Today, the new silicone ice trays I ordered arrived, which means I can start making more baby food and freezing it. This isn't because I'm some kind of ultra-frugal domestic wonder, although if you've ever seen me in jam-making mode throughout the summer and fall, you might argue with that. No, the reason I want to make some of e-baby's food myself is that I want her to eat the same kind of stuff that we eat, so we don't have to go get her chicken nuggets or pizza all the time. And because frankly, prepared baby food selections are pathetic. They reflect the diet of Americans circa 1971. Here's what I can find:
peas
green beans
carrots
butternut squash*
sweet potatoes*
apples, pears, peaches**
chicken, turkey, lamb***
something called "breakfast griddle"****


She eats a lot of carrots, green beans and peas. And she's not crazy about the carrots. There are a few mixed/garden/variety vegetable baby foods that are basically some combination of those and maybe 1 or 2 other things and she eats those. And she eats a lot of babyfood oatmeal and rice cereal.

But thanks to mom's home-cooking, her diet is more varied and interesting than the same old peas, carrots, green beans all the time. I make her avocado, zucchini and yellow squash. I let her play with whole foods like apple slices, broccoli and asparagus. I know not to make her carrots, spinach, or collards because of nitrate poisoning. But I like collards so as soon as she's old enough, she gets those, too. And okra. As summer goes on, I'll make e-baby purees of whatever we're getting at the farmer's market and freeze little cubes of it in my fancy new silicone ice trays.


Today I made a puree of fresh, ripe avocado mixed with babyfood peas and water. I gave a spoonful to e-baby and she squealed. Then she yelled until I gave her more.


In other e-baby news, she had her first swimming lesson yesterday. It wasn't so much a swimming lesson as a "get your baby in the pool and blow bubbles at her until she puts her face in the water" lesson. We had a good time and afterwards, e-baby slept for 2 hours. She was pooped! Here's a picture:

Yes, it's a boring blog post but I might want to remember that avocado puree recipe later so I had to write it. Thanks for reading. :-)

footnotes:
* e-baby seems to be allergic to these, so no-go. Although she finds them delicious.
** I will let her have her fill of fruit in a month or so, but I'm establishing veggies first so that she doesn't reject them later
*** we're not doing meat until she's at least a year old. Even then, I don't know whether I can handle changing a carnivore's diaper. Just, eewe.
**** this scares me. It's basically eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes and waffles all pureed into one big, trans-fat-filled mush.