I bought her a little kitchen set off of someone on craig's list. It was pretty dirty and neglected when I picked it up, but with a little elbow grease, you would never know. It is really cute and it came with a bajillion accessories. All sorts of dishes, along with lots of plastic foods and condiments. The lady threw in all sorts of random items with the kitchen set. Included was a pop-up toaster with toast, a tea pot, a little pitcher that makes liquid noises when you push a button, pots and pans, and cups. A chicken leg, a donut, pancakes, salt shaker (no pepper) and jelly. There is even a DQ ice cream cookie and dilly bar. What is funny is that out of all of that stuff, her favorite items have been the little plastic fork and knife. She carried them around with her all weekend. I will have to add a pic of that later. I don't have any good photos with me at work. For now, here's a pic I took of the kitchen with my phone camera.
From the same lady, I also purchased a little Laugh and Learn Chair. It plays music when they sit in the chair and also when she touches things on the side table. There is a voice that reads the words in the book as she turns the pages and also sings songs when she pushes down on the crayons. She climbs into the little chair and plays with all of the stuff on the table. It is really cute and she loves it. Gotta be one of the best five bucks I have ever spent! Here's a terrible picture Joe sent me from his phone while I was out grocery shopping.
I think we are finally getting the table foods down better and getting her off the jar food completely. Fruits and vegetables have been pretty easy for her, but I have been having trouble finding meat that she would eat (other then out of a jar). I had been feeding her Earth's Best Organic Stage 3 foods, which she loves and anytime I would try to give her other stuff like cut up chicken she would just have a hard time figuring out what to do with it. She would gnaw on it with her gums and store it all in her cheeks like a squirrel. Most of it would end up getting pushed back out instead of swallowed. I realize that chicken can be kinda dry, so I would get dark meat to start with, but it didn't help much.
So on my last trip to Trader Joe's I picked out some new stuff. I grabbed some turkey dogs and turkey deli meat that were preservative/nitrate free with no msg or fillers, and some all natural salmon patties. I had to de-skin the turkey dogs for her, but she gobbled them right up! I couldn't believe how much she ate! I steamed some carrots and threw in some applesauce and she ate everything I gave her. Yay! Most of it she fed herself. I was so excited... I really wanted to get her completely off of jar food before she was a year old. Her cousin Q, along with most of my friends kiddos have been off of jar food way before then and even though every baby is different, I felt like I was really lagging behind on getting things going. Part of the problem was finding things I felt comfortable feeding her. I felt very good about the particular jar food she was eating. I knew everything that was in it, and it was hard for me to venture away from that. Plus, she only recently got her first 2 teeth in, and even though everyone says that her teeth do not matter, I just didn't feel right giving her too much table food without any teeth.
This also brings me to another subject. What we feed our kids. I am not going to get too into this right now, but I just want to say that I truly believe that this is a very personal choice for each individual parent. I have been very picky about the food that I put into my own body (especially lately) , so naturally I am going to be the same way about my baby. I have been really frustrated lately with the way some other parents look at me like I'm a wierdo because of what I will or will not let the munchkin eat. I do not care what other parents feed their children. Infact, I couldn't care less and realize that it is none of my business. I am not judging you, so why are you judging me? I don't say anything to them about how I feel about the food they are feeding their kid, so why are they giving me a hard time for what I am feeding mine? It really pisses me off sometimes actually. I feel so much more comfortable feeding her natural, healthy food, that doesn't have preservatives or fillers. Isn't that a good thing? It doesn't make any sense to me why I should be made to feel uncomfortable by other parents because of these choices? It's getting old, and I am worried about the mom that says something to me on the wrong day at the wrong time, when I have finally had enough.
Does anyone else ever have an issue with other parents commenting on what they are feeding their kids? Whether you are feeding your child a hot dog or won't let them have one, what do you say when another parent is actually rude enough to make a comment on how they feel about it?
Ok... moving on...
All in all, we had a fantastic weekend. Friday night I got caught up on a bunch of things I needed to get done around the house. Saturday, I met my sisters for sushi for lunch, then went to the container store with Amy. After that, we went to a birthday party for our nephew, and then my parents and Amy & Q came over to hang out. We watched 3 comedians in a row. We just recently got a blue ray player (awesome sale price at Best Buy!) and can now get netflix streaming instantly. I gotta say for 8.99 a month it is totally worth it. We can watch all kinds of movies and tv shows instantly! Plus we can still get the dvds in the mail. With the money we were spending every month renting movies at blockbuster and red box, this is way cheaper. And way more fun! We love movies. We went so long without hardly being able to watch any at all, so I feel like we have alot to catch up on. We started watching season one of Dexter, after it was the most highly recommended show from a poll I did amongst my friends on facebook. And they were right, so far that show is awesome. Sunday, was my weekly trek out to Trader Joe's (why won't they build one closer to me?!) and the rest of the day was spent hanging out at home with Joe and the munchkin.
I hope everyone else had a fantastic weekend! I am not going to try to get caught up on everyone else...
8 comments:
Glad you had a good weekend and yay for munchkin getting on her feet and starting walking. Your going to have to watch out now, she's going to be getting into all kinds of stuff! :)
Boy do I know what you mean about the food thing, but for me it's cloth diapers. For some reason, people think that I think I am better than them because I cloth diaper. I think what happens is that when a person sees someone doing something "good" (let's face it, cloth diapering is better for the environment and eating healthy is better than not) a person thinks that the one making that decision is passing judgement on those who don't do things that way, when really what is happening is that the person who feeds their child McDonald's everyday or uses disposable diapers look at themselves and question themselves and the decisions they have made. Then that discomfort and defense is projected on you, because you obviously think you are better because you make the "better" choice.
Honsetly, I do know that cloth diapering is better for the enviroment, but I also know how much work it takes and that it is not for everyone. You have decided to put extra effort into every single thing that goes into her body. It takes extra work and planning and is not something I am able to take on. I do work hard at it, but he eats hot dogs and fruit snacks and processed foods sometimes, which is completely my decision.
I have rambled, but I did write a whole bog about this very subject a while back, I bet you will remember it... http://companiontothewind.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-very-personal-adjustment-to.html
I can't believe she is walking! That was one of my favorite times...not the falling parts, but that he could get down at restaurants and explore without crawling on the dirty ground.
Oh, and my catch all answer to when people make rude comments is "everyone is different". At least most people can agree with that.
You know I feel the exact same way as you about healthy food. Granted, before L's allergies were discovered, I'd take him to McDonald's MAYBE once a month for a special treat but now I am glad we don't have that option. I don't get a lot of rude comments, but it's probably because people think I HAVE to feed L healthy things b/c of the allergies. My mom used to tell me I went overboard before that, but not many others did. That sucks that people are being rude about it!
I always try to feed my girls not only healthy food, but lots of different stuff so they won't be so picky! Don't get me wrong, after Kayla gets her shots at the Doctor I do the typical American reward for the kids! McD's! But the more foods you offer them now the better eaters they will become:) She is so darn cute:)
Laura, you food Nazi! How dare you feed your child natural, preservative-free stuff! Are you crazy?!??
Joking aside, I am a food freak. Just like you. Since I started weaning her at 6 months, I've made nothing but my own purees. No jars, no packets, no salt, no sugar, just organic fruit and veg, and organic whole-milk yogurts and she's still, at 10 months, on 4 bottles of formula a day. She's not picky, she eats like a champ, and I'm so proud. You should be proud of yourself, honey. It takes a lot of effort to do what we do, but it's SO worth it. We're cultivating healthy, happy, robust little girls. Well done, super-mummy.
I wanna know who is even bothering you about something like that, anyway. Seems silly to me someone would even care what you are or are not feeding Ayla. What concern is it of theirs? It's not like their doing the shopping, cooking and feeding for her. Tell them to take a hike and get over it!
I'm one of those moms that can't afford healthy food - fish and fresh veggies are so much more expensive than the packaged food. I swear, if I could afford better than chicken helper, fish sticks, mac & cheese and hamburger - I would totally go there.
For me, I wish I could feed my kiddo better, I wish I could spend more time with him, I wish I could do more than I do - I think all parents feel that way, but as a single parent with nobody there to back me up, and having so many high expectations put onto me (by my own self), it's a guilty feeling saying, "wow I wish I could do that." I try not to criticize, but if I do feel bad, it's because of myself - not because you're sharing what you feed the munchkin.
There are some people out there that are just looking for something to criticize about too, just to make themselves feel better about something.
Okay this was a long comment...
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