Bennett's Love/Hate Relationship

Bennett has started to dislike his baby food. I really noticed it today for the first time during supper. I made him oats with pear pineapple and then tried to feed him some sweet potatoes and carrots and he didn't eat really any of it. He kept waving his hands in front of his face and pursing his lips as I approached him with each spoonful. I started giving him little pieces of my enchilada (tiny pieces of wrap, hamburger, and rice) and he acted like he was starving.

The same went for lunch today. Ethan and I had turkey sandwiches cut into triangles and cottage cheese. I had already attempted to give Bennett baby food, but when I started tearing a quarter of the sandwich up in tiny pieces, he dug right in! Ate the entire quarter minus the crust and had around 3 tablespoons of cottage cheese.

For snack this afternoon my mom tried to give him puffs- but he didn't really want those, he wanted the good stuff. She finally gave him a club cracker and some raisins cut in half. Again, ate those like they were going out of style.

That stinker is growing up! I always like this stage when they are starting to really get into "big people" food, but it is always a transition too because it seems harder to gage exactly how much they are eating. Do all of those little bits of banana come out to as much as a #2 baby food jar of bananas?:)

I'm also noticing that he is taking after Ethan in that he TAKES FOREVER to eat and will seem to want to eat FOREVER!!! BUT, he just learned the sign for "All Done" so that is fun! He still won't do it independently, but if you ask him if he is all done and show him the sign, he will do it. It just amazes me all the kid can eat even without a single tooth in that sweet grin of his. However, I do know (from painful breastfeeding experience- ouch) that his gums seem about as strong as regular chompers- which brings me to another topic- nursing.

I feel like I am begging Bennett to nurse. He flat out does not want to, and to tell me so he bites me and pulls away, as mentioned earlier. I feel like crying and throwing him across the bed all at the same time!:) Anyway, I'm frustrated, and I think he feels frustrated with it too. I guess I will just continue to nurse him when he feels like it (which still happens to be in the middle of the night), and I think that we are going to introduce whole milk (already had Dr. Nau's permission) soon. I worry about him getting the fats that he needs for his brain development.

And I thought the second kid would be easier to figure out...