Squirrels and Ava

There is one thing that Ava has in common with squirrels...they both love acorns. Well, Ava's is in the form of ORGANIC ACORN SQUASH, not really acorns, but they're shaped the same.



Tonight, we fed Ava Holt organic acorn squash for the first time (actually, it was Ava's Aunt Casey that got to do the honors). The first bite induced a funny face and a quick shake, but she was smitten with the new treat by the second bite. The little girl managed to eat 4 ounces of acorn squash followed by 2 ounces of pears! She would have kept eating had we allowed her to, despite her burgeoning belly. I don't think her stomach tells her brain that she's full--either that, or she has a huge baby tummy!



After feasting on the acorn squash and pears, Ava was in a food coma. She was 'fat, dumb, and happy' and was content to just sit and play with her toys. She was so cute and happily full!

C is for Carrots

On Thursday, May 8th, Ava tried carrots for the first time. She LOVED them. Here is a picture of her before her introduction to the carrots and then a video of her reactions during the feeding. She's such a great eater...

So much for clean dishes

Back in the end of April, Ava wanted to help me wash the dishes in the kitchen...but I ended up doing double the washing because one of us kept grabbing the clean dishes and putting them in her mouth. She was a big fan of the coffee mug lids and the red spatula...

Food Allergy #1

Last night we introduced Ava to some new foods. We know that you're supposed to introduce each of them with 4 day intervals in between foods, but our pediatrician said that we should be able to introduce one vegetable and one fruit at a time and be okay. Since we started giving Ava solids, we've started off giving her a vegetable first, then some oatmeal cereal mixed with breast milk and water, and then giving her a fruit for dessert. Well, after Ava scarfed down her peas, we opted to skip the oatmeal (she's been a bit distended since starting on solids, so we figured we'd try not to clog up her intestines any more than they already are). Instead of the oatmeal we gave her a little bit of smashed up avocado. Well, she HATED it. I don't blame her, as it took me 21 years to like it and I'll only eat it as guacamole. So, after only one bite of the pureed avocado, we threw it in the sink...no big deal.

So, we were on to the homemade peach puree that I had made yesterday (just baked peaches in water that I pureed). Matt was feeding Ava the peaches and as he was doing so, he commented that Ava had made the strangest face--one that he had never seen before. She's given some pretty funny faces when given a new food, so he just figured that was what the funny face was for. Then, all of a sudden he asked me if Ava looked funny. I moved over and looked at her head and I told him that it looked like it was turning bright red. Matt threw the peaches down on the counter and told me to call the ER because Ava was having an allergic reaction. From the front, Ava's eyes were starting to swell and turn bright red and her face and head were starting to break out in splotchy hives. Matt picked Ava up to make sure that she was breathing okay while I was on the phone. Standard military hospital--the phone rang for about what seemed like 5 minutes. Matt told me to just hang up the phone, as no one ever answered and Ava's symptoms were starting to go away. While this was all happening, I was having a panic attack and couldn't do anything. I literally froze. I was a wreck, so Matt was trying to deal with my hysteria and Ava. Poor guy. I just kept thinking that she was going to die or stop breathing and I kept asking him what we should do. (As you can see, it was a blessing that Matt was at home with me, as I'm not so useful when I'm in shock). Since the redness and hives were going away and her eyes were starting to go back to their normal size, Matt and I decided not to go to the ER.

Here are pictures that I took of Ava eating her peaches before we realized she was allergic to them...

Ava was still hungry, but we weren't sure what she was allergic to--the peas, the avocado, or the peaches. So, since we still had a little bit of peas left, Matt started giving them to her again. There weren't any instant physical reactions to the peas, so we ruled them out. Since she hated the avocado the first time, we didn't want to torture her again, so we opted to omit them from the study. So, it was time for the peaches. Ava opened her mouth up nice and wide and ate a big bite of the peaches. Then Matt gave her another bite of peaches...and the redness suddenly appeared, Ava's eyes started to swell and get watery, and her head started to break out in hives again. Luckily, she wasn't having any problems breathing, so we just monitored her for a while to make sure that she was okay and after about 5 minutes, all of her symptoms went away.

Here are pictures that I took of Ava after feeding her a bite of peaches for the second time. You can see that her lower eyelids are red and puffy...

Here is a shot of her poor head where she was breaking out in hives...
Here she is after her hives and all the puffiness and redness started to go away...


So, last night we learned that Ava is ALLERGIC to PEACHES. We are very lucky and blessed that Ava didn't have a more serious or fatal reaction.

Peas Please

On Tuesday, May 6th, Ava ate ORGANIC PEAS for the first time. Like all the other foods we've offered her, she loved them. Here's our princess gobbling down her peas. She's a big supporter of Whirrled Peas...

Sweet Taters and Pears

On Sunday, May 4th, Ava had her first taste of ORGANIC SWEET TATERS. After doing so well with the green beans, we decided to move along to something of a different color...sweet taters. Ava absolutely LOVED her sweet taters. I was very surprised at how good they tasted (I ate sweet taters for the first time this past Thanksgiving) when homemade and plain. Growing up, I never tried the sweet potato casserole during the holidays because 1) I thought they looked gross 2) I knew they were made with eggs and 3) I don't like marshmallows. So, this past Thanksgiving, we made a sweet potato casserole without any eggs and with part of it not infested with marshmallows (the sweet potatoes were cut up in chunks and were roasted with maple syrup and other seasonings). The sweet potatoes weren't as bad as I had expected, they just weren't my favorite food.

So, fast forward to my day of making Ava Holt's baby food. Of course I had to try them to see what they tasted like...and I was pleasantly surprised. The puree was sweet (duh) and really tasty despite having no seasoning in it what-so-ever. When I made the puree, I used very minimal water, so the flavor was excellent. I'm not sure if it was because the sweet taters were organic or baked or what, but they were really good. I haven't tried the jarred kind yet, but there is no way they can taste as good as my homemade puree.

Here is some video footage of Ava Holt eating sweet taters for the first time. The first clip is really short because I accidentally pushed the stop button...but, I pushed it right away to start recording again. Although short, the first video cracks me up because you can see and hear her reaction to her first taste of the sweet taters. But as you can see, she develops an affinity for her sweet taters...

Green Beans and Apples

Ava Holt BEFORE her big moment...

Friday, May 2nd, was a memorable day for the Garrison clan, namely Ava. It was the first time we fed Ava real food. She had eaten oatmeal three separate times before this day, but she had never tasted real food.

After making some of Ava's homemade baby food that afternoon and getting the go ahead from her pediatrician that morning (reference the previous blog), Ava got to sit in her Bumbo with a big girl bib on and eat ORGANIC GREEN BEANS as her FIRST meal.

All the books say that you can expect your child to eat about 1 teaspoon of food the first time you feed her and to expect food to be falling out of her mouth in disgust (especially with the green vegetables), but this was NOT the case for Ava Bear. Nope...the kid ate 2 ounces of green beans, followed by 1.5 Tbsp. oatmeal cereal mixed with breast milk. She LOVED the green beans, which surprised us, and she couldn't get enough of them. She would have eaten more if we would have offered it to her, but since it was her first time to eat solids, we didn't want to push the size of her stomach (since we didn't know how big it was) or cause any un-necessary sickness from the change in diet. Here she is trying her green beans for the first time. Again, I apologize for the poor video taping, but Matt refused to hold the camera and I was stuck taping with my left hand and feeding Ava with my right. That stubborn boy!

Here's more of Ava eating her yummy green beans and enjoying her big girl moment...

Ava didn't have any allergies or reactions to the green beans, so we gave them to her again on Saturday night. This time Ava ate 2 ounces of organic green beans, 1.5 Tbsp. of oatmeal mixed with breast milk, and 1 ounce of homemade organic applesauce. Yes, that's right...applesauce (in addition to the 3 other ounces of food that she consumed). The pediatrician said that we could give Ava fruit as a 'dessert' after we fed her her vegetables. I asked if we had to do the 4 day trial period with every single food (at that rate, it would take us a year to introduce singular foods without any combinations!) and he said that we should be safe introducing fruit like apples and pears. So, we went ahead and gave her some homemade applesauce.

Well, Ava LOVED the applesauce. At first, she wasn't sure of the sweet taste but after the first bite, she loved it. She was just so cute eating her new foods. She did so great eating from a spoon and we didn't have any problems getting her to open her mouth or swallow her food. She couldn't get enough of the green beans, the oatmeal cereal, or the applesauce. She just sat in her chair watching the spoon while trying to grab the bowl from our hands (with her mouth open, of course).

So, after two days of solids, Ava's a fan of green beans and applesauce! Yay!

Solids

On the morning of the 2nd, we went to the Dr. for Ava's 6-month well baby check up and after Ava's weigh in and evaluation, the Dr. gave us the go ahead to start feeding her solids (other than oatmeal cereal). So, after the Dr. appointment was over, Ava and I went grocery shopping.


Matt and I have made the decision to make Ava's baby food instead of buying it (unless we're travelling or it's unsafe to make the food at home). Since I love to cook, it didn't seem like making Ava's food would be too tasking or difficult and we both liked the idea of knowing what Ava would really be eating...which means that we also decided that we only want her to eat organic food whenever possible. We figured that what we feed Ava is a gift to her health and we want it to be only the cleanest, the freshest, and the best (don't worry, we've done a lot of research on what DEFINITELY needs to be organic and what DOESN'T need to be). Anyhow, while at the store we bought a ton of fresh organic produce and we came home with lots of excitement for cooking it.


On Friday/Saturday, I baked, steamed, and boiled my heart away and had a great time doing it. I grouped the different types of squash, sweet potatoes, and peaches and put them in the oven to roast, got my double boiler steamer out for the green beans, and boiled the apples and pears (after doing research, I found that different cooking methods retain more nutrients for certain foods than others). It didn't really take much time to cook everything and I could do other things with Ava while it cooked. After each food was finished cooking, I just pureed it in my mini food processor and it was perfect. Since I made so much of each vegetable and fruit, I froze it all in ice cube trays with lids that I had bought online. Once frozen, I just popped the cubes out of the trays and into labeled freezer Ziploc bags and put them in the freezer.


Since each cube is 1 ounce of food, knowing how much Ava eats is a breeze. When it comes time for Ava to eat, we just thaw out 2 cubes at a time or nuke it for a few seconds to thaw and her dinner is ready. It's so easy. So, both Ava and I are happy...Ava gets to eat fresh, organic, nutritious food and I get to do what I love, cook.

Another Milestone

On May 2nd, Ava Holt had a very big girl moment. She got to sit in a grocery store shopping cart all by herself for the first time. After spending 15 minutes in the Commissary parking lot trying to figure out how to put the shopping cart cover on the buggy (not to mention being honked at by a retiree--I didn't realize at the time that I was standing in the middle of a front row parking spot while trying to put the cover on the buggy), we finally made it into the store. I've seen people shop with the protective covers on their carts before and I thought they were a good idea, but once I put Ava into the cart, I completely understood why parents use them. They are a fantastic invention and make me feel much better about Ava not getting covered in other peoples' icky germs and random dirt. Thanks to Diane and Jerry, who gave this to us when Ava was born, Ava was able to shop with me not only in safety but also in style--the cover is so incredibly cute!

Here is Ava's reaction to being placed in the grocery cart for the 1st time with her cover (it's so soft and cuddly)...

Although this isn't the best picture, it shows Ava hanging off the side of the cart trying to observe everything...

We finally made it inside and Ava was just flirting up a storm with any and every person who walked by her. Not only was this the first time she got to sit in the buggy, it was also her first time to really see the inside of the grocery store (she's usually in her carseat facing me). So, as you can see, she's enthralled with everything she sees.



Ava spent a lot of the shopping trip in this position...

I brought her pacifier and a toy to play with for the ride...
I had to remind her that she wasn't driving a chariot, a stagecoach, or a sleigh...
The papayas were overwhelming...
Here she is taking a break from the sensory overload...

She's obviously holding the fort down and making sure that everyone knows it's her cart...

And finally, a smile...

The grocery cart was great, but I think Ava's still a bit too small to ride in it. Size wise, she's fine...but stamina wise, she's still too young. About half-way through the shopping trip she was wanting to go to sleep but sitting up in the cart wasn't conducive to letting that to happen. So, she whinged a bit and our shopping trip was cut a little short. As soon as I put her in her car seat in the car, she was conked out (it was also her nap time--oops!). In addition to her stamina being low, it was also harder to shop with Ava in the cart. EVERY single person who we walked by, Ava smiled at and or flirted with...which turned into people wanting to talk to her and touch her (YUCK!), which in turned really slowed down our shopping abilities.

6-Month Well Baby Doctor Visit

On May 2nd, Ava Holt had her 6-month Well Baby appointment at the pediatrics clinic on base. I had prepared her with a week-long pep talk about the shots that she was going to receive that day, but it ended up that she has to wait until after May 10th to get them (since she received her 4-month immunizations on March 10th and there has to be exactly 2 months in between them). She was so happy to not be pricked with any nasty needles. I'm going to have to give her (and myself) another pep talk in a week though.

Anyhow, at her appointment, Ava was weighed and measured. She now weighs 17 pounds, 2.5 ounces...is 27 inches long...and her head is 43.8 centimeters in circumference. From her 4-month Well Baby visit in March, Ava has gained 1 pound and half an ounce and has grown 1.25 inches in length and .62 cm (a quarter of an inch) in head circumference. This means that Ava has gone from the 90th percentile in weight down to the 70th percentile and her length and head circumference have stayed in the 90th percentile. Dr. Waddell was very happy with Ava's development and growth progression and he gave Ava a very wonderful bill of health. He said that we could start feeding Ava solid food now and that her rapid growth would start to slow down in the coming months.

Ava Holt was such a good girl during her appointment. She flirted up a storm with the nurse and Dr. Waddell...however, she did growl at him when he put the otoscope (the lighted instrument that the Dr. uses to look in your ear). It was really funny. Dr. Waddell even laughed. Here are some pictures from Ava's appointment. She won't be going back for another check-up until she's 9 months old (August).

Ava being weighed...

Here she is demonstrating how monkeys hang from trees...
Ava being measured. Since she's a 'big girl' now, she gets to be measured on the exam table. The nurse marks the top of her head and the bottom of her foot on the paper and then measures it. This was the first time Ava was measured like this. And yes, she is playing with an empty bio-hazard bag.

Ava's helping the nurse measure how long she is...

Time for the head circumference measurement...

Once the nurse left, it was time to party on the table...
Does this face remind you of anyone?

I also took some video footage of Ava trying to crawl while on the exam table. Sorry for the messy cinematography in one of the videos...I tripped and the camera jolted a bit.