Pumpkins traditionally herald the beginning the Fall, thanks to their nature as a seasonal vegetable. They are also simply extremely awesome. While it isn’t fall yet, it is time for Chappy, aka Chappy McChappersons (or, when relevant, Poopy McPoopersons), to start trying out some solid food. And by “solid” I mean “mostly-liquid mush”.
If I’d had a pumpkin on hand, I would have sliced it open, seeded it, roasted it, scooped it, pureed it, thinned it out as needed, and served it up. Oh, and frozen the leftovers either as one cup portions or as baby food serving sizes via an ice cube tray. But I hadn’t, so I didn’t, and I’d already used up the last of my frozen homemade pumpkin puree a couple of weeks ago. So I opened a can of pumpkin puree instead (note: don’t use pumpkin pie filling for this – just the straight single-ingredient canned pumpkin).
Can I tell you a little secret?
He LOVED it. Even though it’s only August. Whew!
Don’t let the first picture there fool you. Babies make the awesomest, most ridiculous, faces when they try a new food. He gobbled it up and has been eating it for about a week now. I’m giving him two or three days between new foods to watch for any random food allergies, and he’s getting solids about twice a day. He’s also had some zucchini and summer squash puree from my garden, but he was not keen on it by itself. I guess it tasted a little bitter for him? Mix some mashed banana in there, though, and he is all over it.
I’m thinking about making him some rice next, but not the dehydrated crap you buy in a box. You can throw some cooked rice in your food processor (or a blender) to puree it, and then thin with filtered water, expressed breastmilk, or formula as necessary. Since I make a huge batch of whole grain brown rice about once a week, this is pretty darn easy.
If you didn’t know, a small jar of baby food is convenient, portable, shelf-stable, etc, but it’s also ridiculously expensive. Generally I’ll spend some time making a huge amount of something, like an entire Baby Bear Pumpkin of baby food, and then freeze it. Think about it. Imagine a one dollar jar of baby food – small. And then an average size pumpkin you bought on sale for one dollar. That’s a heck of a lot of baby food! And they only need that mush for such a short amount of time, that you can often take an afternoon to prep a bunch of different kinds of food, and then freeze them into portions and not have to make more before they grow out of it. Before you know it, baby will be on finger foods, or you’ll just be mashing up a little bit of what everyone else is having for dinner.
Chappy is about 4 and 1/2 months old now, and he’s been waking up to eat only once at night for the last week or so. He’s teething already, so sometimes that gets him up or makes it hard for him to fall asleep. He likes routine, such as his 9 pm snuggle time with Momma and some Hogan’s Heroes DVDs on the TV. He’s also working on crawling and can do the army crawl, spin around in circles, roll over front to back and vice versa, gets himself around pretty well on the floor, loves “standing” if you hold him up on his feet, and is starting to try to pull himself up on stuff. His pediatrician noted that he was a strong little boy and predicts (another) climber. He also chatters frequently, which is hilarious if he’s also got something stuffed in his mouth, like a blankie or his fist. Or a boob. He loves boobs.
Are you excited for Fall? For pumpkins? I’m interested in growing my own, but not the jack-o-lantern type. Probably the Baby Bear kind, like you make pie from. I’ve got a section of garden where my green beans didn’t really work out, so I’d like to clear it and try out some more gourds instead!
