Tastes Like Chicken

As noted in some of our friends' baby blogs (at right), it is not easy to feed this creature, this newly created toddler. All of a sudden there are tremendous likes and dislikes, and they may not be the same from a few months ago or even the day before. There is suddenly self feeding, sippy cups, and new foods to squish. The transitions can throw you for a loop, to be sure.

In some ways we are currently in a rut, because we still feed the child purees (I've gotten lazy -- most are store-bought now) and baby cereal (he won't give it up). But, I do try to give him to foods to experiment with everyday with new ingredients and new textures. Some are better received than others. Food we won't try again for a while: quinoa, jicama, collards, plain soymilk, veggie ham. Foods that have become part of the regular menu: whole grapes, apple slices, eggs, melon chunks, tofu fingers (the best part of the tofu!). Foods that are very popular: biscuits, vanilla soymilk, Vitamin Water (thanks, Jen & Pendy, for the suggestion), salmon, waffles from the Buckhead Bread Company, fresh squeezed orange juice, and Quorn Chik'n Nuggets. Man, he went to town on that Chik'n Nugget! He is officially ready to be a toddler. All he has to do now is try pepperoni pizza and he will have the diet of the average American child down pat.

When at home, he also gets to do a little assisted self-feeding with a spoon as seen in the photo here. (You just can't try that out in public.) I'm also trying to get him used to using a regular cup, though the messy factor makes this an infrequent endeavor. No attempts with a fork yet. Bon appetit, baby!