another bean update

so her 6-month checkup was yesterday.

yes, she got more vaccinations.

yes, i cried like, well, a baby. shut up.

anyway, she's 26.5 inches long now and 17.3 pounds, with a 17-inch nugget. still above average in all categories, but that wasn't surprising. ha!

and on sunday, she got her first taste of rice cereal. pediatricians always recommend rice cereal as a first solid food because it's gluten-free, full of iron, and has relatively low risk of an allergic reaction. little ones tend to digest it pretty well, when they've been on nothing but breast milk or formula for months. it was funny to watch her - she's somewhat accustomed to a spoon, from us giving her ice water at restaurants. and she didn't spit it out, which was good too.

and then yesterday, after leaving kaiser, i headed off towards whole foods. the hub is hell bent on feeding her only organic products (which i'm totally on board about), and was seriously annoyed at me when i told him i'd bought her cereal at babies r'us.

*gasp* "you bought it WHERE?? and you fed it to her? what are you thinking??"
"duh, it's still organic cereal. it's the same shit they sell at whole foods!"
"you're going to tell me that the stuff they sell at vons, ralphs, albertson's, stater bros., etc. is the same? no way. i don't believe that."
"whole foods is so fucking far. i can get all the same things at vons down the street!"
"awww, it's too far! it's too far to drive to make sure my family is eating healthy foods! awwww."

ugh. so i decided to prove my point and trucked my happy ass out to pasadena. but since i was heading out there anyway, i thought i'd hit up the right start store and pick up some supplies for making the bean's food at home. i know it just takes a basic food processor and ice cube trays for storage, but remember, i'm a huge sucker for baby gear.

there were two different baby food mills available - a manual, hand-crank version for $15 and an electric one for twice as much. and then as i was debating the pros and cons of both, my friend a called.

"what the hell are you doing?" (our standard greeting)
"um, i'm at right start. ha!"
"oooh, what are you shopping for?"
"uhhhh...i'm buying stuff to make homemade baby food with?"

i was bracing myself for ridicule, because i thought for SURE she'd think i was crazy. and she surprised me when she said that she was doing the very same thing. but she said she was using a simple electric chopper she'd found at CVS for, like, $10. i immediately put the two mills down and decided to hit up target later.

i did end up walking out with a set of baby cubes, some disposable bowls and spoons, a couple of new toys, and this thing:
you can put a chunk of fruit or veggie or something inside the mesh part and it lets the baby nibble at it without ending up with big pieces that they could choke on. shut up. i had a gift card, so i didn't spend a dime of my own money.

i also went across the street to macy's to check out their clearances - apparently, they're closing the location on lake in pasadena temporarily to remodel the building, or some shit. anyway, i managed to walk out without buying anything, and then it was off to whole foods for us.

as expected, the baby food there was the EXACT same brand as i'd found elsewhere. i gleefully texted this information to the hub and continued shopping. i did scoop up some organic produce to take home and puree for the bean, along with some premade organic fresh green beans by homemade baby. and, on the plane to nyc, the kid was given a pack with an activity book, some crayons, and some organic snacks. i was happy to see that she loved those snacks so much (sunflower seed butter, gluten-free snickerdoodle cookies, and an organic fruit snack), and so i was glad to find them in the store.

i went home and plopped the bean in her bumbo seat to give her some of those green beans. they were right out of the refrigerator, so i was a little curious to see how she would handle cold food. and as you can see, she did just fine!

later, after hitting up target AND bed bath & beyond, i ended up going to the local baby store and picking up that damn electric baby food mill. i was eyeing that stupid ass magic bullet, but it was $60! and i just wanted a nice, compact toy to use rather than dragging out the giant food processor, or burning up the motor in our blender.

*sigh* she's just growing up too fast.