Selah's eatin'... sort of.

Selah is almost 6 months old! She had one little tooth that has poked through her bottom gums and from the way she's chewing on things, I don't think it'll be long before another tooth joins the first...

I just started giving her "real" food in the last week or two. I didn't intend start yet because, well, once you start, there's no turning back. Why add one more thing to my "to-do" list when I don't have to? There's an added "bonus" with waiting. After they start eating food, "the baby has a stinky diaper" takes on a totally different meaning.

It's been years since I bought jar baby food. When Caleb was a baby, I went to a class that taught how to make you're own baby food. It was a revelation! In retrospect, I think "Duh, that's common sense", but at the time, I just assumed that Gerber new more about feeding my baby than I did. Eventually I just started mushing up the veggies that we cook for our own meals and voila!... baby food.

Our baby food keeps getting more and more unconventional. I have learned with the last few babies how good soft boiled egg yolks are for their first food (from Nourishing Traditions Cookbook), so that is what I intended to feed Selah. I'll still be feeding that to her when I decided to spoon feed her, but for right now, her food is also her toy to keep her hands busy. As she sits on the counter while I make meals, she gets bored playing with the measuring cups and spoons, so I've started handing her fruit and veggies to knaw on and suck. She loves it! A peeled carrot, apple or pinapple cores, mango seeds... whatever I have on hand that is big enough not to break off into small pieces.

Sucking on the juicy flesh that's left on the mango seed (mangos are very slippery so I wrapped the bottom in a paper towel)

Mmmm, snacking on a pinapple core. (side note: the core of the pinapple is full of Bromelain. What's that, you say? It's a mixture of enzymes that are known to help clear the sinuses along with other things. So next time you have a cold...)

A favorite summer treat for all of us are Banana Pops. We buy bananas in bulk and leave them on the counter to ripen. Once they're overripe, but before they turn brown, we peel them, cut them in half or thirds, and insert a wooden craft stick into the cut end. (Hobby Lobby sells 1000 of them for about 4 bucks.) We lay them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and stick 'em in our freezer. Once frozen, we transfer them to a gallon ziplock and stick them back into the freezer for later (after we all have one, of course). No food coloring, no added sugar, just an inexpensive, healthy treat for a hot summer day.

Selah loves them. They are cold, which helps her teething, yet not as cold as an ice cube. Weird but true. They thaw and mush up as she sucks on it, and she can hold the stick without getting her hands cold. Selah's happy with her treat, and momma's happy because I have a happy baby and two free hands to keep cooking!