Food

All of Aaron's food restrictions were lifted at 12 months, except for nuts, which we are supposed to wait until 2-3 years to introduce. So I've gradually been giving him more and more people food (as opposed to baby food). In fact, Aaron is refusing his baby food more and more often, which is a challenge since I don't yet have a wide range of meals I am prepared to feed him.

One of his favorites is lentils and rice. There is a box mix that we make sometimes, and I froze some leftovers for Aaron which I've giving him for lunch or dinner every few days. I cooked the mix in chicken broth for extra flavor, and I put a little shredded cheese in it before I feed it to him.

For breakfast, I've started to make him McCann's quick cook oats instead of using his oatmeal baby cereal. It has more texture and cooks in the microwave in under 2 minutes. For flavor, I mix in some applesauce or fruit preserves and since we haven't had much success in getting him to drink milk, I mix some milk in with his oatmeal. Today, since it was Saturday and we had more time, I cooked a big batch of oatmeal on the stove. I sauteed up some banana slices in a tablespoon of butter, added a tablespoon of brown sugar, then added the oatmeal which I cooked in water and milk. I added some vanilla and some frozen black raspberries and the three of us had oatmeal for breakfast.

Some days I give him a slice of wheat bread (cut into little squares) with some yogurt or fruit. Yesterday, I gave him one of my whole wheat toaster waffles with a little bit of butter (no syrup). He loves both the bread and the waffles. Oh, and he also loves banana bread when I make that. He can't shove the pieces in his mouth fast enough.

And yesterday, for the first time, I fed him banana straight up. I took the first bite and then offered it to him. He turned his head away a couple of times, then he put his mouth on the banana and turned away. Then he started smiling and putting the banana in his mouth and scrapping a little off with his teeth. But he quickly figured out how to bite chunks of banana off and really seemed to enjoy it. I was worried about giving him too much banana, so I ate some (from the other end - I'm still squeamish about eating food he has had his mouth on, although I know most moms seem to get over this at some point.)

This week, Aaron and I went to Souplantation with my parents, and although I packed him some dinner, he mostly was able to eat things from my plate - some spiral pasta and shredded cheese (which invoked an unpleasant face), some macaroni and cheese, corn bread (which was well received), some hard boiled egg from my salad.

It's nice to be able to start feeding him the same foods I'm eating. And it's encouraging me to eat healthier since he'll eat pretty much anything I'm eating, as long as it is from my plate. If it is on his own plate, it can't possibly be the same thing. In fact, yesterday, he happily ate avocado from a salad I was eating when avocado usually makes him gag.