly nabbed my muffin and pancakes many a time. 

One concern I had of BLW and giving babies adult food was salt and fat content.  I really think you are helping me diet because if what I'm eating you can't eat then it's double the work for me.   I'm trying to be adventurous with my food choices now, since I don't want you pigeon holed into not exploring new tastes because I am a semi boring eater. 

Getting us both into the routine of eating 3 solid meals a day wasn't without effort.  For a while with so much food spilling all over the place, it was too much of an ordeal to feed you three times a day.  There just wasn't enough time and I didn't feel comfortable rushing you through your meal so that we could go do something or put you down for a nap.  So for quite the while, all you had was lunch.  Somewhere in the last few weeks, as you improved your accuracy of getting food to your mouth, you also increased your desire/need to eat.   I think your desire to eat may have also increased because you now see it as something social and fun.  Also, your hand eye coordination has improved drastically because of BLW, you can grab, hold, and pull toward you any toy you want now.

Here you are eating lunch with me at my favorite joint, Whole Foods in Fairlakes.  Yay for having their flagship store in our "backyard"!

 Some of the things you love the most are asparagus and carrots because you can get a good grip on them, watermelon on the rind because it's cold and helps with your teething, pears and honeydew because they are squishy.  Peas because you can chase them.  You absolutely loved Grandma's meatballs.  I mean you seriously were like nom nom nom nom nom.  Everyone couldn't get enough of you stuffing your face like cookie monster.  Grandma was especially proud.  You also downed her chicken soup, which gave her quite the thrill. 

 While, I've made 99% of your food, I do mix in some store bought items.  Puffs and yogurt melts are your absolute favorite.  They are gone even faster than grandma's meatballs.

Here you are enjoying your momsicle (frozen breast milk in a popsicle mold)!  This really helped you out when you were cutting your first two teeth.

 

 Happy Eating!

Sammy Starts Solids!

What a fun milestone. I was incredibly excited about starting solids with Sammy. I'm not sure if it was opening him up to the world of food, or if it was getting a chance to see his reaction to tastes he liked or didn't or maybe it was getting a chance to use the fun eating stuff we'd registered for.  As the weeks grew near to his six month birthday, I was getting more and more excited about Sammy getting his first taste of solid food.

As irony would have it, as the weeks leading to Sam's six month birthday became days the worry wart in me came out and my excitement turned to anxiety about whether or not I knew what I was doing. I really wanted to try baby led weaning but also wanted to follow conventional wisdom and use puréed food.  Baby Led Weaning isn't puree friendly, so I really felt conflicted.  In the end, I stuck with my gut and what made me the most comfortable and decided to do purees, trying one food every 3-4 days to watch for an allergic reaction.  Over time, I have added in some baby led weaning and will continue to do so more and more.

Here's what I've learned over the last month.

HAVE FUN!

This more than anything has really taught me to embrace Sam right where he is.  Not longing for him to be itty bitty again (impossible anyways!), not wondering when he is going to roll over or crawl, or better yet take long naps, etc.  Just being in the moment watching him smear food all over himself and everything near him has been so much fun!  Babies are messy, especially when they eat.  I was semi prepared for this, but was caught off guard by how OCD I would be.  I was wiping here and there and quite frankly everywhere.  By about the 5th time trying food, I realized I was fighting an uphill battle and instead of using a billion baby wipes, I could just let Sam have fun and I could have fun in the process.  Every since this epiphany feeding Sam has been AWESOME!

TRUST YOUR GUT
I alluded to this earlier, but I had to do what was going to cause me the least stress.  I knew doing full fledged BLW would have had me in a panic wondering if Sam was going to choke.  I also didn't really like the principle of giving a baby the same meal I was eating right off the bat.  How would I ever figure out what it was in the meal that god forbid have given him an allergic reaction.  Going one food at a time, in pureed form gave me piece of mind.

DON'T RUSH
This goes hand in hand with having fun, but there were times especially in this crazy month with Paul in the hospital and out of town for close to three weeks that I was either way too tired to feed Sam anything but boobie buffet, or we just didn't have enough time in between naps and getting to and from the hospital that if he didn't get solids one day, he didn't.  His primary source of nutrition still was breast milk and will continue to be for the next few months.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX
I guess this sort of ties everything together, but for me I was sure that I didn't want to give Sam rice cereal or oatmeal as his first food.  Mainly both are suggested as first foods, for texture and their low risk of allergic reaction; however this can be achieved through more nutritive food such as avocado.  These mashed easily with a fork and he loved them, especially mixed with some breast milk to create a nice smooth consistency.

Here are some pics:
Avocado: 4/11/12

 Bananas!

Banana Flavored Baby Mum Mums

 I did end up a bit frustrated with the purees because I have Mr. Independent on my hands (no clue where he got that trait from...).  Every time I was close to Sam's mouth with the spoon, he was insistent on feeding himself.  Finally, my mom and then my sister later confirmed give him his own spoons.  So, now when I set out to feed Sam, I give him a few extra spoons and a solid (BLW) version of whatever he is eating and we go on our way.  Everyone is much happier!

 BLW: Apple!

 Trying out his sippie cup before I could seal it closed:

Here are our favorite food related products thus far:

Beaba Baby Cook- LOVE this!  It's great that everything is made in one place, simple to figure out and I'm sure with friends having babies and siblings as well it will get used plenty.  If you are going to make your own baby food and are impatient like me, this makes things a cinch.  Literally you put the food in one section, water in the other other section, turn on the steam section, then when the light turns off, you turn on the puree setting. 

OXO Tot storage cubes: These things ROCK!  They are an absolute must have if you are going to make your own baby food.   They come in two different sizes and have great trays to store the food.  They mimic baby food containers.  I've also heard of people putting baby purees into ice cube trays and then popping them into freezer bags once they were frozen.  I'd have done this if I was still working.


Peg Perego Prima Pappa Best high chair: Love that this is leather.  It was also a baby shower present, but with how messy babies eating are, I love that I can just wipe down both the tray and seat.

Boon Catch Bowls-These are great because of the large lip on the side to catch food as well as provide Sam some biting pleasure.  There is an essential suction to the bottom of the bowl.  The colors are vibrant which is catching for him.  Even better, I found them for $4 at homegoods and marshalls!

Boon Benders Utensils: I love these because they are soft, bendy and small enough for Sammy's mouth.  They also are in cool colors.


Tomme Tippie Sippy Cups:  These have great soft spouts and haven't been rejected whatsoever.  We are using a stage 1 cup which has been great considering Sam has probably only had 50 or so bottles in his 6 months of life.

Baby Bjorn Bib:  This thing has an incredible pocket at the bottom that saves Sammy's clothes and high chair from certain disaster.  I also began layering it over the top of an aden and anais burpy bib and he stays 90% clean that way.

So far Sammy has tried in the order below:
Avocados
Sweet Potatoes
Bananas
Pears
Zucchini
Peaches
Green Beans

Baby Mum Mums and Plum Organic Puffs

On the list:
Butternut Squash
Acorn Squash
Apples
Peas
Spinach
Broccoli
Carrots

Anything else he should try?  What are your favorite baby food products?