Food Battles: The Toddler Years

For months DH and I have been engaged in food battles with Cameron. It was been a soul sucking experience that has resulted in parental disagreements, tears (on Cameron's part) and zero desire to approach the dinner table (all of us).

Part of the fault rests with us, I know. We can't get our crap together and have regular family dinners. Cameron does better with eating when we eat together but we typically serve something we know she will eat (pasta) and we have only been able to manage it 1-2 times a week. Even when we don't eat with her we are in the kitchen and usually at the table with her interacting and talking about our days.

I get it, I really do. Cameron is a picky eater. And I've struggled with food issues all my life so I can appreciate rejecting food for texture or appearance issues. But I want her to at least try the food before declaring she won't eat it. The crazy thing is that she eats a much wider variety of food at daycare but even if we serve her the same exact thing at home she rejects it. There are maybe 7-8 foods she will eat for dinner (aside from fruit). The lack of variety is frustrating and makes me feel like a parenting failure.

DH and I have been struggling with the appropriate tact to take in dealing with this issue. And it is an issue because instinctively Cameron knows that food equals control. Her rejection of new foods keeps us essentially fawning over her trying to get her to eat it. So my mindset now is that we just prepare the food for her (with 1 or 2 new foods mixed in with the standbys) give it to her and then refuse to engage. She doesn't eat it? Then it stays on her plate and she doesn't get dessert (we don't do dessert every night but have been using it as bribe lately which has been wildly unsuccessful). We haven't caved and cooked or given her alternate food in many months so that isn't a problem for us. It's more about curbing our impatience with Cameron's approach to food.

I would never punish Cameron for not eating because I know that leads to more food issues and frankly she is far too young for the whole "if you don't eat something then it's time for bed" type of discipline. But where do we go from here? Do we just grit our teeth and continue with the plan mentioned above? Are there other things you recommend we try?

Cute things Cameron has said lately

There has been a definite language explosion for Cameron over the past few weeks. She is basically speaking in complete sentences and can comprehend almost anything we say (I think). This has the added benefit of cutting down on the temper tantrums. However, Cameron has continued to pick up some not so great habits from daycare. We have managed to mostly wean her off of "Ye-ah" although for some reason she's transferred that Southern accent to the word "there." Another habit? Adding "ie" to the end of words which confuses us. Cameron has this habit of repeating what she says until we say it back to her. This is good because it gives us a chance to correct her pronunciation but bad because if we can't say it back to her because we don't understand her then Cameron gets mad. She was saying "dolly" this morning and I couldn't tell if she meant doggie, Charlie or daddy. I had to run through that entire list before I figured it out. In addition to dolly she is also saying birdie and doggie and a host of other words.

Here are a few cute things Cameron has said over the past week.

• "School! Almost there! I love school!" (as we pull into the parking lot of the daycare)



• "I love you, Charlie!" (an unprompted declaration of love)



• "We go to McDonald's and I get french fries!" (a special treat with DH out of town. Cameron basically just eats the fries.)



• "Bedtime soon." (we "prepare" Cameron for bedtime by counting down from 5 minutes. It has worked well and reduced temper tantrums. Plus she is definitely at the 7:30 bedtime now. I miss that 1/2 hour!)



• "I watch Oso!" (Cameron's new favorite show is Special Agent Oso)



• "Not hot now." (Sometimes her dinner is a little too hot so Cameron will blow on it and keep touching it until it is the right temperature for consumption.)



• "No, other baby" (Cameron has 2 real baby dolls and named them baby and other baby. We've tried to name them with real names but I suck at being inventive and never remember what we settled on. So baby and new baby they will continue to be.)



• "Do it again!" (A favorite refrain)



• "Yes, not ye-ah" (Cameron tells this to Jeremy when he accidentally said it. So funny!"



• "I baby." (when asked if she was a big girl or baby. Looks like we can't leverage the whole "a big girl does XYZ")



• "Off mommy's plate."

The last bullet point refers to an attempt (an inconsistent one) for family dinners. I cooked up some pasta and sauce for us last night and we sat at the kitchen table. I have learned that Cameron must have her plate look exactly like mine in order to eat her food. Otherwise she just wants mine. So I made sure that our plates looked the same and even cut up my pasta so I could cut hers (Giada would be appalled). She did pretty good for a while eating off her own plate but then it started. Cameron wanted to eat off of my plate. She still likes for us to feed her occasionally although she has mastered the eating with utensils (kind of).

We've limited "family" dinners to stuff I know she will eat. Anything pasta related, basically. I know I need to expand her palate but she is so damn picky! And she gets that from me. I'm better now (mostly) but I'm a big texture eater and I think that's what is holding Cameron back.

On a some what related note, we purchased a new booster seat. Our existing one was a travel one and folded up but accumulated crumbs like crazy. I love the one we picked up at Buy Buy Baby. There aren't straps but she is old enough now that we don't need them. It is a very simple design and can be easily cleaned. I highly recommend it and you can find it here.

I love the fact that I can interact with Cameron on a much higher level. We talk about our days (me asking her questions, her answering sometimes accurately, sometimes not) and she can clearly articulate what she wants. We are making a point of explaining things to her and validating her feelings which is what is ultimately driving this good behavior period. I'm sure it won't last long!

Toddler development and ongoing challenges

I know I’ve been bad at blogging lately filling the void with a lot of picture posts and not much content. But now that I’m back on my feet post-strep throat fiasco I thought it was time for a sharing of our current Cameron challenges. At 20 months old we are still struggling with hitting and biting. She is very good about not hitting and biting other kids. Mommy? Not so much. If DH or I deny her anything it’s a wide open mouth going for the chomp on an arm or a leg. Heck, sometimes even a boob! We’ve tried 1-2-3 with timeouts, yelling, ignoring, you name it, we’ve tried it. Except hitting or biting back of course. I’m just going to keep hoping this is a phase. It is a phase right? Just a long one?

Cameron and we are still addicted to the pacifier and I have no plans to remove it anytime soon. DH and I were both finger suckers. And I find that when Cameron doesn’t have her pacifier she sticks her hands in her mouth. We are trying to limit pacifier time to right before bed and only in the car and in the crib. Unfortunately that fell completely by the wayside during Thanksgiving (4 days of whining was enough to give plenty of lollypops and pacifiers) and my illness/DH’s travel. I feel some guilt for still having the reliance on the pacifier but I figure how many college students bring a pacifier with them to campus? Right? The problem is that Cameron now says “paci” and asks for it constantly. She’ll usually put a “please” after it which totally melts my heart. DH and I are trying to stand firm on limiting the paci time so please send us good thoughts.

Cameron still sleeps great for the most part. Usually she only cries when she has had a nightmare or is sick. Our biggest challenge in the sleep area has been keeping her warm enough. We bought a big fleece blanket to put in her crib and have done away with the sleep sacks. Cameron isn’t a big climber (watch me jinx us) so I’m not too worried about her climbing out of her crib. We have her in fleece footsie PJs and she won’t keep the blanket over her. Her feet are a little cold in the morning so perhaps I need to bite the bullet and order new fleece sleep sacks? Would it be a safety issue to use our little space heater?

Our biggest challenge by far has been eating. Cameron will usually eat whatever daycare serves but with us? No way, no how. We seriously serve the same meal every night for her. Fish sticks or chicken nuggets, some kind of potato (usually tots), green beans (occasionally carrots) and fruit. Sometimes she is gracious and will eat Annie O’s but only the plain O’s, nothing else. I think part of the problem is that she eats before us. But I don’t see that changing any time soon as she goes to bed by 7 PM. When I was sick I gave her pasta and had some with her but she wanted nothing to do with it. Should I just go ahead and serve her something and attempt to not worry when she eats nothing? Will she wake up hungry in the middle of the night? Or start waking up at 5:30 AM instead of 6:30? What is a parent to do??? Yes, I have food issues so nothing stresses me out more than not having Cameron eat.

DH and I guesstimate that Cameron knows as many as 100 words. It’s a very rough guesstimate. She says words back to us very clearly and now says Mommy and Daddy instead of Mama and Dada. Our problem is when Cameron initiates a conversation with us. 75% of the time we have no idea what she is saying. At this age they just don’t enunciate very clearly so most of the words sound the same. I’ve been trying the old, “Show me what you want” trick but Cameron usually just looks at me like I’m an idiot and just repeats herself. We’ll get there, I know, and when we do I’ll be lamenting the fact that I ever complained about not understanding her.

Finally TV watching and toilet training are non-existent at this point. What I wouldn’t give for Cameron to be interested in some TV for even five minutes at a time!! She has zero interest in it which makes it hard to get her dinner ready or small chores completed. Every time I try to duck into the kitchen there she is tugging on my pant leg whining, “Up, up”. Sometimes Mommy needs 5 minutes of alone time! That used to be bathroom time but we are attempted to indoctrinate Cameron into the wonders of toilets so she visits the bathroom with me. Not that it’s resulted in success. This weekend she said, “diaper” and DH checked it but it was fine. Two minutes later she said “diaper” again and there was poop! We were all excited at this signal and started running her to the potty whenever she said diaper. Biggest waste of time ever. If there was even one pee success I’d keep going but the taking off the diaper, trying to get her to sit still and then getting her dressed again is taking too much time and effort. So potty training won’t really get started until well after she turns two.

Parent’s of other toddlers, what else are you struggling with at this age?

Crap, guess it's time to start really parenting

I picked up Cameron from daycare on Tuesday and got to talk with her main teacher Miss Melba for a few minutes. In that time I learned two things:

1. For the third week in a row Cameron has consistently only been "resting" in her crib for her morning nap;
2. She screams and screeches if she isn't fed her meals or snacks first

The first one I can handle. I've been toying with the idea of bringing her down to one nap for a while. I've been resisting because she still sleeps 2-3 hours in the morning and another 1.5-2 hours in the afternoon on the weekends. But going down to one nap will allow us more flexibility in our day, a good thing now that we have joined a local community center. Cameron has also been extremely tired in the evenings which has pushed her bedtime up to 6:30 PM. Now that I will be commuting from uptown (with a daycare drop off in the opposite direction) I probably won't get home until 6 PM. It would be nice if we can put her down at 7:00 PM instead. I'm hopeful that Miss Melba speaks truly and by eliminating the morning "resting" period Cameron will sleep 2+ hours in the afternoon. As it stands now, she just sleeps for an hour which is not enough and hence the 6:30 PM bedtime. Please speak up if you have any advice about going down to one nap. Also, has anyone maintained a one nap schedule in daycare but two at home successfully?

It's the second item on the list that has concerned and caused me to run out to buy a book recommended by Laura, "Your One Year Old: The Fun Loving, Fussy 12-To-24 Month Old." OK, maybe I snuck in a few books for me with the order but hey, that way I qualified for free super shipping :-)

I've noticed that Cameron has definitely entered the feisty, fussy stage, especially when it comes to food. Part of it is our fault. We will give her some green beans or fruit while waiting for the rest of her dinner to heat up and cool down enough for her to eat. That means she is receiving her meal in piecemeal fashion which causes her to screech when she sees stuff she didn't like and not stuff she does. As of three nights ago we are now making an effort to get her food ready in its entirety before giving it to her. Then when she starts screeching and throwing her food, she is "all done" and down she comes. I still hate that she doesn't eat much in the evenings so we are still using the evening bottle as a crutch. I expect that to be phased out by the end of the month at the latest. She is still getting her molars in so I don't want to push it. Honest question for my readers, "How long did you/will you give your child a bottle?" I figure if Suri Cruise still has one at 3 years old I'm OK with phasing it out around month 14.

Basically what it comes down to is that I don't want a wild child. I don't think that Miss Melba related Cameron's mannerism as a reproach to me (or wait, maybe she did???) but I did see it as an area that we should be working on with Cameron. Especially if she ends up being an only child she will need to learn how to share. I guess part of me hoped that daycare would help with that (and it will) but we need to be doing things at home to reinforce it as well. Full honesty here: I also don't feel quite ready to really parent, you know what I mean? Toddlerhood may have more sleep for me but it certainly has it's own stressors, doesn't it? I'll let you know what I think about the book but as always, any and all advice or commiseration is welcome!

It's only a phase but how long of a phase?

Despite only turning 1 yesterday, Cameron has been in full on toddler mode for the past 2 weeks. She has been constantly doing the following things:

• Crying. And not just whining crying. No, instead she brings out the streaming tears and the quivering lip. She cries when she wakes up from a nap. She cries when she goes down for a nap. She cries when she is put in her car seat or taken out of it. And of course she bawls when I put her down or walk away for a minute. She even cries when DH picks her up instead of me.
• Refusing to eat. I try to follow the advice and give Cameron 4 foods, two of which she will usually eat and two new/nutritious options. I usually give her the carb/veggie options first because if I put the fruit down then she would eat nothing but the fruit. But of course Cameron is smart and whines and cries and after about 10 minutes of waiting for her to eat the non-fruit option I put the fruit down on her tray. She scarves it down and whines for more. So obviously the girl is hungry!
• Throwing food. Related to refusing to eat. If Cameron doesn't like the food it becomes a projectile launched at the ground. And the girl has an arm. Dropped food is no longer relegated to the immediate vicinity. Charlie likes that because he is a wimp and refuses to come over the wood laminate floor and eat the dropped food right around the high chair. We say "no" in firm voices but Cameron will just laugh and do it again.

The food issues in particular are concerning for me because we're trying to eliminate bottles. We've successfully brought her down to 3 bottles a day and I have a feeling that I can remove the breakfast bottle next week. That still leaves the 3 PM and the 6:30 PM ones. Cameron eats so little for dinner that I wonder if we'll be able to ever eliminate the 6:30 bottle!

I'm looking for validation, advice and commiseration....please tell me I will get back my happy, smiling, laughing baby sometime soon!

And then there were two

DH and I took yesterday off from work because his sister is in town to help us with some landscaping work/garden clean up. I managed to negotiate him dropping Cameron off in the morning so I could sleep in. We have these new curtains in our room and roller shades (instead of those crappy white blinds) and the room is pitch black even in the sunniest of mornings. Boy, is it hard to get up when the entire room is shrouded in darkness!

Because we hung out at a neighbor's house the evening before normal chores, like putting together and labeling Cameron's daycare bottles, didn't get done. DH packed Cameron off and whisked her to daycare, only to find that no bottles were in her bag. I had actually thought about that but didn't mention it to DH when he got up. Rolling over and snuggling into my pillow was a much better idea. Plus, he's a pro so he wouldn't forget, right? Obviously wrong....

I have been toying with the idea of phasing out bottles for Cameron. My plan was to eliminate the 11 AM this week and the 3 PM one next week. Guess what? We went cold turkey instead. I took it as a sign from above and didn't bother to zip over with the bottles. Instead her teachers would feed her from a sippy cup and my hope is that eventually we can just phase the 50/50 formula/milk split to 100% milk and then just have sippy cups for snacks and meals.

Cameron will be 12 months next week (I know!) so the timing seemed good. I have a feeling I'll leave the AM/PM bottles for a while longer until she is completely comfortable with all types of finger foods. How about the rest of you? How have you or do you plan to phase out bottles?

Current Cameron challenges

We really are in a wonderful stage so don't let the title of this post fool you! But like all parents, nothing is ever perfect. First of all, diarrhea was the name of the game with the antibiotic she has been on for the double ear infection. What did that result in? A truly terrible case of diaper rash. Cameron has had very slight cases over the last 10 months but this....this defies words. It it everywhere. And it's not just red, it is truly a rash with the bumps and the swelling. Poor thing. She has been tolerating it well but aside from putting diaper rash cream on every day, is there something else you would recommend?

Another challenge with Cameron is her lack of napping at daycare. Yes, I know I sound like a broken record but it is starting to really impact our evening time. Cameron has usually been napping just once a day and an hour isn't enough. On the weekends she sleeps 2 hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. 1/5 of her normal time is miserable for her, me and DH. DH whisks her home and put her right to bed, usually around 4:30 PM. Cameron sleeps for an hour and I go wake her up. Wake a sleeping baby? Damn right. I refuse to impact her 7 PM bedtime. I need downtime too! Cameron is clingy and whiny and doesn't want to eat anything other than her bottle, fruit and goldfish. If I leave the room for a minute she starts full on bawling. It's distressing. Any advice?

Cameron is also going through a big mommy phase. I am trying to mitigate it as much as possible by passing her off to DH but it's harder in the evenings because of how tired and cranky she is. Has anyone successfully managed the mommy phases? I at least don't want her to cry when passing her off!

Lastly we are starting to see the refusal and throwing of food off the highchair tray. I put some pasta down in front of Cameron the other day and she picked up the entire clump and threw it right down. I'll also see her sneak her hand down next to her side to drop other pieces of food onto the chair itself. Smart, crafty little girl. I read Child of Mine and want to adhere to its recommendations that I as the parent provide the food and it is up to Cameron to eat. But I totally cave because I hate to see her eat nothing for dinner which is oftentimes what would happen if I didn't put out more Cameron friendly food. How have other parents handled this? Keep in mind she's only 11 months....is it really time to start those food battles?

Monday Mommy Musings

Cameron has her first case of pink eye. I'm sure I'm not alone in hoping we could have avoided this milestone for many more years. DH is bringing her to the doctor this morning and he'll be on baby duty until I get home tonight. I think this is the first time he's had her alone for an entire day (vs. in the mornings and evenings when I'm traveling) so please wish him luck. I'm more concerned about having to put drops in Cameron's eyes. This is a baby who refused to take sugary sweet Tylenol or Motrin. I can't imagine how bad it will be to keep her eye pried open while squeezing drops into it. Fun times, I'm sure.

Probably the worst part? I didn't know Cameron had pink eye so we went to Holden's birthday party and interact with 3 other babies. Sorry, moms! I did the responsible thing and emailed them and I hope that there wasn't too much cross-contamination of germs. Update: Cameron looked fine this morning except for a scratch underneath her eye. So we dropped her off at daycare per usual with the hope that we don't get the dreaded pick up call.

We're slowly introducing milk in Cameron's bottles. 2 ounces milk, 4 of formula. After a week I'll go to 50%, and so on. She should be close to 100% whole milk by the time we go for her 12 month well appointment. In other fun eating news, Cameron is now refusing to eat anything that is jarred food related (yogurt is out, for example). It looks like the 8-10 jars we have left are going to get donated. We'll also probably end up with at least 1/2 of a tub of formula too. I hate throwing out that stuff...it's so expensive.

Standing...always standing. That is Cameron's new mantra. Cuddling with mommy? No way. And let's not forget - she can do it by herself. No help necessary or wanted. It has resulted in quite a few head bumps and bruises but that's why they make skulls so hard, right? Last night was the first where Cameron decided she wanted to stand in the tub while taking a bath. Aside from some initial nervousness about slipping and whacking her head I actually kind of preferred it. It was so much easier to soap her up in all the right spots. Bath toys have become a must and the little squirters are the best.

Finger nail clipping has become a pain in the ass. Cameron has a couple of scratches on her face because it's a battle for me to clip even one nail at a time. I miss those days of clipping away while she was breastfeeding. Does anyone have any advice on how to make the nail clipping process a little easier?

Another challenge for us is hair. Cameron has the mullet going but because her back hair is curly you can't tell. But I'm more concerned about the hair falling down into her eyes. Daycare sent her home with a Pebbles ponytail (with a rubber band!) and I took it as a message. The only problem is that I can't find good hair fasteners that will stay put and not interfere with napping or be a choking hazard for the other kids when it eventually falls out. I'm adamant about not cutting her hair. Not because I want to be like Celine Dion or Kate Hudson but more because once you start cutting bangs you either need to keep doing it or deal with the pain of growing it out later. Goddess In Progress wrote about this in January and I'm hoping once Cameron's hair gets longer things will be easier. Anyone else have advice?

Tuesday randomness

Yesterday Cameron's daycare was closed until 9 AM. I am still flabbergasted that a minor ice storm (aka wintery mix) on Friday night resulted in a complete shut down until today. At least I was able to get Cameron to daycare at a reasonable hour and could chug through the rest of my work day. Many other parents weren't so lucky. Question for my readers, how do you decide who stays home with your kid(s) when they are sick or daycare is closed and you both have to work? DH and I have been trading off depending on work schedules. But we both hope it is a rare occurrence in general.

My friends know how much I love a "meet cute" movie which is why Lifetime is such a good movie channel for me. DH makes fun of me constantly for it. Usually I don't tape the Danielle Steel or other crime/romance stories but I love, love, love the contrived work/romance situations. The required ingredients include: couple meets cute, series of misunderstandings, multiple montage scenes, some kind of big speech, and happily ever after epilogue scene. If I'm really lucky then it also includes a dance scene. Movies that fall into this category include: 13 Going on 30, The Cutting Edge, Enchanted, etc. So I was thrilled to come across a commercial for Lying To Be Perfect. Before you ask, I only see these commercials during Project Runway or re-runs of How I Met Your Mother. If you like cheesy movies as much as me I recommend you add it to your DVR list. Totally cute!

I'm about halfway through a great book about kids and eating that Laura recommended: Child of Mine. It's already helped re-adjust my mindset about feeding Cameron. The biggest takeaway for me? Cameron is responsible for eating. Yup. Seems like common sense, right? But between breastfeeding, pumping, bottles and all the rest I ended up in a bad place thinking that I needed to be able to control how much and when she eats. Now I know better. So thanks to Laura for her recommendation!

I recently opened a savings account with BigFinance. DH and I already had a checking account but because of a few special offers and other considerations (despite a piss poor interest rate) I decided to open a savings account too. When I set it up online I didn't have DH's social security number handy so I opened it by myself and planned to add him later. The catch? I can't just add him online or through the phone. Nope, they have to mail me a form that we sign and send back and about two weeks later he can see the savings account information online. I'm also annoyed because they sent me a separate ATM card. Um, why can't it be linked to my current checking account? So I have to carve out some time to call and figure it all out.

In good bureaucracy news I receive my new passport. I think it took about 3 weeks total between mailing the completed form and receiving my new and old one back. So I have to give it up to the US State Department. Good job guys! Now if I have to flee the country I don't have to file for an expedite. Question: have any of you gotten passports for your kids? How does that work? I assume exactly the same way but it expires faster?

Enough randomness for the day...I'm off to go wrangle BigFinance. Wish me luck!

Dropping bottles - advice requested

When DH and I took Cameron in for her 9 month well appointment her doctor told us that we should start pushing the sippy cup more because starting at around 11 months we should begin phasing out bottles.

I mentioned at the time that the thought of removing bottles made me very nervous. I've already blogged about my stress and control issues when it comes to Cameron eating and I'm not sure if being unable to monitor the exact consumption of ounces is a good thing or a bad thing for my peace of mind. Regardless, the idea of dropping bottles has been percolating in my head since that appointment and I have spent time thinking about which bottles and how I will drop them. Unfortunately I have made no progress in coming up with any decisions or plans.

Last week Cameron was sick and since she felled me with the same illness I completely understood (retroactively of course) why she didn't want to drink any more than 10 ounces a day. Our new challenge this week is that Cameron has refused to drink more than 1-2 ounces for her first bottle of the day. It's possible that it could be due to teething...soon our little munchkin will have 6 (!) teeth or she could be voicing her preference to drop the first bottle of the day from her feeding schedule.

As a first time mom I have no idea. 10 months is a little early to start dropping bottles (right?) but I need to start my planning process if this refusal of bottles continues. How have you handled dropping bottles from your baby's eating routine? Cameron still isn't eating enough to cover her nutritional needs via the finger foods so I assume I need to be significantly supplementing through baby food. Or is that a bad assumption? Somehow this struggle with changing eating patterns is doing nothing for my resolution to stress less about what/how much Cameron eats. Help!

Edited: Mommy, Esq. wanted me to tell everyone that Cameron gets breakfast at daycare around 8 AM and is usually awake around 6:30 or 6:45 AM. In case that influences your responses!

Sunday snapshots

This weekend I stole a few hours to do some shopping for Cameron. It is so much more fun to shop for her than myself! Kohl's was having a great sale with some stuff up to 70% off for kids. I hadn't even been planning to go into the store (isn't that always the way?) but I had something to return and Babies 'R Us was very lacking in fleece PJs and socks.

As of today all of Cameron's 9 month clothing has been put away and she's been moved into her 12 month clothes. I love it because it means all new outfits for me to enjoy. Cameron could care less, of course...the pants are still a bit long but she can still crawl around with no problem.

Yes, she really is adorable, isn't she? No, I'm not biased! We've had to start putting clips in her hair to keep it out of her eyes. It usually only lasts an hour or two before falling out. But at least she doesn't pull it out herself.

Our friends, Pat and Nikki, sent along this adorable Adidas outfit. Cameron is ready for her professional sports career to start!
As you can see, the squinty look has become a favorite of Cameron's when the camera is whipped out. She's quite the ham. DH and I try to present a lot of options for finger foods but Cameron always prefers her carbs. I can put a new kind of food in front of her and she will only pop it in her mouth if it is carb related. Otherwise it takes 6-7 introductions for a new food before she puts it in her mouth to try it. Then it is a 50/50 chance if Cameron will actually like it.

Despite her pickiness with finger food Cameron has always been fascinated with Charlie's food. One day, we let her indulge herself. Watch and enjoy!

Her royal whiny pants

DH and I have had a nice, quiet holiday season. We hosted some neighbors on Christmas Eve and went over to another neighbor's house for appetizers and wine on Christmas. We've also enjoyed a lot of quality time with Cameron which would have been a lot nicer except for one thing. She whines. Constantly.

If we are out and about then she is distracted by everything going on around her. But get Miss Cameron home and she starts whining. She has also decided that Mommy is the be all and end all. Not exactly fun for me! I can't figure out if she is trying to get to some new developmental place or if she is just going through a needy phase. Cameron is still commando crawling and has started standing a lot more (with our help) but doesn't seem to want to or need to make the leap to full on crawling or tentative steps.

We've been giving her a lot of finger foods but lately she has decided that she doesn't want to supplement with any jarred food. And of course she prefers the Cheerios and goldfish crackers to any other kind of food. If she's whining I can usually shut her up for a couple of minutes with some snacks.

She whines when she's crawling across the floor. She whines when I'm holding her. She whines when she's in her Pack 'N Play (we finally broke down and broke it out to help corral her). She whines as she's being rocked. Is it any wonder that I'm looking forward to work tomorrow?

Introducing finger foods

When we took Cameron to the doctor's on Friday we were told that she is ready for finger foods. And that we need to push the sippy cup so that we can start to phase out bottles in a couple of months.

Our doctor also informed us that Cameron will probably start fighting us on bottles and jarred baby food because they will be "boring" for her. Apparently Cameron was listening in because that very night she adamantly refused to eat her jarred food and drank only half of her bottle. It continued in this vein throughout the weekend. We made a grocery trip on Sunday to stock up on toddler-type finger foods because it's not like we had any in the house. Veggies, fruits, deli meats and cheese later we realized that the entire grocery trip was just to get her food.

With her lunch I started giving her pieces of the foods we bought. Per usual she really only played with the food. If it's not a puff, Cheerio or cracker it's like she doesn't understand she's supposed to pick it up and put it in her mouth. And forget about putting it in her mouth for her. Cameron's lips clamp shut and she frantically shakes her head from side to side. She also does this when I'm trying to teach her to sip out of her sippy cup. After one particularly bad meal I looked at DH in despair and said, "Perhaps daycare can help?" He readily agreed.

Daycare basically taught Cameron how to eat jarred baby food. It's not that we weren't capable of doing it (well, the jury is still out on that) it's that they have Cameron for two meals a day 5 times a week. And they've trained babies how to eat many, many more times than us novices. So yesterday I brought a sippy cup to her room and asked them to start giving it to her with mealtimes. Last night? She picked up the cup and put it in her mouth twice unassisted. Damn. They are like the baby whisperers. Cameron still doesn't really "drink" out of the cup but she's much farther along after only one day with them.

I can also select off the toddler menu things for Cameron to try with her breakfast and lunch. The school still supplements with jarred food to make sure she gets her nutrients and that was what I was doing as well over the weekend. Up first today? Pineapple, pears and broccoli. Yummy.

Some might call DH and I lazy or bad parents for outsourcing the teaching of solid foods. I argue that we are still supplementing her education at night and on the weekends. I can't decide if I am particularly proud or embarrassed about my approach to teaching Cameron how to eat. So what do you think? Am I just riding the wave of the outsourcing future or am I giving away too much control?

I'll miss you Snap and Go....

As a part of our staycation we decided it would be a lot of fun to drive 25 miles to Babies 'R Us and drop hundreds of dollars on 2 car seats and a stroller. We purchased two Evenflo Symphony car seats. Right now they are rear facing but forward facing they go up to 65 pounds. DH managed to install it with a minimum amount of swearing so I think that speaks highly for ease of installation.

For a stroller I focused on lightness and maneuverability. We ended up selecting the Graco MetroLite.

Now that the two car seats are installed I am facing the fact that strapping Cameron into her car seat and lugging her to the car is a thing of the past. Given her weight, that isn't a bad thing. However, I also need to unbuckle her and buckle her into her stroller if we run errands together. That is going to be annoying. Especially in bad weather.

I'll write more about likes and dislikes of the car seats and stroller once we've had a chance to test them out more fully. Meanwhile, Cameron had her 9 month doctor's appointment today. She is 28 3/4 inches long (75%) and 18 pounds, 10 ounces (60%). Her doctor talked with us about incorporating many more finger foods and starting to wean her off baby solid foods and bottles. When her doctor told us that in two months we should start phasing out bottles I looked at DH and said, "No! I'm not ready for that!"

Instead of the ease of bottles and jarred baby food I now need to really think about what Cameron eats and start introducing new foods. Plus it means she's growing up. Sniff. I am so not ready for this.

It would be easier if she took a feed bag

For the past couple of months Cameron and I have been in a pretty good groove with her feeding schedule. It was far from perfect but it seemed to work in getting her to nap twice a day for 2 hours and sleep through the night. So really, what more can I ask for?

But of course Cameron doesn't just come from me. No, no. She also has a wide streak of her father in her. DH and I are diametrically opposed when it comes to food and eating. Me? Never met a carb I didn't like. I would rather cut off my arm than miss breakfast. I require breakfast, lunch AND dinner or I become a crazed, grumpy woman. DH on the other hand can sometimes go from breakfast to dinner skipping lunch entirely. When I poke him about what he had for lunch that day I get the following responses:

• "I was too busy to eat." Um, I would make myself un-busy just to eat. Otherwise I would be distracted by the constant grumbling of my tummy.
• "I wasn't hungry." Freak.
• "I forgot." Seriously? Who forgets to eat?

For many months I had an unhealthy fascination with the amount of food going into Cameron's system. I limited my stressing when I was breastfeeding because it's not like I really knew how many ounces she was eating. But when I moved to primarily pumping and then formula feeding I felt my Type A personality rear its ugly head. Despite this Cameron and I got into a groove where she would eat most of her bottle and I would count up the number of ounces she ate over the course of the day and not-so-silently seethe if she dropped below 20 ounces.

Flash forward to this week at day care. Cameron has decided that she doesn't want to eat at least 1/2 of two of her bottles most likely because they were too close together. So last night I made the executive decision that we are changing up her feeding schedule dramatically. Instead of 5 bottles at 5 ounces we are now moving to 4 bottles of six ounces.

Cameron has consistently eaten 6 ounces for her first bottle of the day so 6 ounces appears to be doable as a bottle size. Her new schedule (fingers crossed!) will be:

• 6:45 AM - 6 ounces
• 8 AM - solids
• 9 AM - nap
• 11:00 AM - 6 ounces
• 12 PM - solids
• 2 PM - nap
• 3 PM - 6 ounces
• 5 PM - nap (she really only needs this during daycare days because she doesn't nap well there)
• 6 PM - 6 ounces
• 6:30 - solids?

My biggest issue with the new schedule will be on the weekends. Cameron usually naps 2 - 4 PM which would screw things up. The other general problem will be fitting in the last solids of the day.

What I really like about this new schedule is that it gets us out of the habit of a bottle at bedtime. Now DH and I can create a new bedtime routine with books instead of bottles. Yay for reading! Anyone else able to swing four 6 ounce bottles with two 2 hour naps? When can I stop stressing about food with Cameron? Or is this just the start of a years long battle?

Friday Photos

First off let me wish my wonderful grandmother, Mimi, a very happy birthday. I would tell you her age but she would kick my butt!

This week has been challenging for me work-wise. Lots of issues with my projects and lots of waiting around for other people to get their jobs done. So it has been absolutely wonderful to spend an hour or two with Cameron before she goes down for bed.

Cameron is now sitting up for a few minutes at a time. She still isn't quite steady on her own so I have piled two boppies behind her for extra support.

What I love the most about this picture is that it highlights the double chin. My little chunk monster!
Like her daddy, Cameron is not a fan of peas.

Here is a video DH took while feeding Cameron. You will see two distinct favorite actions: the head shake and the raspberry.

Time to start saving for those braces

Apparently I picked the worst time ever to do cry it out with Cameron. She has been fighting a cold and teething. My excuse? I only knew about the cold. Yup, last night I discovered that Cameron has her first tooth! I let her suck on my finger and there it was. A teeny, tiny tooth just poking out from her gums.

I have mentioned in a few other posts about the dramatic reduction in Cameron's ounces. Turns out that part of the reason was due to teething. She had a much better day yesterday with 24 ounces. I guess once that tooth popped through she felt much better and wanted to eat again.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not that we didn't have much sign that Cameron was teething. I did suspect that something was up and gave her some Motrin for the last two nights. But she didn't chew on things more frequently or start drooling more than normal. She only woke up once a night smooshed up against her crib railing and needing a little rescue. Nothing that would indicate that my baby is now sporting a single bottom tooth.

I guess DH and I are just blessed with a happy, healthy baby who isn't bothered by little things like teething or ear infections. And here's hoping I didn't just curse us by writing that down! Cameron continues her trend of being perfectly average with her first tooth just after she passed the six month mark. I wonder how quickly it's mate will pop in?

Now I understand Mommy, Esq. a little better

We continue to make minor advances with cry it out. Cameron only fussed from 4:30 to 6:30 AM. But her latest trick is to refuse eating. Yup, my child has decided that bottles are not for her. I still have breast milk that she's eating in addition to formula and she is refusing both equally. So my guilt (damn you, mommy guilt!) over stopping breastfeeding is somewhat mitigated.

Yesterday Cameron ate only 4 ounces at daycare plus two solid feedings. For the past two weeks it has been a struggle to get her to eat her bottles in general but it was never as bad as what happened yesterday. I've been sending her in with 4 ounce bottles, down from her high of 5 ounces, with the hope that a slight reduction in amount coupled with stretching it out to 3 1/2 or 4 hours (from 3 hour increments) would get her to "clean her plate." No such luck.

If I'm lucky Cameron will take 6 ounces in the morning for me, 8 ounces at daycare and another 7 ounces (split between two bottles) at night. That's only 21 ounces! Gah. So frustrating. This is what Mommy, Esq. has been dealing with for over a year? I'm already sick of worrying about it and it's only been a couple of weeks for us!

I talked with her teacher today and said that if Cameron didn't finish her first bottle that she shouldn't be offered a solid food lunch. Perhaps that will help? My concern is that I know she should be getting the majority of nutrients from bottles, not solid food. And frankly, she should be hungry for it! It's not like she is getting a ton of solid food. 1/2 jar plus an equal amount of rice cereal. It is certainly not enough to sustain her alone.

It would be nice if I wasn't worrying about this alone but DH seems to think it's not a big deal. True, if it happened only once or twice I wouldn't be as concerned but it's been weeks. Has anyone else been down this path? I expected that Cameron would be up to 6 ounce bottles at this point, not down to 4! Please tell me that it will get better....

Welcome to Fall, where exactly did Summer go?

I can't believe that today is the first official day of Fall. It feels like just yesterday I was pregnant and eagerly counting the days down until Spring and Cameron would arrive. Of course Fall in North Carolina isn't exactly like it was in New England. For starters it's supposed to hit 80 degrees today. Surprisingly we have started to lose leaves off the trees, mostly because it has been dipping down into the 50s at night. Perfect sleeping weather.

Speaking of sleeping, Cameron is basically sleeping through the night. She still requires swaddling and the occassional pacifier insertion but she's good for 11-12 hours. Woo hoo! Of course that's probably because she doesn't nap at daycare but that's a whole other post. We had a brief blip when she came down with a cold. Normally I'm not a worrying but her weezing was troubling so I decided to hit up the pediatrician. I took her to the doctor's (yay for Sunday hours!) and found out that her weezing would go away on its own and she didn't have RSV but she had an ear infection. Uh oh. Is this the start of recurring ear infections? I hope not although I suffered from them extensively as a child. Nice to see that my months of breastfeeding helped her to avoid illness [eye roll]. It was odd because she displayed no signs of an ear infection. No rubbing. No ear tugging. Nothing. I can only hope that she reacts that well once she finally starts teething.

In other news, Cameron is slowly adjusting to formula. She definitely still prefers the defrosted breastmilk but I got her to suck down 6 oz of formula this morning. We also switched to Level 2 nipples. We only have 4 so I have to pick up more. One of the reasons I wanted to switch nipple flows is because Cameron has been reducing the amount of liquids she takes and I'm hopeful she will take more if it's less work. True, she eats 3 pretty big meals a day (usually 2 jars or one jar + equal amount of rice cereal per feeding) but she's down to 24 ounces a day. Has anyone else experienced this? Should I be concerned? More importantly does less liquid mean she may stop sleeping through the night? Yes, that last one is really the most important.

Solid food, rolling, growth, oh my!

I swear that we returned with a completely different baby than the one we left with for vacation. Aside from Cameron's sweet disposition and ongoing refusal to nap at daycare, that is. Even her daycare commented on how much she changed in two weeks. In the past three days we have moved her car seat straps up, seen her rotate around in her exersaucer on her own, roll over (both directions!), and be really introduced solid food. Phew! It's been a whirlwind. And she is very close to sitting up on her own.

Apparently Cameron had a really big growth spurt while on vacation. I didn't notice because I was doing a lot more breastfeeding and started taking Reglan (woo hoo for drugs!) to increase my milk supply. Now Cameron looks absolutely chubby and has probably doubled the amount of hair on her head. As DH commented, "It's like she is a real person!"

I decided to let daycare do a lot of the heavy lifting with teaching Cameron how to eat. She gets rice cereal for breakfast and rice cereal plus some other food (sweet potatoes and pears for now) for lunch. I just introduced dinner (also rice plus other) with the hope of cutting out one of her bottles (she's still eating off me or bottles 7x a day). I can hardly believe that after only two days of solid food at daycare she already can scarf down the dinner I'm feeding her. Amazing! She cutely sticks out her tongue when preparing for another bite of food.

What do you think? Does she look chubbier and/or bigger to you?And look at that full head of hair! Cameron still has a small bald spot on the back of her head but I'm sure that will disappear once she starts sitting up on her own.