Belated Happy Valentine's Day

I tried this dish for Sameer. Its red cabbage, apple and raisins cooked together and pureed. I just loved the color of this dish when I saw the photo in the recipe online. I did anticipate that Sameer will not like it, and yes, he did not. I still wanted to give it a shot for two reasons. First ofcourse, the color is beautiful, and second, it was really easy to make. The idea to put it in heart-shape moulds came from another photo that I saw online. A woman had put a snapshot of the bananas that she had pureed for her son in this mould. These are silicone moulds that we got from IKEA. You can just pop out each cube from the bottom. Next I want to try beets ;-)

Looks like he can get down on his own

I have been trying for the last few days to get Sameer to learn to get down from either the futon or the daybed on his own. Today, it seems, he got it.
Every evening I would sit Sameer on the daybed. When I sat him near the edge, he would have fun jumping into my waiting hands. However, that does not count as learning to get down on his own.
I gradually started to seat him farther away from the edge and myself got a couple of inches farther. Initially, his instinct was to catch my finger and then he would jump down slowly onto the carpet. Again, that too does not count.
I would "sneak-in" the proper way every now and then. I would seat him facing the wall, but near the edge of the daybed. He would instinctively crawl down slowly. That does count.... well, somewhat.
Today, he got it! I placed him far away from the edge. I sat at least two-feet away from the daybed. I maintained contact with him. Voila! He turned himself facing the wall and crawled backwards and slowly got down. Just to make sure, I had him do this a few more times. Each time he got down. I even placed him on the futon, which is a couple of inches higher than the daybed. He came down just fine. I had to call Ruchi to show her his new trick and she was also surprised and extremely happy.

Homemade baby food

Now that Sameer is taking more interest in textured food, I have been trying to give him dishes that we eat, with less spices. One neat trick I learned from wholesomebabyfood is to simply freeze the dish in ice cube trays and once frozen you can take out the cubes and put them in a ziploc bag.

I have used this technique for mashed foods mostly and not purees. The other day I made some butternut squash for us and I wanted him to try it as well. It takes him time to accept anything new. The best way to get him used to eating something is keep giving it to him again and again. So I mashed some of the squash and put it in the ice cube tray. I take out one frozen cube each day for lunch time. Its such a small quantity, perfect to keep introducing the same thing to him again and again without wasting the food. The good news is while he does not relish it yet, he has started accepting a few spoons. He'll usually make a face, but open his mouth if I offer another spoon, at least for 3 or 4 spoons. After that he loses interest. While I still mostly give him store-bought baby foods, its nice to be able to try some table foods from time to time.

Before this, I used to freeze an avocado-banana mash that retained its texture very well. Ofcourse not everything freezes well. Wholesomebaby food has a list of foods that do and don't freeze well.

Lets jump

Sameer these days enjoys jumping from the daybed into our laps. I guess he now trusts that no matter what we are there for him. Pretty cool, huh? Well, I guess the following pictures best describe it.