Mmmmm Sweet Taters

The babies turned 6 months old on Sunday...holy cow I can't believe it! It's exciting and sad at the same time. They don't want to be held like little babies anymore, they try to sit up and Ben loves to stand on your lap. They are changing so much every day and I just love it!

Our pediatrician provided us with a feeding guide that recommends rice cereal between 4-5 months. We started at 5 and Will loved it, Ben not so much. So I took a break and tried again recently and he did much better. Last time Dan was home he built their high chairs and I think they like them. Ben is now on oatmeal since he has some tummy issues and rice can be constipating. Will will get oatmeal once the box of rice is done. I have been giving them 3 tbsp in the evening, about an hour after their dinner bottle. Yesterday, I gave the daycare the green light to feed them another 3 tbsp in the morning. The feeding guide recommends 4-6 tbsp a day for 5-6 months old so now that they're 6 months, I figure it's time to bring them up to the full serving. The best part is that daycare provides the cereal and bowls, spoons etc. so it's one less thing to pack, clean etc!

I went back and forth about what solid I wanted to start with them and did research, polled mommy friends etc. and decided on sweet potatoes. I plan to make my own baby food as often as I can, I'm not opposed to the jar food when it's necessary but nutrition and cost wise making it myself makes sense. Sweet potatoes were easy peasy! I bought 5 large ones and they were a dollar apiece. I wrapped them in foil and baked them for about an hour, I read that baking them helps to retain the most flavor and nutrients. I cut them in half, scooped out the "meat" once they had cooled and used my hand mixer to puree them with about 6 ounces of formula. Then I spooned them into ice cube trays and froze them. I filled almost 3 ice cube trays (2 tbsp each) so now I have about 50 servings of sweet taters!

I'm going to follow the one new food at a time recommendation and give them a week with the sweet potatoes before I try something else in the orange family, probably carrots. Then maybe squash and then move to greens; peas, green beans etc. Hopefully it continues to go well!

Last night we tried the taters for the first time since Dan was home and despite the faces Will kept making, I think they liked them!

I don't know about this mom...

Oh, I forgot...I love all food!

I'll eat it for you mommy :)

He better be getting the same thing over there!