Baby's First REAL Foods

Bear has REALLY taken off in the eating field! He LOVES to eat! While he loved to eat just about anything we offered him when it came to purees, real food is another story.

Bananas- He loves bananas and for a very long time they were one of his most favorite foods, as of late he has started to not eat them though. I am not sure if this is a phase or if he just does not like them anymore.

Chicken Nuggets - This child eats chicken nuggets everyday! He seriously loves them that much. We buy them from Walmart (the frozen kind) and he eats them at school for lunch everyday. We would send other things with him for lunch but so far this is the only thing that we have found that he will always eat no matter what. He also loves fries as you can see in the pic below. We only give him fries once in a while though as a treat. This pic was taken at a festival so he got a little spoiled that day =]

Rice and Eggs - We have only tried eggs a few times and he did not like them either time. Rice, he is up and down on, some days he will eat it and other days he won't.

Spaghetti - He wanted nothing to do with the stuff.

Snacks - He loves animal crackers, Teddy Grams, dry cereal, Club Crackers, Ritz Crackers (the cheese filled ones), and anything sweet. We have found that he does not like cheese flavored crackers like Goldfish or Cheese-Itz. But snack time is always a big hit with him.

Poptarts - His school sends home daily reports of what he does there each day, and one day they said on the report that they gave him 1/2 a poptart... so I thought "hmmm maybe he likes those and I should buy him some" and I did, and it turns out he loves them!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich - I tried this only one time so far and he was unsure about it. The sandwich I gave him was real small and he ate half of it. He seemed to like the flavor of just not really the texture. When I gave it to him he had just woke up as well, so I think I may try this one again at a latter date and see if he goes for it.

Ice Cream Cones - We tried this the other day and he had no interest what so ever in the ice cream he just kept pushing it away. We then tried taking the ice cream out of the cone and giving him just the cone, and he loved it! Ate it all up! The same day we also gave him a pretzel rod and he loved that too!

Other foods he does not care for - He is really so so about veggies, I know he does not care for them but we still send them with him to school everyday. I am pretty sure that some days he eats them and others he does not. He also is up and down with macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes, sometimes he will eat it and other times he will not. He did not want anything to do with meatloaf, pizza, potato salad or any meat other than chicken nuggets (not even chicken).

Foods he loves - Bear loves canned raviolis, grilled cheese sandwiches,  fruit (he loves all kinds), anything sweet, juice, milk (he is now on whole cow milk), Gatorade (this is his all time favorite drink he goes bonkers when he sees we have it!), bread or anything similar to bread with the same texture like rolls or bagels... muffins etc. 

There are still a lot of things that we have not offered him yet but we continue to offer him new things all the time. We are really hoping to get out of this (only eats chicken nuggets) stage soon.

What I have learned from living with Anthony

When Anthony first moved in with me I did not really know what to expect. I did not know how everyday life would go or how we would get along. What we would eat or what we would do when we were bored. These past three months have been a huge learning experience for the both of us. I continue to learn more and more about him everyday and I continue to fall more and more in love as well. Here is what I have learned and noticed so far:

• Anthony does NOT like to wake up in the AM. He does a lot better when he stays up all night than he does when I have to wake him in the mornings to drive me to work. It is a struggle just about everyday to get him out of bed. I have found that coaxing him with food (sounds funny I know) does the job pretty well. So now I tend to make him breakfast in the mornings when I can.
• Anthony goes through stages. Sometimes he will be in a bored stage at which point he will spend more time with Bear and I and be more clingy. Other times he will be in a gamer stage when he will spend hour after hour and stay up day and night on a game. He does also have a grumpy stage where he will grumble around the house and not play back with me when I am cute with him. He tends to come out of his grumpy stage pretty quickly though.
• Anthony can go days with out sleep. I am not sure why he does this but sometimes he will just stay up for about 2 days with little (meaning like 1-2 hours) to no sleep at all. He will eventually crash and go back to a normal cycle.
• Anthony has food cravings. Not very many men have these. Or at least men that I have known. Some of his cravings include jelly doughnuts, wings, and grilled burgers.
• Anthony does not get aggravated much at all. Much like myself he has a very long fuse. We do get aggravated by many of the same things like the dog being bad or Bear screaming for no reason.
• Anthony WILL help me if I ask for his help. He is not one to just jump up and start helping but if I ask him to help me he will normally drop everything and come to help.
• Anthony LOVES his baby boy! He has a great bond with Bear and it is growing day in a day out and it just warms my heart to see them together.
• Anthony also really loves me. I used to be very insecure but now he has shown me the great amount of love he has for me and our family. I know that we are the most important thing in his life.
• Anthony is lazy. I love this man to death but he is LAZY! He always tries to do things the easy or quick way and never wants to do the unnecessary. And with 99% of everything he would rather do it later even if he could do it now.
• Anthony can eat 2-3 times as much as I do. He does not eat lunch unless I make him lunch or leave him leftovers in a container and tell him to eat them, so typically dinner is his only mean unless I made him breakfast that morning. So the fact that he eats over two times as much as I do at dinner is not all that surprising, but the amount he can inhale really surprises me some days.
• Anthony loves to cuddle. A lot of couples grow out of cuddling. We are not that couple. If I am laying on the couch a lot of times he will come up and cuddle me for no reason. I absolutely love it. We will also give up space just so we can cuddle, like in the bed. Instead of putting bear in the middle and getting a good amount of space, we put him on the right side so we can cuddle, even though we end up super cramped because Bear takes up 70% of the bed with all his pillows.
• Anthony gets hot really easily or maybe I get cold really easily lol. We do not typically touch the A/C it tends to stay at 78 degrees. But we do have fans that we flip on and off. He always wants it on when I want it off because he will be sweating with I am literally freezing.
• And stuff I have learned about budgeting. Living with another person or two is WAY more expensive than living alone. It is not even double but triple the cost because together you want more. You want more for each other, when alone you tend to deprive yourself of stuff and say you don't need it or can live without it. When in reality you can but when you are with another person you want it if not for yourself but for them. Like paper towels for instance. I never used to buy them when I lived alone and when Anthony moved in, well now I can't live with out them!
• Stuff I have learned about food consumption: Food goes WAY faster with 2 than it does with one. I used to cook every other day. I would have enough food for the night I cooked, the next day for lunch, and dinner the next day. Now I cook EVERYDAY! I almost never have leftovers for lunch too. We can go though a loaf of bread in 4 days compared to the 2 weeks it took me alone. And we can go through a tub of butter in 2 weeks compared to the 2 months it took me alone.
• And last but definitely not least! Eating habits. I have noticed that our eating habits have grown together as well. I used to be ok with just eating a frozen pizza for dinner or on some nights even a few snacks like some cheese cubes and fruit. Now a days I have to cook because I can not leave Anthony with no food and he will not cook for himself unless I tell him what to make and step by step tell him how to make it. He also likes many things that I never ate before like fried foods. He likes to fry his fries, egg rolls, and other things that I would usually put in the oven. He likes to dress up his sandwiches when I could settle for a plain one. He won't eat baked beans or anything with seeds in it (like smoothies or jams). He won't eat anything with a gritty texture like grits or oatmeal or even couscous. He likes his rice to be short grain not long and his meat to be cooked well done. He does not like Dijon mustard or too much onions. He will not eat sweet salads or just a salad alone they need to be a side dish. He prefers red meat over white and laughs at the thought of a meal that has no meat. He hates sugar cookies and is really picky about icing and cake too. He likes stuff to be spicy and full of flavor. Stuff with weak flavor is never a hit. He typically does not like anything that is southern cooking, like chicken and dumplings, grits casserole, or even sweet potato casserole. He does how ever like chicken pot pie. He will eat mostly anything I put on his plate even if he does not like it, but I still try very hard not to serve things that he does not like. Oh boy I could go on and on about this mans eating habits! But I think I will end it here with some pictures. Because after all pictures are worth a thousand words.

This is a meal that we made together. Note the fried fries and egg rolls and hey even a fried egg! And a coke on the side lol. Not so healthy if you ask me.

 Another meal we made together, chili baked potatoes, salad, and fried empenadas.

And the breakfast he made me one morning. Half an egg burrito and a bagel with cream cheese and raspberry jam. (so sweet :]) 

 

Here's to many more to come! I love you so much.

Currently

I am currently...

Loving: My new blender! This thing rocks! Even though it is a super cheap-o one that is very low quality, I am still so happy to have one and be able to use it to make smoothies! Anthony is quickly falling in love with smoothies as too. :]
Hating: The fact that everything I bought with in the last week is malfunctioning! >:[ I am going to do an in depth post on this in a few days but, this past week Anthony and I bought a crib that we could not figure out how to put together, a dryer that had issues with the ventilation tubes, a washer that leaks, a swing that the batteries burnt out for in two days, and a tub of yogurt that had a freak accident at the factory and was not sealed right. Talk about bad luck lol.
Wishing: I had some direction as to what to do with my financial problems and whether or not to start selling on Etsy again.
Obsessing Over: Bento! I am eating, breathing, sleeping bento! Can not keep the stuff out of my mind for any longer than a few minutes :]. I am even starting a second blog just to post about my Bento creations.
Watching: Grey's Anatomy: Season 9. LOVE this show! I am almost out of episodes again though because they are still airing this so it has yet to come to DVD in full season form. I have 14 episodes and I have watched 6 all ready. :/
Wanting to See: Franken-Wienie. I keep telling Anthony to get this movie for me. He still hasn't. We will see how long it takes him to lol. I don't really think I will like this movie but it is one of the only new-ish kids movies that's out that I have not seen yet.
Eating: For lunch today I had a peanut butter & banana sandwich and apple sauce. A quick and light lunch. Quite boring but I had no time or resources to make anything better this morning. The sandwich was super yum I don't remember the last time I had a PB & B sandwich!
Working On: Bear's room. We are setting it up slowly, we have to figure out how to put the crib together and how many other things we need to buy for it, then we can paint it and set it all up. His theme is pandas/bears/jungle/green. I hope it will be cute lol we are working on a VERY tight amount of money.
Wearing: The same pair of pants I have been for a week! Gross right? I only have two pairs of pants that fit me right now since I still need to lose 12 lbs before I am back to my per-pregnancy weight. I am wearing one pair and the other pair I unfortunately stained last week! Again with the bad luck lol. Working with this tiny budget means we can not afford to buy new clothes, so I really hope I am able to lose the weight quick because I have like 10 pairs of pants that would fit if I did.

Currently

I am currently...

Loving: My life. I am glad to say that I am finally to a place where I actually LOVE my life! I mean sure there are rough patches here and there but aside from those normal petty issues I've got it pretty good. I do often sit down and wonder... WHY? why is my life so good? Why am I so blessed? Why are there others that are not as blessed? I feel sometimes that I do not deserve to have this. I just continue to thank God everyday for the many blessings he has provided me and my family with, and pray for those less fortunate.
Hating: The cold weather. Ok ok.... I know that to most people 50-60 degrees is not considered cold lol but being Florida born and raised that is absolutely freezing to me! I would die if I lived anywhere that snowed. That is a fact.
Wishing: I had a Lap Top Lunch Box, a muffin tin, and a swing for Bear. I have been wanting a Lap Top Lunch box (or 10) for like a whole year now. I just have not yet found the funds to buy one... maybe when I get my tax return in a few weeks I will treat myself. :] I have also been wanting a muffin tin for Muffin Tin Mondays but I can not find one that has just 6 spots in it anywhere! Well aside from the internet but I would rather buy one from the store so I don't have to pay for shipping. I seriously cant believe that Wal-Mart only sells the 12 compartment ones, I thought Wal-Mart had everything. And the swing... I have been wanting one of these since I was pregnant. I got a 60$ gift card from my co-workers which would have been perfect for buying a swing but I had to end up using it to buy a vacuum cleaner because of my flea infestation a few months back (getting rid of fleas requires a good vacuum cleaner and LOTS of vacuuming). Good news is Anthony is planning to buy one for Bear next week with money he is getting from a car wreck settlement.
Watching: American Horror Story: Asylum. Me and Anthony got into this show after we so an add for it in the Xbox Live market place. It is one of the most creepiest shows I have seen but it has definitely got Anthony and me hooked. We watch an episode everyday after dinner. Unfortunately there are only 2 seasons and we are almost done with this one so we will soon have to find a new show to watch.
Listening to: Nothing actually. I used to listen to music ALL the time. I remember there was a time when I would never go out with out my iPod. Now music just seems to bother me. It seems to racquety. Yikes it sounds like I am getting old! Me and Anthony do listen to music in the car but other than that we pretty much don't bother with it anymore. Also I have this stupid song stuck in my head... its the alarm that wakes me up every morning and it is the most ANNOYING thing. It goes something like this: bing, bing, bing... goodmorninnnnnnng! bing, bing, bing, goodmorninnnnnnng! pa, pa, pa, pa, pow, pow, pa, pa, pa, pow! Goodmorninnnnnnnng! and so on, it drives me nuts but gets the job done lol.
Playing: Kirby Epic Yarn for Wii. I just got this game from Gamefly a few days ago and I love it! Kirby is turned into a little yarn character and can do lots of cool things like turn into a car, submarine, or hot air balloon. He is in a place called Patchland and everything is made of fabric and yarn. I wish I had more time to play this. Seems like once I get home, cook dinner, eat, and watch a show with Anthony I am really tired and just want to sleep. Hopefully this weekend I can find some time in between taking care of Bear too play this super cool game :]
Wearing: I can fit in my fuzzy jacket again! Yay! It became too small around 30 weeks pregnant and I had to set it aside until now. I have been wearing it to work everyday this week, oh how I have missed you fuzzy jacket!
Eating: Raspberry Poptart. Today for breakfast I am having a raspberry Poptart. I know not the healthiest but never the less it gets the job done. For lunch I have spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and salad (left overs from last night).