Crafty Birthday Present

My recent creative project was for my niece's 2nd birthday. I enjoying making these so much that I'm going to make some for my other niece and nephew along with Sofia. Plus I have some grand plans for other foods. My inspiration came from pinterest by the way! Finally using it to actually make something rather than just plan to make something.

sofia and the apple sauce

 we are testing baked apples (which technically shouldn't be a problem because she can eat raw apples like they are going outta style). phoenix picked a ton of apples from the tree in the backyard, and i used a bunch to make homemade apple sauce for lunch.

i was so excited for her to try it. what a special treat for my little apple lover!

or not.

she couldn't get it off her tongue fast enough.

please mom, don't do that again.

10 months old

hey little 10 month old. you are less than 2 months from being a year old. how did this happen??

you are playing. and playing. and playing. see the block towers behind you. mama built them for you. and you will soon knock them down. 

such a happy little girl you are. smiling. laughing. enjoying life.

and growing and learning and changing each and every day. just this morning, you woke up and started clapping! out of the blue. and you clap in the cutest way. off to the side with your hands in the air!

this is a super happy face. your tongue out. it usually comes with panting. that's real excitement!

and your teeth. you now have 8 of them. 8 chompers for eating... and eat you do. you have become such an eater lately. you can even feed yourself better (today for lunch you fed yourself chicken, zucchini, and carrot). 

at bedtime, you are usually staying up later than your mama and dadda want to. you flop and climb and roll and laugh. and if daddy's not in bed, you want out of bed to go find him. 

we love love love seeing all your facial expressions.

panda is still a favorite. he recently has turned into a character peeking up from behind the couch and talking to you. then he says he wants a hug and is coming. panda counts to 3 and then comes flying. sometimes you aren't so sure about this. mama and daddy think it's entertaining. more mama than dadda. i hope it doesn't give you a complex...

you love when we talk on the phone. your eyes light up when you hear it ringing. we talk to nana almost every day or every other day, so you get your dose of phone calls. i'm sure she's excited for when you start actually talking into the phone!

baby girl, being your parents is the coolest thing we've ever done. you light up when you see us. you make us laugh more than i could have imagined. you are an amazing little person. and you are so loved. so so so loved!

Little Pizza Eater

Sofia has become quite the little eater! Above she's enjoying some homemade pizza. It's so fun to see her eating little person style! ;)

If I could go back to myself as a mama of a 6 month old, I'd tell me to NOT worry so much about what is "supposed to be happening" in the food area. I'd tell me to take it easy. Give Sofia what seems to work for her. Don't worry about what other babies are doing and if she's getting enough (cause she is - whatever amount that is... & heck at 6 months... she doesn't even need any!) 

We started out wanting to do Baby Led Weaning - which is essentially giving baby what you eat, just making sure it's given in safe ways. Personally, this wasn't really possible at first for most foods. We ended up giving her what we were eating but prepared differently. Also, in BLW, the baby feeds themselves or plays with the food (i.e. smashing it, squishing it, smearing it, throwing it over the edge of the high chair to the floor)... While this was a part of it, I also fed Sofia some food with either a spoon or from my fingers. We never did pureed baby food, per say. We did do softened, steamed food fed on a spoon, but never purees and never did she eat already made food. She was given freshly prepared food (I couldn't possibly take a chance on something I didn't make for her with her food sensitivities... plus, I was already making food for us anyway.)

At about 9 months, Sofia's interest in food and desire to eat more of it shot up. Also in the 9th month, we made a transition from preparing food specially for her to just giving her what we are eating. She started eating meat every time we ate meat too. I had been holding off on giving her grains (they are more difficult to digest I guess), but then I just decided to let that go. She seems to enjoy bread and biscuits, and we eat pancakes or amaranth for breakfast every morning. She has had very little coconut sugar (I have given her the tiniest nibble of my coconut ice cream a time or two ;) and absolutely NO white refined sugar. This will remain the norm for quite a while (as in - don't be surprised when she doesn't get a sugar filled frosting covered birthday cake to devour on her birthday (of course she'll get some sort of treat, but it'll be one lacking lots of sugar!))

Preparing food has become so easy too. Sofia literally gets what we are eating. I still feed her some things with my hands or a spoon, but more and more, she's feeding herself too. She loves loves loves soups, but these have to be fed to her. She also loves pears and apples. Her favorite meat is chicken, hands down, and she LOVES watermelon. Actually, she goes crazy when eating watermelon and ends up looking like a squirrel with acorns stuffed in her cheeks (and a father freaking out about her possibly choking!)

This is her most recent watermelon eating fun. I only gave her a small piece as a way to slow her down and not freak her father out!

Summer Fun

It's sad to think that summer is coming to an end (maybe more in my head - if it is anything like last summer, it lasted well into October here in Portland). It seems like it flew by... as time seems to do I guess! It's also very hard to believe that Sofia is less than 2 months from being 1. Such exciting times, yet my stomach knots up and my eyes burn with mama tears at the thought of my baby growing up. This must be the pain of parenting. You are so excited for the next step, yet heartbroken by the time that passes because you can't get it back. 

Sofia has been doing lots of crawling. Anywhere and everywhere. She isn't picky. (& her knees are quite willing to take the grunt of the work!)

She LOVES water. I hope we can get her in some a few more times this season before the cool weather comes on.  

Library story time has been a big hit this summer. Sofia crawls ALL OVER the place. She loves visiting the librarian, crawling out of the room into the rest of the library, and playing with the toys during story time.

She plays. She actually purposefully plays. A Lot! Sofia loves putting these rocks into containers and shaking them out. And it's a definite plus that she doesn't attempt to eat the rocks too often!

Music in the park with her daddy.

Sofia went through a stage where she enjoyed standing up in her seat rather than sitting down to get buckled in. Glad it was short lived, for now at least...

We spent a day at the zoo. I want to go again soon now that it's fall and the school aged kids are all back in class. 

Just playing while Mama makes dinner.

Daddy cuddles.

Drinking from a cup.

Another photo of Sofia standing up in her car seat!

Future soccer player...? She will be if her Uncle Courtney and Aunt Kendra have anything to do with it!

More story time playing.

How many babies can fit in a toy box?

The usual morning backyard patrol check.

Sofia loves crawling on the sidewalk, and despite what looks a little painful for the knees, she is speedy!

Breakfast out. With the food sensitivity issues, eating out hasn't really been something Sofia has experienced. Yet, she does pretty good sitting in her high chair and eating with us! Right now we have two places we can eat at (one thing on each menu, plus I bring some of my own food - these aren't server type places, more like order at the counter and find your own table to eat at, so this makes bringing in extra food possible.)

She is one happy baby!

One of the best changes of this summer was the addition of family in Portland. Sofia's Uncle Bric moved in August!