Eating in Style

We finally got a highchair for Logan!The last month we have just been using his swing which has worked but my back is tired of hunching over it to feed him twice a day. I did a lot of research to decide what type of highchair to get. I originally planned on getting a highchair that matched our stoller. However, these highchairs run about $130. They have very good ratings and reviews but the Fisher Price Healthy Care High Chair has higher reviews and runs $40 cheaper. Therefore, we decided to save the money and go for the Fisher Price high chair. The only negative in many of the reviews was the bright colors of the highchair. I have to say that the colors aren't that bad. In fact the chair comes with a toy that can entertain him while I prepare his food. It even locks into the tray so it won't fall off. So far the chair has been a sucess and much better for my back.

Logan used to grab his feet when we feed him in the swing which made it difficult to reach his mouth. I am glad to say that they are securely kept out of his face in the highchair which keeps his slippers much cleaner.

Here is a picture of him eating his dinner tonight. He had prunes for the first time and you can tell by the prunes all over his face and his smile that he loved them!

Ready to Swim

Logan is ready to hit the pool! With the recent temperature, I have to say I would like to as well. I bought him a swim suit for the purpose of taking mother and tot swimming lessons this summer once he becomes 6 months old. I don't know why it sounds so exciting to me but Iwould love to just get him used the water. Perhaps it is because I am not the greatest swimmer in the world and would like him to be comfortable in the water. We won't be able to take classes for awhile, but until then we can keep growing in to it.

Homemade Baby Food

Thank you all for your advice on feeding my picky child solids and making the food on my own. I looked up some recipes and decided to give making baby food a try. I was going to go out and buy a baby food processor but decided to try my trusty KitchenAid blender first. I started with making homemade sweet potatoes. I went out and just bought some yams at the store and then baked them for an hour as I read baking them preserves the most nutrition. I then scrapped the yams out of the peels and put them in the blender with some water. To my suprise my KitchenAid blender whipped these yams right up to the exact same consistency as the jars. I then put a few in the fridge to feed Logan over the next few days and put the rest in ice cube trays and froze them. Once they were frozen I put the cubes in a ziploc bag. I now take the cubes out of the freezer each night for dinner and defrost for 20 seconds or so. This has worked so well for me. I still buy the jars to use if we are going out, but I have decided that making my own food seems healthier and cheaper. Some of the jars of food just don't look appealing...like the peas. I haven't introduced these to Logan yet, but when I do I am going to blend up some frozen peas instead.

I would highly recommend making your own food for anyone out there. The only other foods I have made are peaches and pears (from cans-I bought the unsweetened versions) and bananas. I thought making the food might be inconvenient or take too much time but I don't find that at all. You can make so much at one time and then just put it in the freezer. My main motivation for making my own baby food was that I was sick of going to the store every few days to buy more jars of baby food. I thought I was buying a lot, but 10 jars, if they eat 2 a day doesn't last for every long. So I baked 3 yams and have like over 30-40 ounces of frozen yams. One jar of peaches made probably 15 or more ounces.

I am not the most domestic person but get some crazy pride out of making my child his food. I am convinced that it has to be a little bit healthier. I will admit that some things will just be easier to buy in jars like applesauce and squash. But I plan to attempt to make more homemade baby food as Logan continues to enjoy more solid foods.

On a good note, Logan was being very picky about his solid foods for awhile. If we gave him anything but peaches he would throw a fit. I am glad to say that we have now successfully introduced him to pears, bananas, and carrots as well which he seems to enjoy. His favorites are still probably peaches and now pears, but nevertheless I am glad he is starting to enjoy more foods.

On an unrelated note, have any of you had problems with your children taking bottles? I go to work 3 times a week and we have to give Logan a bottle. He has been good in the past about taking a bottle, but it seems like recently he has no interest even though he is hungry. It seems like he almost gets bored. I bought the Playtex Vent Aire bottles because of his reflux and got the slow flow as he seems to choke on anything faster than that, but now I wonder if it is too slow. However, I have tried giving him a fast flow and it still doesn't seem to work. Is their a medium flow? Do you have any suggestions for how to get your baby to take a bottle?