Monday, April 25, 2016

big girl dining

happy monday!! we've had so many {fun and not so fun} things happen over the past week that i want to recap, but i really wanted to get a post in today on hadley's favorite topic these dayz...eating.
ever since we left the world of formula at 11.5 months, i've been worried {and slightly neurotic} about her eating habits. besides her initial birth weight {8 lbs 8 oz}, hadley has always hung out on the lower end of the growth curve. typically, she's between the 10th-25th percentile. WHICH IS TOTALLY FINE! but i feel like with a couple of stomach bugs and a picky eating patch, we could easily fall off the curve. plus, she always seemed too busy to eat more than a couple bites at every meal.

recently all of that has changed. she recognizes her hunger now and wants to eat immediately. in an effort to help us put our clunky highchair into storage, my mom gifted us with this darling gray pottery barn table. it is the perfect size for hadley's age.
i know, it is pricey for a kid's table. i looked at many different options and pined over this specifc table for months without taking the plunge. i really wanted something that would fit in seamlessly with our kitchen décor so we wouldn't mind keeping it out for a couple of years. i think my mom finally got tired of hearing me talk about it so she just ordered the dang thing.

a few months ago i also ordered the ezpz happy mat after the baby guy was bragging on it.
i was so bummed that it didn't fit well enough on the highchair to allow for the necessarily suction.

i pulled it back out when the new table came and wah-lah! it's perfect. it keeps her food in separate, neat, enticing sections. it also makes eating with ustensils less frustrating for her as it keeps the food and plate steady and still.
i will say though that hadley has figured out how to break the seal, remove it and dump all of her food on the floor. however, that phase {everything in toddler-land is just a phase} ended in about two days.
clean-up is a dream. i rinse it in the sink and dry it on the top rack of my dishwasher in between meals and then run it in my normal dishwasher cycle at night.
also, i'm TOTALLY not being paid to plug the happy-mat, but i did get an email with a discount code y'all can use:

code: 2KN6NKT

also, for posterity's sake, i wanted to make a list of all the things hadley's eats these days. it's a short list and variety is not her forte. she is happy to a bite or two of anything, but definitely has her favorites:

- eggs (2-3 per day)
- deli turkey and ham
- rotisserie chicken
- pb sandwiches
- string cheese
- provolone cheese
- strawberries
- mandarin oranges
- grapes
- cherry tomatoes
- peas
- carrots
- apple sauce pouches
- annie's graham bunnies
- go-gurt {'frozen' series- vanilla flurries and strawberry ice castle...jon lovvvves these too}
- velveeta shells and cheese- she usually eats this with us once a week
- leftover cold pizza- also about once a week, but she'll only eat it if it's a day old and cold.
- milk and water are still her only beverages. if i know my girl at all, i know you she will be obsessed with juice so i'm putting it off as long as possible. i mean, i friggin love juice too.

after reading this again, i think my goal for the next month needs to be to add at least one more vegetable and one more fruit. any suggestions are so, so welcome!



2 comments:

  1. Diced up carrots and sweet potatoes are always a fave over here bc they are sweet too! 👍

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  2. Also we cook both of them in the steamer to keep as much nutrients as possible bc all the nutrients aren't going into the water and then you add a little bit of butter to keep nutrients in your orange colored foods...squash too so that they keep the nutrients

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