My sweet eating Hattie

Hattie has discovered French Fries...
No more baby food for me...I want people food.

Even though I still have no teeth, I still manage to eat this chicken.

I love pees...this makes Mommy SOOOO happy!

My little baby is turning into a toddler. She is crawling all over the place and standing on her own. We are waiting for the day to come where she decides to take that first step. Her first birthday is less than a month away and it scares me who fast the last year has flown by. The one thing that always been a problem with both of the kids is eating. Morgan is the worst eater. She is SOOOOO picky. She always has been. I struggle with her still every day to get her to eat healthy. If she had it her way she would eat bread, crackers, chips and sweets all day every day....and nothing else. So when Hattie came along I anticipated the same situation, especially with all the trouble we had with her taking a bottle. We finally figured out how to get formula down her...the only way is through oatmeal. Needless to say she goes through a lot of oatmeal every day. I think I go through about a box a week with Hattie. The funny thing is that with Morgan, I never even went through a whole box. I think I had to throw it away.

Once we started Hattie on baby food I was so happy. In fact there were times I wanted to cry I was so happy because she was such a good eater. She LOVES veggies. If she isn't in the mood to eat, I always know I can get some green beans down her. She really doesn't love fruit that much, which is the complete opposite of Morgan when she was a baby. She will eat it, but you know it really isn't her favorite. Green beans, peas, squash...even spinach she likes. The only veggie baby food that she really isn't a fan of is carrots.

Another thing about my girls is that they are very slow to get teeth. Morgan didn't get her first tooth until 11 months...and Hattie just broke her first tooth yesterday, barely. Since they don't have teeth I have to be very careful on what finger foods they can eat, choking really scares me. Texture is also a big obstacle that babies have to overcome. In fact...Chad still battles with funny textured food. He still won't eat a salad. With all that in mind, I tried frozen peas with Hattie right after she turned nine months. She wasn't a fan. I was surprised seeing as how much she loved the baby peas. But, after Morgan's eating habits I wasn't surprised. I decided I would just wait until she got a little older and then I would try again.

Then a few weeks ago we were all out to eat and Hattie started to get upset. She was finished with her food and was getting antsy. We had some french fries left over from Morgan's lunch and I could see her eyeing them. I gave her one to try and it was love at first sight. She gummed that fry so fast...and continued to ask for more. I am not sure why at this point I didn't realize it was time to start finger food...but, I figured it was just something she had with the fries. After all she is my daughter.

Last Friday after Morgan's gymnastics a group of us decided to go out to lunch. I had not planned on us going out to lunch and I didn't have any baby food and oatmeal/formula for Hattie. I figured we would just see how it went. Hattie ate some of my bread and picked at a few things I put on her plate. Then I tuned my back for a second and she had reached onto Morgan's plate and grabbed a whole chicken nugget and was going to town. It took her reaching on to her sister's plate for me to realize she was ready for real food.

Yesterday I tried giving her some of the frozen peas. After eating a whole bowl she asked for more. Again, I was so happy I almost cried. I really didn't think children ate real vegetables. So for now we are moving forward trying new finger foods and hopefully soon she will be off the baby food all together. Now, if we can just get Morgan eating some vegetables! Maybe she will see her sister and want the same thing! One can only hope!