1st Chicken Casserole!!

Im am so thankful that so far Carson is not a picky eater like me! Its a curse I tell ya! I was so picky when I was a kid it was a total pain!! I hope Carson stays just the way he is! He will eat anything put in front of him! Including rocks LOL But seriously! He now has pretty much a full menu besides whole milk, honey, and a few others that have to wait until at least he turns a year. But the big one this month was meat! Once he hit his 8 month marker, I ran out and bought (yes BOUGHT) some jarred baby meat. I wasnt sure (still not 100% sure) I want to homemake all his meet purees. It just doesnt sound very good at all!! BUT i have now made his first Chicken Casserole, with ingredients I have never once cooked with. I actually had to look up want Parsnips and Lentils were! How embarassing! But at least i admit it! I bought up everything my recipe called for, fresh chicken, lentils, parsnips, potatoes, and carrots. It all actually made the house smell amazing!! I was impressed! I now have a freezer bag full of it all pureed and Carson LOVES it! :) Im glad because it was a pain in the butt to make!! lol at least tomorrow i get to make something easy, one of his favorites butternut squash! I love the pop in the oven for 45 minutes and its ready to eat kind of food;)

everything layed out ready to be peeled, chopped, sliced and cooked!

this was the part that smelled delicious!! one of my favorite smells now is parsnips frying on the skillet;)

all done and ready to puree!! (dont mind the boil over marks all around the pan hahaha i made alot!!!)

SOLID solid foods!!!

We have been giving Carson teething crackers and biscuits for almost a month now which he has absolutely LOVED!!! And it has helped me out tons to be able to sit him in his highchair and be able to give him a biscuit to gnaw on while i put away groceries, unload the dishwasher, or even actually make his lunch, which he is usually VERY impatient for! hahaha

A couple days ago we upgraded even more in the solid food world, to actual solid meal foods! For example slices of bananas, pears, peaches, and carrots are what we have tried so far...he loves to be able to pick each piece up and shove it in his mouth, like he does with EVERYTHING he picks up, but this time he is not told he cant eat it! lol if that makes sense! It took his a bit since i started feeding him with a fork one by one, but the next day, ignored his fussing for about a minute, which is when he discovered that feeding himself is WAY MORE fun than Mom doing it!! hehe

Its just so amazing to me and Will how fast he is growing into a little man! Will was surprised how well he has adjusted to this new way of feeding (along with purees and nursing still) Keep in mind Carson doesnt even have TEETH yet!!! I cant believe it! Im sure they are just going to pop out all at once lol but for now, im okay with no teeth to bite my boob;)

banana fun:)

so easy to just cut open and spoon right out like a bowl!!! yum!

Here come the Greens!

When everyone sees Carson eat, they are surprised at how much he will actually woof down!! Well, i knew veges needed to come into play soon, actually i was running a little late on them even!! First green introduced was my favorite, green beans. His faces were priceless!!! ((hopefully i can upload a video!!)) Every time he made a face, he would still open his mouth up for another bite! such a great eater!!! Recently, I have whipped up batches of fresh peas and tried them out. To my surprise, he gobbles them up not a problem!! Still made a cute funny face for the first times but opened up for another bite right after!!

Sad its blurry but you can make out his silly face;)

We have also tested out avocado/pear food and Popsicles! im not kidding when i say its delicious!! I dont even like avacado! YUM!

YUMMM!!!

We have tried carrots (not greens i know) and I had to coax him a little by mixing with bites of peaches LOL after that he ate his whole bowl! 

I am soo thankful my son is not a picky eater like his Mom!!! Food is much more fun when you dont hate everything on the menu!!!:):)

Daddy's First

We have been on solids for just about a month now with Carson, and its been a blast! Since I have been feeding him solids for lunch time only, unfortunately Daddy has not been able to be around much for it yet! He was there for his first and second attempts on Thanksgiving and Christmas at least, and has watched me a few times on his days off (usually holding the video camera!) So a couple days ago I looked at the clock to see it was lunch time and asked Daddy if he wanted to feed him. You could tell we was excited, so I let him pick out whatever food he wanted. LoL. Pears it was so I took some from my freezer stock and warmed them up and let my boys bond over food :)

My Secret Remedy

In our journey through introducing solid foods, we have come into a little bump in the road. One that is common, but not one that everyone wants to talk about. Constipation. I have been giving Carson his sippy cup with water during every lunch time meal to make sure he washes it all down good, and he gets plenty of fluids from breastfeeding all day. However we still were not able to escape this inevitability. 

Carson did not poop for over 5 days!! Day 6 I was in a panic searching all over the internet trying to find a good remedy, without having to give him any sort of laxatives. We had already tried apple juice the day before, and it seemed like everything else was saying just feed him fruit (pears or peaches) which is what I had been doing anyway!!! No help there. Then I started reading a post on a website just for parents to ask questions and get advice. As I read through the comments, I wasnt impressed with what I saw until one of them. A lady responded saying that a while ago a nurse had told her an old secret that no one really likes to use because its bad for teeth and was just kind of forgotten about. BUT she said it was a guarantee success. Those were the words I needed to hear!!

Brown sugar & water!!! 

Just sugar water? YES!! I swear by this remedy!! And as far as being bad for teeth, I do not mind going to clean gums or brush teeth right after use if it can help my baby get over this misery!! Poor guy just cried and cried, so I got right to mixing up a bottle!:)

50mL of Water

1/4 teaspoon Brown Sugar

Heat it up and serve!!

The VERY next day, Carson went!! YAAY!! He was happy the rest of the day!! I have used this twice now and each time, just wait overnight and it clears the system!! Good 'ol sugar water :)

Store Bought Baby Food

Carson is doing great at his solids for lunch time...its so funny how excited he gets when he sees me pull out his bowl and spoon! hahaha Such a smart boy!!

His Grandma just bought him a bunch of baby food (even though I am and will be sticking with making my own). I decided however to let him try it out, heck I even wanted a taste! I am not kidding when I say that he really does like my food better!!! I even like my food better!! I tried the store bought pears (pears being his favorite) and gross! I am not by any means a hippy tree-hugging type of mom, but this food tasted so processed I could barely tell what kind of food it was supposed to resemble! I just want to say how happy I am that I have decided to take the road of homemade baby food for my Carson! It saves us money which is a huge plus, its healthier, and it just tastes THAT MUCH BETTER!! I am willing to go the extra mile for my little growing man! <3

Store Bought

VS.

Freshly Homemade

Avocados

We have a new food on the menu! ;)

Yesterday we tried some avocado, and Carson liked it up until he realized it was something different than Ive been giving him LOL He was so excited to get in his highchair especially when he saw I was coming towards him with his bowl and spoon! He opened his mouth right up and gobbled it up...and this this for the next few bites...then the realization kicked in and he started making the funniest faces! I dont think I caught any of them on the video below but it was hilarious :) It will take him a couple times Im sure to get used to our new menu option, just like it took a bit for the sweet potatoes, which he now LOVES by the way! All in all, I say it was a success!

Introducing SOLID FOODS!!

I have read up a lot on the subject of when to begin your baby on solid foods and read the longer you wait the better. Babies digestive tract has a lot of developing to do to be ready for such a change. However I also read that once he starts showing interest in what your eating, it might be time to start experimenting  Well folks, its time! :)

We actually started to have him try out solids on Thanksgiving 2012 when he was about 3 1/2 months just out of curiosity to see how he liked it. Plus, its a holiday just for eating, so we thought it would be appropriate! We are always told how much Will liked bananas (and still does) so that was first. I, by the way, am making all Carson's baby food from scratch. It saves us tons of money and is healthier. So using the Magic Bullet I bought specifically for making his food, I pureed up some banana and mixed it with breast milk. He actually didnt do too bad I guess, I just remember him not knowing what he should do when the spoon came to his mouth. I never have thought about how babies need to learn to open their mouths for a spoon...very cool to realize i think:) Since Carson's been around, its all of the little things in life I enjoy! 

THIS WAS THE STAGE WHEN ALL CARSON WANTED IN HIS MOUTH WAS HIS FINGERS!! :)

Our next attempt at experimenting with solids was Christmas 2012, which made Carson about 4 1/2 months old. For a gift, we received some homemade and jarred applesauce, so thought that would be a good next taste. Well Carson hated it LOL Im guessing it was just a little too sweet...plus he was still getting the open mouth for food deal. The day after Christmas, we went to my Aunt Tisha's and I told her about our trials with solids. She went to grab some fresh jarred pears for us to take home and try! Maybe a week or so later, I popped open a jar and whipped some up. Oh man, Carson was in love! He did great! 

This puts us to right about now. Carson is a little over 5 months, and once I saw him lovin' on the pears above, I knew it was time! Plus since then, he has been so interested in whatever we were eating, I had to give him a little something of his own! :) I have been giving him solids almost once a day right around lunch time, just to get him a little more used to the fact that hes digesting more than just milk now. And let me tell ya, his poop? SMELLS LIKE DEATH, VOMIT, AND BOOGERS ALL MIXED TOGETHER hahaha but seriously, I miss breast milk poop ;) 

To date, Carson has now tried/eaten bananas, applesauce, cereal, pears, peaches, & sweet potatoes.

The sweet potatoes he wasn't too fond of at first, but the past couple days, he has been gobbling them all up! It was a first time experience for me to actually buy a sweet potato, and then bring it home and peal (Will helped with that), chop up and steam it. Actually a very good feeling to be making my own baby food I must say :) Since there was so much extra, I found a great idea that I am loving on Pinterest to use an ice cube tray to freeze the extras and make little cubes to just heat up whenever hes ready to eat...i LOVE it! Especially since making it is a little more time consuming and messy than just buying it at the store. I then just put the cubes shown below in a freezer bag and they are ready whenever I need them! :)

SO PROUD OF CARSON EATING HIS YUMMY SWEET POTATOES ALL UP! ESPECIALLY SINCE MOMMY THINKS THEY'RE GROSS! lol

Im seriously so proud of Carson and amazed at how fast he is growing! I love watching him open his mouth now for another bite! Its amazing to see a little human being developing, growing, and learning right before my eyes. I hope to post some videos on here too as soon as I get a little more organized with them! 

Next I think we will be trying avacado! :)