As Meaghan approaches her 6-month birthday I find myself going a little crazy in the kitchen - making baby purée. Although I really tried to hold out on food until she was the recommended 6-months old, my little one was clearly ready to start being weened right around the time she hit 5-months. When I say she was "clearly ready" all I really mean is that she started having a little trouble with her naps and waking up in the middle of the night after already having slept through the night for a few months. She was otherwise happy and not necessarily "asking" for more food (aside from the engrossing starring at my food!!).

I had hoped to hold out until 6-months because (Meaghan being my second baby) I (1) wasn't as excited about hitting the next milestone and (2) knew full well that once I started adding cereal and introducing foods - there was just no going back to the very simple days of nursing only... the days where going out only meant packing a couple extra diapers and a change of clothes... the days of predictable newborn breast milk "poo" (yes... it changes A LOT with food)... the days of... well I think you get the point. When Meaghan was only nursing it was just a little easier for me. Now I have to plan a little more.

So when she first started eating I went on what I can only describe as a purée making frenzy. I returned home from my next grocery store outing with pumpkin, squash, apples, pears, sweet potato, zucchini... and instead of putting my feet up or checking my e-mail once the girls were both in bed... I started peeling and chopping and boiling/steaming everything to make Meaghan's food.

It's kind of silly really. She can only try one new food every 3 days. But once I get an idea in my head... and even more... once I actually start attacking a project - I'm unstoppable. (Trust me, there are lots other projects that I wish I could attack with such fervour!)

I got a little worried when a friend questioned how long the purées would stay good in my freezer. A quick check on the nestle.com website calmed my fears. Most fruit and vegetable purées are good for 6 to 8 months if kept frozen. Meat keeps a little less long, but I haven't even gotten to that yet . Actually I don't know if I will purée my own meat. For my first daughter I relied on motherhen puréed meats instead and I'll probably do the same this time (no matter how much people assure me it's just as easy as making the vegetable purées... I'm just not that good!)

Making the food is one thing. The question of whether Meaghan will eat it... like it... that's another thing all together.

Although I'm almost positive that Meaghan was ready to start cereal at 5 months old, I think I started her too quickly on other foods. We tried apple first. It's seasonal. It's sweet. I was sure she would gobble it up after eating rice and oat cereal for 2 weeks. I now know where the world "bleck" comes from. My adorable little Meaghan was not fan of the apple purée (AKA apple sauce with no sugar added). Brandon thinks that the apples I used were a little sour. I don't think so. Smooth, sweet.... "BLECK" according to Meaghan.

On the other hand, in the last week or so we've tried sweet potato and squash and those were big hits. She gobbles it right up and I swear she's smiling while she eating - go figure!

Now I suppose it's time I started adding a little green to her diet. Who knows how she'll react to that!

A.

(PS) My 30-minutes is almost up - but I just have to add that feeding Meaghan these purées has Layla eating foods like squash - foods she hasn't eaten since she was very small. I've started giving her a little bowl of puréed vegetables when I feed Meaghan her lunch! It's great... and I'm much less worried about her eating the veggies with dinner cause I know that she at least had a few tablespoons of purée! Whatever works, right? right!