Baby's Dedicated, Let's Eat... Or Not

We had baby dedication at church on Jan. 9 in which Hadlee took part.  She wore the family's christening gown, which was her great-grandfather's.  I think she's the 14th baby to wear it.  Since they only do dedication one a year at Pinedale we were worried about it still fitting her, especially since she's on the bigger side, but it's just a gown so it worked fine.  For that reason we actually had her professional pictures taken in it when she was 3 months old, just in case.  One baby at a time we all got introduced to the church by one elder per family.  Then all the elders, at the same time with the congregation, prayed for the babies and their families out loud.  The sermon that day was for the parents so we sat on stage during it (after we had returned Hadlee to the nursery).  I like how they do the dedication at Pinedale and that we believe that someday it's HER decision and choice to be baptized.  Now it's our job to get her there, with a little help from the big guy upstairs!  I tried to post the video I had my friend take to youtube but it's just not working.  The file is so large that it takes forever and then just stops.



3 months

It has taken forever to get Hadlee to eat.  We started at about 5 1/2 months and I think she and I are recently figuring it out.  We went through the normal stages of trying foods, learning to open her mouth for a spoon, learning to swallow and not spit it out.  It was all made much more difficult by what I've most recently resigned ourselves to.  That really, she just doesn't like baby food.  I eventually even tried pureeing some things, freezing them in ice cube trays, then thawing out a cube at a time for a meal.  She still wasn't big on that.  What she really wants is our food.  I don't know if it's the taste or she just doens't like slimey pureed things.  We did find, through all the trial and error, that she loves loves loves bananas which then causes a diaper problem.  We could get her to eat some baby food as long as it had a chunk of banana on it.  We still do that for some meals but have had to cut back on bananas.  I don't like poop, but it's necessary sometimes.  So now I try to think of meals that I can chop up tiny for her.  I put spaghetti in the pampered chef chopper, she eats tiny bits of chicken with real rice, last night we cut pork into tiny pieces with our sweet potatoes mushed up, or alternating barely tolerated baby food with real green beans cut into tiny pieces.  She's making life difficult.  The picture below is the face you see when she's either done or refusing to eat.  She pushes that lip out and seals her mouth shut tight!

Luckily she does remarkably well for no teeth and eating our food.  She hasn't choked yet!  She eats lunch and dinner and still nurses 5 times a day.  Unfortunately she doesn't like baby cereal, baby rice, or even cereal flavored with banana so I'm trying to figure out a way to sneak that in for more iron.  She tries to eat Gerber puffs, she gets that pincher reflex going, gets her hand to her mouth, but can't figure out how to release her fingers yet.  It's been a frustrating 2 months but I think I've figured it out.  It's only a problem if we eat tacos or pizza or other things that she just can't have.  She'll probably make me eat healthier!