Little Bear ate her chicken!

Little Bear is not, and has never been, a picky eater. The only thing she consistently shies away from is meat (go figure) but she likes veggies, kim chi, rice, eggs, tofu, curry, salsa, fruit, everything else. Anyway, she’s had a cold for a few days and was being especially picky at dinner tonight. Finally, on a whim, I got her to put a bite of chicken in her mouth. Immediately Papa and I started singing,

“Little Bear ate her chicken,

Little Bear ate her chicken,

Little Bear ate her chicken,

Woo! Woo! Woo!”

Well she just loves being the center of attention so she swallowed and took another bite. And another, and another. I took this series of pictures and am posting them all because it captures so many of her cute expressions that she uses now days.

I’m going to try and be better about posting, too, but it seems like life (and computer problems) always get in the way. Anyway, without further ado:

Learning to eat olives… etc.

Little Bear has been growing and changing so much lately! She has seven, almost eight teeth (four on top and three on the bottom), she loves trying all sorts of foods (but chews them up and then spits them out most of the time), she says “BA” to everything she sees, and is signing more, help, milk, eat, water… um, I can’t remember what else. No real words yet, except “bye,” “hi,” and “water.” Not even mom or dad. Well, I guess we see where we stand. She knows what we’re saying, though, and responds to “Come here,” “Get your jacket/shoe/baby” and other things. More than anything, we are just reminded every day how much we love her and how big she is getting. I can’t wait until this summer. I have so many projects to do and will finally have the time (and energy) to do them. Stay tuned!

Spring has sprung!

Not that you’d know it from the hailstorms we were having today. Grandpa was nice enough to take Little Bear both days this weekend so Papa and I could finish, fill, and plant our raised beds. We planted peas, peppers (sweet and hot), eggplant, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, strawberries, watermelon, chives, leeks, sweet onions, green onions, garlic, red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, endives, beans, and…. I think that’s it. Whew!

 

In other news, I pulled this from an article (secondhand) today:

"Honor your daughter’s choices. She is physically small, but feels as big as you inside."

Miss Independent

Little Bear has been increasingly insistent on feeding herself at dinner. We even got her special spoons that would be easier to handle (read: were marketed well). Mostly she makes it in her mouth but I’m considering some of those bibs with sleeves.

 

She’s also lately taken to signing “All Done” (see picture below) when she wants to be finished with an activity such as being changed, grocery shopping, or having her nose wiped. Awesome. We give her the tools to communicate and she uses them against us.

Big kid food

 

Fajitas for dinner tonight. Yum!

Cheese face!

Little Bear hasn’t really met a food she doesn’t like yet, though she’s increasingly getting frustrated with anything pureed. Lately, her favorite has been cheese of any kind. Cheddar and feta are her favorites. Especially now that she has teeth, she’s just been nomming down on solid food like there’s no tomorrow. She’s also been really interested in trying whatever we are having, especially if she has something else in front of her, so lately we’ve just been giving her smaller chunks of our dinner. Tonight I’m trying a video here for the first time… that counts as a picture, doesn’t it?

Eating Cheese, originally uploaded by the.three.bears.

Rice face!

Still working on organizing and decorating the house. Pictures to come soon….

Baby’s first sushi roll!

She is so her father’s daughter! Egg, nori, and rice roll. Yummmmm!

Food strike

Since Little Bear has been sick, she’s been on a food strike. I thought the steroids would help but she still doesn’t want to eat much. Tonight, when I couldn’t figure out what else she’d want, I offered her a Pedialyte popsicle. She was pretty happy to chew on it… I’m sure it made the little tooth cutting through feel better, as well.

She did have some smiles for Papa, though, when he showed up!

P.S. Can someone tell me where these beautiful blue eyes came from? I would have put money on the fact that we’d have a brown eyed baby.

Oatmeal strike

Little Bear has been on sort of an oatmeal strike the last few days. We usually give it to her at the beginning of the meal, mixed with formula or breast milk, to get some extra nutrition in. Well since we’ve been feeding her spicier table food (not spicy like hot peppers, spicy as in, has spices in it), I think she feels cheated with the oatmeal. So today I made her some cauliflower, carrot, and tomato with basil. Hope she likes it!

Sautéing the tomatoes, cheese, and basil.

Pureeing it all together.

Hmm, looks like the picture in the cookbook, doesn’t it! Yay me!