The End of Jars

This morning Ellie’s primary caregiver at daycare mentioned to me that they were beginning to have trouble feeding Ellie with a spoon. Apparently the little rebel has been swatting at it and prefers to finger feed herself. The nerve! She does great with cheese, raspberries, blueberries, waffles, Cheerios. I could go on and on (as I’ve mentioned before, the girl enjoys eating). The one thing she will take on a spoon no problem is yogurt. She adores yogurt. She sees it and she shrieks and shakes. This baby must have the cleanest, most in balance G.I. tract on the planet. By the way, the caregiver told me that yesterday Ellie saw her bowl of yogurt and said "Yeah" which I think is her official first word.

I asked the caregiver, when do babies stop eating baby food? She said between nine and twelve months most babies begin to eat mostly finger food.

Oh. Once again, the first time mom thing kicks in. I seem to recall that Leo ate baby food for a long time. But I also thing I have been clinging to the jar food thing out of convenience. Leo did not attend daycare until much later. With him I had a lot more time to plan/cook meals. I mean I made my own baby food for him if that tells you what my schedule was like during his babyhood. It’s so much easier to throw a jar of fruit and a jar of veg into Ellie’s bag (along with string cheese, yogurt, a waffle and cut fruit). I know if she’s getting two jars a day she’s getting A Meal. Also, I do much better with feeding both of them at home. It's hard to get creative when packing lunches. I find myself on auto-pilot. For Leo it's frozen Trader Joe's cheese pizzas. Frozen waffles. Alternating days of Veggie Booty and Veggy sticks. Cut apple. I know there is more out there.

And did I mention I just bought two cases of Earth’s Best?

I asked the caregiver what I should start sending instead of jars (it’s when I ask questions like this that I feel like a complete Mom Moron). She rattled off a whole list: elbow macaroni, cheese sandwiches (as a kid I think I lived on cheese sandwiches for a good five years), cream cheese and jelly sandwiches (yum!), chicken nuggets (ugh). And I know, I know, at this point she can pretty much eat what we eat.

I’ll try to use up the aforementioned two cases of baby food I bought (they are probably sitting on my porch as we speak, ordered from Diapers.com. I had a coupon--hey-for those interested it’s $10 off and free shipping on orders of $50 or more-code: cookie2). I am trying a new diaper, Nature Babycare-in order to get the free shipping I had to spend at least $50. Has anyone tried Nature Babycare? Liked them? They supposedly break down more efficiently than other diapers and don’t use the harsh chemicals.

I guess I need to start getting a bit more creative with Ellie food-wise. For someone who loves to cook as much as I do I feel like Leo eats too much of the same thing. Fish sticks. Scrambled eggs. Waffles. Last night I got him to eat some vegetable dyed pasta with butter and Parm (who lives the life?) but only if I clapped and said “yay” every time he took a bite. Seriously. If I didn’t clap he would wave his hand at me as if to say Hello? Aren’t you forgetting something? Ellie tried some of the pasta but she wasn’t all that interested.

I see a trip to Trader Joe’s in my future this weekend. I needed to go anyway.

Addendum to my First Time Mom post

I forgot to mention some crucial information about why I feel like a first time mom. It’s a lot more than the developmental stuff. Leo was an insanely easy baby. He slept through the night at six weeks. He didn’t teethe. In fact I didn’t know he had a tooth until he bit me while I was nursing him (I’m not sure what this says about me as a mom but it’s the truth). Ellie was not easy. In fact I don’t think I put her down until she was about three months old. For the first month she didn’t sleep at night. I mean not at all. And she was fussy. Really fussy. Thank goodness she completely mellowed out at four months and she’s now pretty easy going. She’s still way more opinionated than Leo ever was but that could also be a personality thing. I think Leo is making up for lost time now because presently he has TONS of opinions.

Leo hardly cried as a baby. I remember him sleeping through his diaper being changed! It was so sweet how he would fall asleep on me so easily. So many sweet memories of holding him while he slept. To be honest, Ellie had me worried there for a while. I was like, whoa, this newborn thing is actually hard. Now I see what all the fuss is about. I don’t like to make generalizations but I think most of us would agree that babies with Down syndrome are pretty easy babies. I think it’s a gift. I can’t imagine having to deal with that surprise diagnosis and a fussy baby. He was so serene and easy. How could I help but fall in love with him?

Pictured above, Miss "Fussy" aka Sleep Striker Ellie (who is now the definition of sweet and mellow). She looks like a tough customer, doesn't she?

First Time Mom With Two Kids (And They're Not Twins)

I joke with just about everyone I know that in a lot of ways, I feel with Ellie that I am a first time mom. I didn’t know what to expect with Leo, didn’t know when babies were “supposed” to do things. When he didn’t sit up until he was ten months or crawl until he was fifteen months or walk until he was two, well I knew that wasn’t typical, but I had nothing to compare it to. I remember when Leo was a baby people saying things like “oh it goes by so fast, enjoy it.” I remember thinking, really? It does? Because it seems like Leo’s been doing this sitting thing for a while. And he’s not crawling and he doesn’t look like he’s about to any time soon. The stages just kind of dragged on and on with him. They were pleasant enough, but I wouldn’t exactly call them fast moving. I sort of secretly loved the fact that he was a baby well up until he was two (I feel like walking is sort of the line of demarcation between baby and toddler).

I’ll never forget Ellie’s three month check-up. As the doctor turned to leave I asked him if everything seemed ok with her. “Yes, why? Are you concerned about something?” His brows furrowed as if alarmed, that he could have possibily missed something. I told him I just didn’t know what it was like to not worry about a baby. With Leo every check up had been stressful, depressing, humbling and often confusing. And Leo was relatively healthy, having been spared the heart problems so many babies with DS have (maybe someday I’ll talk about the emergency c-section that got him here, followed by seven days in the NICU but not tonight).

In no way is this a slight on Leo or is it meant to sound that Ellie is better, but watching Ellie is truly shocking. Now I know what people mean when they say it goes by fast. Here’s how it went, and I don’t think Ellie is above average or anything. I just think this is how it happens. One week she was sitting. A few weeks later she took some tentative crawls. Two weeks after that she had the run of the house as an expert crawler and was pulling up on anything that was (or wasn’t) nailed down. It’s a joy to watch. And it’s fascinating to almost be able to watch her little brain work as she figures out how to move her body in a way to get what she wants. And here’s the thing. Her body cooperates. I remember the same thing with Leo, only everything was just so much harder for him. And slower. It makes me sad in some ways, that everything had to be so deliberate for him. We just took for granted that Ellie would sit and crawl. And that she will walk. And when she does things we clap and cheer but for Leo, it was a celebration, because it got so long to get to wherever he had arrived. The milestones for both of them are different and wonderful. But even with this being #2, I feel like I’m experiencing everything for the first time.
Pictured above, Leo looking so tiny, just about eight months ago with his new sister Ellie, only a few weeks old. Not pictured: their terrified "first time" mom.