How to feed a baby: baby led weaning

I wish I could be very confident and say I know exactly how to feed this baby, but the truth is that it's mostly guesswork.  I don't always feel that confident that I'm feeding her the 'right' things (except for breast feeding) at the 'right' times.  

This time around, with so much baby knowledge under my belt, (read: one child worth of experience) I thought it would be a great idea to work ahead and make a bunch of baby purees for the deep freeze before Little Lady was even ready to eat them.  I made batch after batch of carrots, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, apples, and pears.  I was unbelievably prepared to start Little Lady on solids that were homemade and yummy and all ready to go.

I was not prepared for my daughter to want to chew her purees.     

I thought it was curious how she started making chewing motions within a very short time of starting to eat oatmeal baby cereal.  As the weeks passed I realized she was kind-of trying to chew everything.  We introduced some finger foods (homemade bread, sweet potato fries) and she went to town.  Before I knew it she would not eat baby cereal and getting her to eat purees was a big, stressful job.  Little Miss Independent wanted to do it herself and I was left with some half-eaten boxes of cereal and a freezer with a whole lot of baby food waiting to be consumed. 

All by herself, Little Lady had started what is officially called Baby Led Weaning  and didn't let me in on the secret.  Baby Led Weaning sounds to me like it deals with stopping breast feeding or bottles, but it really refers to feeding babies by skipping the purees and spoon-feeding and instead going straight to finger foods.

It's actually a wonderful thing that Little Lady wants to feed herself.  It makes mealtime more pleasant for all of us.  She developed an incredibly accurate pincer grasp very early on, which seemed to lead to some wonderful fine motor skills.  She can eat what we eat, more or less, and that makes meal preparation much easier for me and I think it will make her a more adventurous eater.   It's amazing what she can chew with just gums - she has zero teeth!  She only eats yogurt and a few pureed fruits from a spoon, but otherwise she is enjoying the five food groups as much as her big brother, and is feeding herself nearly every bite.

How do you feed a baby?  With Little Lady, the answer is, "Let her decide!"

Sorting it out

Sorting and grouping is a fairly simple activity for young children, a necessary skill to learn, and there are many ways to practice it.

One day we dug into Daddy's box of Lucky Charms and picked out some of the marshmallows.  Mini Me sorted them into lines, grouping like shapes together.  It was a little tricky because the marshmallows kept sticking to his hands.  When everything was sorted, we counted the items in each line and then ate the marshmallows (a very, very special treat) by the shortest line first.

 Another day I got out our memory game and selected about 10 sets of cards.  We sorted them into groups of food, animals, and balls.  Mini Me was quick to finish and wanted to do more so I got out the rest of the cards - 60 in all.  He started to decide the labels for the groups and we added 'things we find outside', 'toys', 'girl things' (a tiara and bow) and 'things in the closet' (a light bulb) to our grouping.  He did a fantastic job sorting all 60 cards.  When it was all finished, he started asking me comprehension questions: "Mommy, which line is the longest?"  "Which line is the littlest?"  I was amazed!  The little guy remembered when we did that after sorting the Lucky Charms.

 Once again, we practiced another skill under the guise of a game - sneaky, sneaky Mommy.

Through the eyes of my children

These aren't the first stories of how my children make me see the world around me in different ways, and I'm certain they won't be the last stories.  Nevertheless, they are entertaining to hear!


Recently at supper, we folded our hands to pray and Little Lady starts clapping like a madwoman.  Of course!  We taught her to clap while at the table and clap for her when she manages to put her cup in the cup circle on her tray.  I'm sure we all looked like we were mid-clap as we prayed - something I'd never thought about.

~

Mini Me was sitting quietly looking at a book when he sneezed, then promptly called out, "Mommy, I bless-youed all over my book and I need a Kleenex!"

 ~

 Not long ago while helping clear the table, Mini Me tossed a small bread crust into the garbage.  He then asked me where the bread crust will go after the garbage man picks up our garbage (watching this is a fun weekly event).  I gave a shortened explanation of landfills and as I told my small son how we put things in bags, then take them out in the country and leave them with other people's bags, I felt the guilt growing.  Plastic bags full of junk sitting in a landfill has long bothered me, but since my son's innocent question about where garbage goes, I can't stop thinking about ways to reduce our trash.


It's a delight to see new perspectives on the world, especially through the eyes of my children.

Inertia

Turning the television on at our house during the day is a pretty rare thing.  We are just too occupied doing other fun things to bother with it.  Occasionally, Mini Me will want to watch a show on PBS.  I wonder if he thinks that is the only channel that exists because that is the only channel we turn on for him.  His favorites are Sesame Street and Super Why and I love that they are educational.
 
Another show he watches is Sid the Science Kid.  I think this is a phenomenal program: it has fun songs, fun characters, and a lot of wonderful science topics.  One day Mini Me was watching a Sid show about inertia, which is the tendency of something to maintain motion (or stillness) until acted on by an external force.  In the show we saw Sid put a stuffed animal on a skateboard and when the skateboard bumped into something, it stopped, but the animal went flying.  


I quickly realized we could easily practice the concept of inertia on our own.  When we said goodbye to Sid and turned off the TV, we got out various trucks and put a little man on top, then rammed the trucks into a stack of dictionaries (it made me feel good to make our old-fashioned dictionaries useful since I don't use them to actually look up words any more).  The ramming and seeing the little man fly off was great fun; even Little Lady started laughing.  It was more or less a fun little game with the fancy word "inertia" attached.  We still occasionally ram trucks into things and talk about inertia.   Thank you, Sid!

Hippity, hoppity Easter's on its way!

We have really been able to do some fun activities for Easter this year now that Mini Me is three.  Last year he was great at Easter egg hunts in our house but this year we've done a bit more.

Instead of giving something up for Lent, I thought I could try to add in something good.  Every day at breakfast, we read a story from our toddler Bible or the Bible story cards we have.  Mini Me now reminds me to do the story immediately when we sit down, and I've noticed that when I'm reading and showing the pictures, Little Lady is rapt with attention, too.  It takes all of two minutes (plus a Mini Me-led question and answer session some days), and it has been fun.  I hope to find another book with short Bible stories in it so we can continue beyond Lent.

A few weeks ago we made fruit juice Knox blocks (the recipe is on the box of Knox) and cut them out with Easter cookie cutters.  Mini Me is wonderful with helping in the kitchen and is my go-to dumper for most recipes.  He loved cutting out the shapes, too.

We made Easter photo frames for each set of grandparents with a foam photo frame kit.  Mini Me did really well gluing all the decorative pieces on and Little Lady did a superb job smiling for the camera when we took a picture to put in the frame.  

Little Lady's favorite Easter activity has been playing with the Easter window clings on our porch windows.  They are low enough for her to reach when standing and she likes peeling them off and patting them back on.  Her fine motor skills never cease to amaze me.  She also loves just playing with the Easter baskets and the plastic eggs.  A special favorite is "Egger", a little red rubber and wire bunny that must feel good to chew. 

Just this week we colored our Easter eggs.  We made hard boiled eggs and used a color kit to decorate them.  Mini Me did a very artistic job making smiley faces, smears, crosses, and speckles on the eggs.  Mommy did a very artistic job of getting the egg dye all over her hands, the kitchen counter, the kitchen floor, and a white shirt while preparing the activity.  Whoops.

Holy Week is one of my favorite times in the church year and this year we have had fun honoring its importance at home, too.  Thanks to Jesus, we are forgiven.  He is risen - hallelujah!

Baby wearing

Other than me, I've only ever seen two other mothers in real life wear their babies in a sling or a wrap - maybe I've seen more but it was before I had a reason to notice and remember these kinds of things.  When Mini Me was born I bought a Moby wrap at the suggestion of a good friend.  I wore him in it some, but only at home when I needed to dust or put dishes away and still snuggle him at the same time.

Now with Little Lady and the need to have my hands free as much as possible, I have gotten out my Moby wrap much more often - though still not a what I would consider a lot.  I have worn her about once a week since she was born, maybe less, and mostly around the house or to church a few times.  I do frequently put her in the wrap to go to library story time.  Once our freezing temps were behind us we've been going every week and I plop Little Lady in the wrap, zip my coat around us both, grab Mini Me's hand, and we walk to the library (a whole three minutes).  Each time we walk over there I think about the drivers zooming past on the busy road, perhaps catching a glimpse of a little head sticking out of a coat, and wondering what the heck they just saw.

It's nice to hear positive comments about wearing her, especially since baby wearing seems like something not often seen in my area.  People at church and other young moms at the library have made comments like  "How neat!  She fits right in there with you" or "I bet that's convenient" or "She looks comfortable."  I also like that baby wearing is completely normal to Mini Me.  One of the pieces of never-ending parenting advice he gives me is, "Sling 'er up, Mommy" when Little Lady is cranky and I'm busy cooking supper.

I think she is swiftly outgrowing this particular wrap and since I don't use it as often as other baby wearing mothers, I won't replace it with a better one.  It has been a much needed piece of baby gear for baby #2, however.  I'll take any excuse to have Little Lady close to me for an extra minute or two and I also like that it made me just a little bit crunchy.

There is always a new adventure

I did two new things with the kiddos this weekend and we survived both adventures (I'm playing it a little loose with the word 'adventure', I know).  My husband and I have gotten really good at tag team parenting: I run errands when he is home with the kids.  I know many mothers take their two - or more - young children out and about alone, but I've shied away from this, especially through the winter in order to make life easier and errands quicker.  I frequently take both kids on out of town trips by myself, and sometimes take one child at a time on errands with me, but rarely both together unless it is to the grocery store where they can be nicely contained in a cart (for now).   Having the Little Lady out of her car carrier adds an element of difficulty since I have to buckle two into the carseats and carry her in my arms.

Our first adventure was to the bookstore.  Mini Me was really revved up to choose some new books, and it's always exciting for me to find new things to add to our library (plus we had gift cards so it was free stuff!).  Our jaunt was to a nearby town so we spent some time in the car.  I wore the sling to carry Little Lady since the store doesn't have carts.  All went well; Mini Me loved sitting down to look at some musical books and Little Lady stared wide-eyed at all the people shopping.   Just before we had to leave, with one hand full of books, the other hand holding my purse, and Little Lady growing heavy in the sling I had put on too quickly and therefore improperly, Mini Me decides to do a toddler bolt.  He ran halfway across the crowded store leaving me no choice but to bumble along after him like a pack mule.  Thankfully the situation was taken care of quickly and we checked out in peace.  Both kids enjoyed looking at their new books on the trip home.

Our second new adventure was taking both kiddos to church for Palm Sunday while my husband was out of town.  Church with a toddler and an infant can be a challenge even with two parents there, and today I was heavily outnumbered.  However, all went well.  Mini Me loved taking part in the children's processional with palm branches.  Both children were exceptionally well-behaved, even Little Lady who was missing her much-needed morning nap.  I wish I could say that I managed this adventure completely solo, but my charming toddler enticed three pre-teen buddies of his from the congregation to sit in our pew thus keeping him - and them - entertained for the service.  I even got to absorb part of the sermon, and what's more, so did Mini Me.  On the way home he asked, "Why did Jesus ride a donkey?" and "Why wasn't Jesus at our parade in church?"  So, we learned about Jesus and tested out some potential future babysitters!

Though not always a shining part of my personality, it did pay off to be a bit adventurous in our outings this weekend; it's always good to get out and experience the world in new ways.

Phonemic awareness

I read about this literacy activity a few weeks ago and we had a chance to try it on a recent rainy morning.  I made a little worksheet with some clip art and deliberately chose words that started with the same sound as colors: robot, boat, guitar, yarn, owl.  I planned to use the 'dot dot' markers to do this, but Mini Me wanted to use watercolors.  We sat down together and I helped him name the picture and then find the color that started with the same sound, like red robot.  I had to lend quite a bit of help for the first few, but by yarn and owl, Mini Me knew what he was doing.  He also surprised me by choosing black for boat when I created the worksheet thinking he would go with blue.

The best part about doing learning activities like this is that he always thinks it's just fun and games.  We hung his completed painting on the fridge and he keeps asking me if we can do another of those 'painting things'.  Even though we do plenty of 'painting things', I know what he means and I have a few more activities ready.   It took about ten minutes to do but we have admired the finished project on the fridge for much longer.   Accomplishment!

Growing in grace

I am usually one to resist change.  It's difficult, confusing, and throws off all my great plans and routines.  On the contrary, I love growth, especially growing in knowledge, broadening my horizons, and improving my life.  

God's grace is all of the good things we have in life - all the good things.  Most importantly, it's God's unconditional love and acceptance of us.  God gave us life along with all of the beautiful and terrible things that happen in it and He promised to always be there for us.  Grace is God's greatest gift to us.  Growing in God's grace means growing to be more like Jesus: striving to add more joy, thanksgiving, compassion, and humility to our lives.

This blog is not about growing gracefully, like the smooth, delicate passes of a ballerina or the deliberate movements of a majestic lion.  It's about the stumbles, bumps, and challenges of how my family and I grow in God's grace and how we grow in other knowledge, gain experience, live joyfully, give thanks, and share Jesus' love.

It probably won't be a graceful journey, but it will most certainly be full of His grace.  It will also most certainly be full of funny stories, great adventures, cute pictures, and lots of love.