Cookie Monster

After our Fourth of July get together, I had some leftover graham crackers.  I gave a couple to Baby CP after dinner last night and he really likes them.  He happily feeds them to himself as he's walking around.  This morning, I gave him some after a big breakfast and decided that since he seems to like them so much, it was the perfect opportunity to teach him a new sign. 

{via dummies.com}

The sign for cookie is a little difficult for baby hands, but after showing Baby CP just a few times, he was able to do something very close.  I guess nothing motivates like sweets.

40 Weeks Old

This post is 3 weeks old. It took me a while to upload the video below.

Baby CP is into sounds...sounds made by banging stuff around...like a pot cover on the kitchen floor or a wooden spoon on the pot cover or his hands slapping a box or table...he also likes to take my hands and bring them together so that they clap.  I am not sure why he hasn't tried to make his own hands clap together though.  Anyway, these sounds seem to bring him much joy.

Though I have not weighed or measured Baby CP in a while, he seems a little taller and heavier.  His big toe has managed to wear its way through his footie.

Baby CP has been a little fussy while eating.  I can't quite figure out why but oftentimes he does not enjoy eating from his spoon.  He likes feeding himself with particular foods like his puffs and other small pieces of food...and he prefers to suck his pouch fruit purees straight from the pouch and is willing to hold them by himself. 

Thank Goodness for Prunes!

Haha...actually we don't know whether the prunes were the direct result of poop, but Baby CP did so within about an hour of eating them.  We were so worried about the poor little guy that we made a special trip to the store to get them!  He quickly gobbled up half a jar and then ate at least half of a pouch of mango, spinach and pear.  He's been hungrier the past few days and has been eating his salmon porridge which he resisted eating a couple weeks ago.  I also gave him little pieces of smoked trout and roasted eel from my meals this past week.

Here's a video of him sucking some delicious processed food out of a pouch:

Yum Yum

Today, I took Baby CP to the farmer's market at the Ferry Building because I wanted to pick up some organic vegetables to make him a vegetable baby broth based on a recipe I found.  Baby CP drinks milk, some formula and some water during the day, but I think he still needs more fluids to regulate his system.  The baby broth is supposed to be great because not only is it a non-sugary source of fluids, it is also packed with nutrients.  Afterwards, you can also take the veggies that were used to make the broth and puree those for meals too.  The broth can also be used to flavor other foods and to poach fish.  I hope he likes it because I made about 6 cups.

Baby Vegetable Broth

Ingredients

2 quarts (8 cups) of cold water 
6 oz carrots, cut into rounds or, if thin carrots, about 3/4" pieces
6 oz broccoli florets
6 oz cauliflower florets
1 cup of coarsely chopped rainbow chard
1 tomato

Directions
Put everything into a medium pot and bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat to low and let simmer for an hour.  Strain the vegetables out of the liquid and set them aside. 

SUPER easy.  Baby CP went down for a nap and 25 minutes later, my broth was already boiling.  I think you can put any vegetables in it...I didn't have exactly what the recipe called for, so I improvised.  I plan to freeze the broth into ice cubes and to puree the veggies and freeze those for his weekday meals.

Because we headed out to the farmer's market before 8:30 this morning, I didn't have any solids prepared for Baby CP when we got home.  The foods I had prepared in weeks past were frozen solid in the freezer.  Last week, I had purchased a couple pouches of Happy Baby Organic Stage 2 baby food for Baby CP because they come in convenient pouches which are perfect to carry in the diaper bag in case we need to feed him some solids while we're out.  They have caps that screw on and off so it's pretty clean.  They are called Stage 2 because they are combos - I bought pear, broccoli and peas and mango, pear and spinach.  Yes...those combos totally sound weird, but other parents wrote reviews about how their babies just LOVE the stuff. 

Anyway, I cracked open the pear, broccoli and peas today to see if Baby CP would like it.   The consistency is super smooth...much smoother than any puree we can make in our food processor...and not too runny.  Baby CP opened his mouth for the first spoonful and took almost a whole minute to contemplate the flavors, then he started to lean forward in his chair for MORE MORE MORE.  So I tasted just a teeny bit and of course the stuff is very very sweet.  No wonder babies love it.  The package only list pears, broccoli, peas and lemon juice...not mention of additional sugar or fructose.  It tastes like pears and smells a little like peas, but my adult taste buds would not be able to handle it..  After Baby CP finished the first tablespoon, he started clamoring for more, so I mixed more into some oatmeal so it wouldn't be quite so sweet.  He liked that. 

So, I'm not sure how I feel about the pouches...I do think I will invest in the prune ones to help Baby CP's digestive system along since he eats a lot of oatmeal and bananas which leaves him a little constipated, and I think pureeing prunes is probably a pain in the butt.  However, unless I can find flavors or another brand that is less sweet, I feel kind of weird feeding this stuff to him. 

Babies are funny though...they love sweets.  Baby CP has very little interest in green beans and zucchini unless we at least mix it into oatmeal and even then, he would never want to eat them with the same excitement that he expressed for the pouch today.