Freyja's New Throne

As you can see, Freyja is totally amped about her new Euro II highchair. Grandma and I had to order it online, because this is a relatively small and not-so-progressive town, and therefore, no one sells anything which is not primarily made of plastic around here. Can you believe that it's so hard to find a wood highchair? You should check out the linked website and see how absolutely cool and versatile this chair is...

Chez Freyja II

I have a food update, for anyone who's interested...

We have now experienced the full spectrum of available jarred stage 1 fruits and vegetables for babies, and all of them have gotten the thumbs up from Freyja, including Butternut Squash, which we hadn't tried yet when I discussed food the last time. After I exhausted the pre-made options, I whipped out the food processor and tried a Pineapple Orange combo, a Tomato and Rice Soup, and Brussel Sprouts. She seemed pleased with all of those!

Now we have plunged fully into the yogurt experience, and have tried Strawberry Orange, Lemon, Cherry, Strawberry Banana, Vanilla, Raspberry, and Blueberry...all of which she seemed to enjoy.

I'm sure some of you are gasping because I gave her strawberries, knowing that she might have an allergic reaction...and oranges and pineapple, knowing that it could cause some serious diaper rash. Well, I knew it was a possibility, and I took my chances, watching her carefully...and so far...not one problem. We'll see what happens...

Since Freyja is still on the "I hate meat" train, I decided to try some different beans, and so far we've tried Navy Beans, which she tolerated, but wasn't necessarily excited about either.

And, last but not least, Freyja is now drinking a 4 oz. serving of juice each day. We've tried Apple, Apple Cherry, Pear, White Grape and Apple Banana, and it seems by the squealing and squirming that the Apple Banana is her favorite. I'm not quite sure how good it is for her yet, so I try to keep it at a minimum, but she seems to have an affection for my iced herbal tea too...

I'm trying really hard to give her a wide variety of foods. I want to do my best to introduce her to many different things, in hopes that I can make her comfortable to try new things, have a broad pallette, and hopefully prevent her from being a picky eater!

Ooh. I almost forgot! NO MORE BOTTLES! Freyja's been using a sippy cup exclusively for the last two weeks. We like the Nuk cup best. In my opinion, it seems to be a good choice for a either a breastfed OR a bottle fed baby. Now, it's time to move on to a regular cup...

Chez Freyja

We've been experimenting with eating solids foods for a couple of months now.

When I say "solid", what I really mean is "finely blended", and when I say "experimenting", what I really mean is that it's only been over the last three weeks that Freyja has actually been eating them with any enthusiasm.

Before that, attempting solid foods went hand-in-hand with looks that just screamed, "You're kidding, right?" and "Ha! I don't think so!", lips slammed together so no spoon could dream of entering, and on the off chance it actually got into her mouth...a look on her face like she just tasted a sour lemon.

Then, one day I went to spoon feed her a little solid food...and there she was...mouth open like a little bird...and so she's been, a happy little eater, ever since. If she could eat the food right off my plate, I think she would. It's weird how these things happen...

Of course, milk is still her first love, but it has now been decided that the following foods also absolutely rock:

Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, Bananas, Sweet Potatoes, Peas, Green Beans, Carrots, Rice Cereal, and Oatmeal

Now, mealtime with Freyja has become fun! She squeals in sheer delight when she sees the spoon coming. Yay!