Foodie

We started solids with Violet about 10 days ago. So far, she is not very interested in it AT ALL, which so easily frustrates me if I don't concentrate on not allowing it to. She is quite taken with the spoons, but the food? Not so much. She never opens her mouth to take any of it and makes sad faces if I ever manage to slip a bite in while she is smiling or otherwise open-mouthed. We've tried avocado, sweet potato, peaches, and oatmeal but none of it seems to appeal to her so far. Violet has gotten very grabby at the dinner table and I had interpreted that as interest in our food, but perhaps she is just grabby because babies her age grab everything. Grabby grabby grab-- hair, necklaces, and whatever that foreign stuff is on our dinner plates that we seem so interested in. After giving a try with the baby food, I must reconsider my earlier position and re-categorize her as SUPREMELY UNINTERESTED. Now I am debating with myself what to do, with my two main alternatives being 1) continuing to try to feed her every day but working really hard not to get frustrated and pushy with it or 2) give her a break and not worry about it for another few weeks. We have her 6-month check-up next week and I am a little anxious about the pediatrician giving me trouble about the situation, since I know from the literature I've seen around their office they encourage starting at 4 months and the like.

I really love food. I love grocery shopping, I love reading cookbooks, I love doing the actual cooking, and needless to say, I love to eat. With both Grace and Violet, I have felt excited about them starting solids because it involves me cooking and pureeing and making beautiful rows of ice cube trays filled with bright colors. Now if only either one of them had actually liked it... Grace hasn't ever been a big eater, although I can't remember exactly how those first weeks went. I do remember that she ate puree for a while but quit baby food entirely before 9 months, refusing to eat anything that she could not feed herself, and I remember thinking in shock, "What?! She only ate baby food for 10 weeks?" And then I had all this puree in the freezer that I had to figure out something to do with. (Smoothies, muffins, sauces, etc, in case you find yourself faced with a similar conundrum...)

I sometimes am AMAZED how much time I spend thinking about food. I think I have already blogged that I am officially trying to lose weight, and it turns out (prepare yourself; this may come as a shock) that self-discipline is hard. I know, who would have thought? I have quit baking altogether (unless we have company or a special occasion or something) and am trying to limit the pasta and refined carb-y stuff. I have been joking with myself that I am currently on the CSA diet because our CSA this year is giving us a TON of food that we are barely able to keep up with. We had a full share of our CSA in Connecticut but we managed to eat it all every week, freezing just a bit here and there for later in the year. A full share at our current CSA is turning out to be a bit more and we are swimming in summer squash and potatoes and cucumbers and turnips. Oh, the turnips... I hesitate to say anything bad about a CSA because I am such a fan of them and think you should all GO JOIN ONE, but I am overwhelmed with the need to moan about all the turnips. I think I may have had turnips once in my whole life prior to this and we are now eating them twice a week. It's, well, a lot. Very low in calories (I did not realize how low-calorie until just now, but wow...) which is good in its own way for my current efforts, but still, I will not be sad when turnip season draws to a close. Because that means tomato season will not be far behind. Mmmm...