A "Berry" Good Meal

Friday's Lunch!

Claire's lunch is smeared all over her face, can you guess what she ate today? There are two video clues. She's pretty cute even covered in slime, isn't she?

Claire's Teeth!

Tooth number one is out and through the gum. I managed to snap a few pictures to show it off. The tooth's partner seems to be near poking through too, I can see a gap in her gum where it's starting to come up. How exciting! Aside from Claire's teeth, not much else is

new. Claire's still enjoying new foods (mangoes, blueberries...and an accidental sampling of refried beans) and we've been spending a lot of time swimming.

I'm hoping to have some pictures to share this week from Dan's company picnic. There are some funny ones of Claire sucking on a beer bottle - I was NOT present for this one ;-)In the meantime, here's Claire learning to eat spaghetti. Doesn't it look like she's slurping it up?

In Praise of the Humble Avocado

Oh Happy Day, I have found something Claire is super enthusiastic about eating!

Here are some sweet pictures of her chowing down on an avocado. In addition to being loaded with tons of good fats - it comes with its own serving container! Although I don't have any dishes to wash it seems someone needs there hair washed, oh well.

I was a bit skeptical about avocado since I hate guacamole, but even I enjoyed a sample of today's dinner, I can only describe the taste as "neutral," there didn't seem to be an overwhelming flavor at all. Claire ate nearly a quarter of the fruit, which has to be the most solid food she's ever had in a sitting - I'll let you know what her diaper looks like tomorrow!

It's been a while since I posted about what has been on Claire's menu. Some of her favorite things right now include sweet potatoes, inch long macaroni (shared with Daddy of course), carrots, cheeries and bananas.

Pears, prunes and pureed foods top the current "yucky" list. Claire loathes being spoon fed unless it's something we're eating. Maybe she's suspicious we're feeding her mashed cave crickets? :-)

It seems these first finger foods are a "taste" of independence for her, and they make for some fantastic photos. Want to see more avocado photos? Click here to view the online album.

Cave Cricket Chow Down

Poor Claire, she got her first taste of insect protein tonight (at least we believe she did). Lil' crawler was hanging out on the floor and snacking on what Dan and I thought were some leftover "O's." She crawled over to her Daddy for a snuggle and Dan said, "what's that on her chin?"

It was half a cave cricket leg...ewwww.

Have the shivers? Here's what they look like whole, we get tons in our crawlspace and Ray and Gecko consider them a delicacy judging by the carnage I vacuum up every morning. Seems Claire enjoys 'em too...yick.

Matt & Baby, First Cheerios!

The quote went something like this "I don't feel compelled to hold other people's children." That was about 8 months ago when Claire was a newborn. Now look at Matt and his new friend :-) These are from Memorial Day weekend, I can't believe I forgot to post them!

And from the same day, here's Claire wearing Daddy's hat. What a silly baby. Yesterday I babysat for the twins next door so Kim could spend the day with Nicholas on a field trip. Claire sampled her first cheerio there from the floor and seemed delighted. She crawled around under the twins' highchair searching them out. Our little scavenger! Of course on his way home I made Dan stop for some of those Gerber cereal puffs. Finally, something she's interested in eating!

I'll try to get a video of our little munchkin snacking sometime today. Hopefully she eat in her high chair and not from the floor, I'm hoping it was the independence that inspired her to chew rather than the novelty of floor scavenging!

Introducing...Solids!

Claire finally got her first taste of solids on May 5 - I know, I know...I have totally been slacking on the photo updates.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, well here are some priceless ones of Claire getting her first taste of carrots and then bananas a few days later. Neither of them impressed her as you can see.

Things looked so promising at first too! Claire was mimicking our chewing motions and greedily eye-balling my plate for days. Dan was so excited to feed her, but Claire was much more interested in the spoon and container (go figure).

We even tried using our fingers to feed her since she was used to having those in her mouth. No dice. I'm assuming that eventually she'll eat (and walk, and grow some teeth...ect) so we're not pushing things too much.

Peaches seem to be a bit more her style though, at least she doesn't grimace! Here's a link to the full album and a slideshow featuring all the pictures is embedded below.