While Alex and I were in Vermont in August we discovered that she LOVES corn on the cob and yellow string beans. She will even hold the corn cob and chew the corn off by herself. It’s like sustenance and entertainment. The farmer’s market here still has both because we have a longer growing season and the crops were a couple of weeks behind so I am still buying both of them for her whenever I can. I’m glad that she likes string beans so much - other than peas she doesn’t really like too many vegetables. She will sometimes eat carrots and she likes chickpeas, which isn’t a vegetable but close.

Friday August 29th was the last day that Alex nursed! At the beginning of the month when we went to Vermont she was nursing twice a day but she gave up the morning one when we were there. Then last week she just didn’t seem interested so on Saturday the 30th Marc put her to bed after her bath and saying goodnight to me and she went right to sleep. And she’s done this every night since. I was glad because I was tired of nursing but I was also surprisingly sad - she’s growing up so fast and really isn’t a baby anymore.

All you have to do is feed her her two favorite foods and she will be your best friend for life … bananas and goldfish crackers. Alex especially loves bananas - she gets excited when you pick one up to start peeling it. It’s a good thing I found a store that sells four pounds of bananas for a dollar

Alex has become very particular about food lately - not what she eats but rather how she eats. She doesn’t like being fed anymore but since she isn’t very good with a spoon I have to still feed her certain things like cereal and vegetables so that she will get adequate nutrition. What she wants to eat is finger foods - little things that she can pick up off of her highchair tray and feed to herself. I guess for her it is food and entertainment. So at least one meal a day (sometimes two) I give her little pieces of pasta, cheese, tofu, carrots, toast and ricecake. She also doesn’t want help with her juice and has learned how to hold it properly and hold it up to get the juice out of her sippy cup although she does struggle with it.

We have also been experimenting by giving her a little taste of what we are eating to see how she reacts - we have tried pickles, veggie burgers, cream cheese, bagels, and hommus. She LOVED the hommus but I’m not sure if it is that good for her so I only give her a little taste. I did put a tiny bit on her rice cake and she thought that was great. She actually licked the hommus off and then ate the rice cake. She stares at us when we are eating anything that she doesn’t have (just like our cat does) so we have been letting her try food out. Right now, however, her favorite is cottage cheese - she loves it.

And she has now even tried the cat food - when she crawls into the kitchen (her new favorite place to play) I pick up the cat food and put it on the counter but one day last week I forgot and she ate a couple of pieces - she seemed to like it but since she’s a vegetarian it probably isn’t a good idea for her to eat the ocean fish flavored cat food

Alexandra had spinach for the first time today and loved it … that’s good because now she’ll grow up big and stong like Popeye. (I thought the stuff looked gross and didn’t even try it).

A couple of weeks ago Marc taught Alex how to drink from her sippy cup - she can’t really hold it and drink - but she can hold it and she can drink when we hold it for her. I give her very diluted apple or grape juice. When she first figured out how to use the cup the look of delight on her face when she tasted the juice was adorable. She usually has a little with each meal - I’d be surprised if she even drinks two ounces of it a day.

Alex doesn’t like potatoes at all - it’s the first food that she has tried that she didn’t like - I thought that she was going to like everything. I wish I had had a camera when she tried them - the face she made was so funny and all the potatoes came right back out of her mouth. So, she had peaches for lunch instead. I think I’ll try potatoes again in a month or so.

Alexandra had peas for the first time last Thursday - I wasn’t sure if she would like them - I thought they smelled terrible and I like peas. But she gobbled them up … so far she has liked everything we have given her. Her favorites are still squash and pears. I think we might try apples tomorrow.

Alexandra’s third vegetable was squash, which she had for the first time on December 26th. And she loves is!!! This is her favorite so far and she will eat almost an entire big jar at one time. I think she likes it even more than pears, which so far is her favorite fruit.

Alex had carrots for the first time today - she loved them!!!! She gobbled them down so either she likes them better than sweet potatoes or else she was just really hungry