Milestones: 8 months old

Once again, the 24th of the month comes around and I cannot believe my baby girl is another month older!...

And she's learned so many things already!
Let's run through the list:

• turns towards sounds and voices
• recognized her own name
• uses voice to express joy and displeasure
• babbles, laughs and squeals with delight
• plays with her hands and feet
• rolls over in both directions
• sits without support with good balance when sitting, can shift positions without falling
• crawls well with belly off the ground (started out by going backwards first)
• goes from crawling to sitting position without help
• pulls herself to standing 
• stands while holding onto something (this is her new favourite thing!)
• drags objects toward herself, reaches for toys that are out of reach
• passes objects from hand to hand
• uses raking grasp, starting to develop pincer grasp
• explores new objects by poking with one finger 
• interested in mirror images, smiles at herself in a mirror
• shows preference for certain people and toys
• exhibits a definite reluctance toward strangers, clings to a parent, resists separating from familiar adult (stranger anxiety)
• starting to clap her hands (still not well, but trying)
• drinks from a sippy cup, but prefers a real glass

Believe it or not, this girl hasn't cut a tooth yet. That's right, there are NO TEETH in that mouth!!! All we have is her crankiness associated with teething and buckets of drool.

What she loves to do more than anything is her silly faces! :))) Such a cutie!

Roll Call

My girlie is 7.5 months now, so I thought it would be good to look back at how many new things my baby has tried, food-wise.

FRUITS

• Apples
• Pears
• Avocado (hates it, see: the "eating avocado" video)
• Banana (liked it after the 2nd try)
• Mango
• Banana + Grape + Prune mix

VEGGIES

• Carrots
• Sweet Potatoes
• Butternut Squash
• Peas
• Cauliflower

CEREALS

• Rice
• Oatmeal
• Barley
• Mixed cereal w/ fruit

PROTEINS

• Chicken
• Egg Yolk

What's next for my little munchkin? Maybe some cabbage, green beans, peaches and plums...
What are your baby's favourites?

Baby's first foods, continued...

A few simple steps, and the butternut squash puree is DONE!

How I did it:

1) I've read up HERE on how to bake this vegetable (I've never cooked it before!)

2) After scooping it into a large cup of the Magic Bullet, the squash was blended in a matter of seconds

3) After adding a little bit of water and blending it some more, the mixture was the right consistency :)

4) This time there was so much puree (and I once used half of the squash) that I froze it in the rubber IKEA heart-shaped ice tray

5) Once frozen, I transferred the frozen cubes to an air-sealed freezer bag. Done and done!

Baby's first foods

 When my little Miss V turned 4 months old (2 weeks ago) I started contemplating whether I wanted to start giving her the first tastes of solid foods. I decided to start with homemade apple puree. It actually went well - although she made a face at her first "bite", she was grabbing my hand and is starting to realize that she has to open her mouth when the spoon come at her, he-he : )))

So since it's been almost 2 weeks, I figured she's ready for her next fruit/vegetable. My next choice? Carrots. But I choose baby carrots because I find them to be sweeter than "regular" carrots. I also decided to mix the carrot puree with the apple to make the mix sweeter and tastier (steamed, pureed and no sugar added!). Personally, I think it tastes GREAT! And look how much puree 1 apple and 80 g of carrots made! 2 weeks worth!

Besides the fact that it's natural and homemade (gives me control over the preparation method and I know that nothing else was added), it's also cheap. Love it!

80 g of baby carrots + 1 "Red & Delicious" apple

Made purees ready to be mixed

apple + carrots (about 1:1)

2-week supply!

The holiday season is upon us...

During this past weekend I was finally able to dig out our Christmas tree and decorations. This year there are a few special ones on our tree :)))