Thursday, July 4, 2013

{phfr} Mae Bae Birthday Edition

{pretty}

The birthday girl got a super start to her day:


After breakfast and presents we walked to the zoo.  The girls rode in their red wagon:


We'd put on a huge amount of bug spray... and the mosquitoes... what did they do?
They laughed at us.  They pulled out little champagne glasses and toasted with our bug spray before biting us.  I reapplied bug spray probably two dozen times...  The swarms of mosquitoes on the four mile walk did not care... but it was pretty and I snapped pictures while walking rapidly to try to keep them from landing on us:


I cannot wait to see this trail in autumn when all the leaves change:




These boots may be Mae's new favorite thing.  You can't see it in this picture, but they have sparkly gold stars on the side:



{happy}

Patrick will kick off the "happy" section with a Patrick smile.

Our good natured little seven month old is weighing in at 22 lbs (he will be 8 months next week):


Maggie tried out her new sit and spin:


And Sadie was ready to leave to go to the zoo:


Here's Maggie trying not to be ticklish:


And here they are riding the train with Daddy:


She was very, very happy... until it came time to get off the train...




{funny}

A certain peacock had identified Sadie as the weakest link in the food court.  He was pretty sure she was going to feed him.

About five minutes after this picture was taken there was a moment that Sadie will most certainly refer to from now on as the "peacock incident" when he came over right next to her and she turned to look at him and in her hands was a chicken strip, which he apparently thought she was offering him...  She managed to save it only because Paul stood up to throw away the trash at the table and the peacock decided that it was a good time to walk away... but yeah... he almost succeeded in stealing her lunch:


{real}

Okay.  Get ready to judge me.

Some of you may know we've been trying to go the whole food/baby led weaning route this time around (which is to say, letting the baby feed himself little pieces of food when he's ready to eat... not actual weaning).  Patrick hasn't really been interested in food at all, and I keep offering him things and he's put a lot of energy into mashing things and throwing them on the floor, but nothing ever goes near his mouth.  So he's basically an exclusively fed 22 lb almost eight month old.

So today we sat down to have lunch and Patrick started to fuss.  He had been fed and I really didn't want to deal with nursing him right there in the food court, so I handed him a french fry figuring that he could smash it for five minutes and throw it on the floor just like he's smashed everything else I've given him.  Paul even said:  "Should you give him that?"

And I said:  "It's not like he's going to actually eat it."

And then this happened:


And although this face followed:


It was not, apparently, gross enough to stop eating.

And so the Boy's first food was a french fry.


So when we got home I was like "what the heck, let's see what he does with this" and I gave him a piece of Mae's cake:


And he thought he'd hit the jackpot with this gluten free dairy free cake:


Let me tell you... this cake really does not taste gluten free or dairy free.

It tastes like little fluffy pieces of heaven.

And I am not someone who usually says that sort of thing.  I usually say "well, this is okay for gluten free."  Not this cake.  We have found a winner (and it is a mix, because my gluten free skills fall far short of my regular baking skills).

And he ate a whole entire piece.

Victory:



And have a Happy Fourth of July.

6 comments:

  1. Maybe now that Patrick has had a taste of real food, he'll be more excited about other stuff. It's very impressive that you've grown a 22lb 8 month old on breast milk alone!

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  2. Yes, very impressive! And, happy birthday to Mae, and happy Fourth!

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  3. My third never wanted to have anything to do with pureed baby food. From six months on I would try once a week to feed some sort of pureed item, to be met with rejection and gagging. Then at almost nine months big sister set her plate of grilled chicken and lima beans on the floor and he crawled over and chowed down. So straight from breast milk only to eating our dinner cut into pieces. And at fourteen months he decided he didn't want to pick up food with his fingers anymore, but MUST HAVE A FORK. So everything, even Cheerios is now eaten with cutlery at almost two. And he is our biggest, tallest kid for his age, so late weaning has no bearing on nutrition, or development of "eating skills" - the others were not perfectly proficient at spoon and fork eating and graduated from bibs at 18 months! Some kids just don't want to eat baby food - period.

    -K

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  4. Hahahaha I love that he ate a french fry! It's amazing how our attitudes change with each baby - at this point I'm perfectly happy giving the twins anything that won't hurt them in their high chairs. It keeps them quiet so I can eat! So if they happen to gnaw on a pizza crust or suck on some flank steak, it doesn't bother me, although if I hadn't already done this twice I would be gung-ho fruits & veggies only I'm sure! So they just love meat more than anything else :P

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  5. Oooh, will you share the cake recipe? I have a good chocolate cake recipe but I still need a good yellow/white cake one! Thanks!

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  6. Hi Sophie,

    I ended up going with a Bettie Crocker gluten free cake mix and then substituted vegan cooking sticks for the butter. All of my homemade gluten free baking experiments have had such mixed results that I didn't want to risk it for her birthday (and I'd tried the box and it's surprisingly good!)!

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