Food and the Dude, Plus Thanksgiving Photos

We had such a great Thanksgiving.  It was just about perfect in every way and I’m so glad it was Jude’s first Thanksgiving.  We stayed at home and S’s mom came into town to celebrate with us along with all of our dearest friends.  All together I think we had about 8 people and SO MUCH FOOD!  I made an almost 20 lb turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, funeral potatoes (my favorite), sweet potatoes, cranberries, roasted brussel sprouts, and an eggnog pumpkin pie with home made whipped cream, and friends brought deviled eggs, more mashed potatoes, dressing, broccoli cheese rice casserole, green bean casserole, and so many tasty bottles of wine.  It was truly an epic feast.  And Jude totally got down on some food, though he liked the cranberries the best I think.  Some great family photos we took that day:

 Jude covered in his Thanksgiving dinner

Just a small portion of the food we had- not everything would fit on the table!

Speaking of food, things with getting Jude to eat more “real” food have gotten much better.  After looking into Baby Led Weaning and reading all of your very helpful comments we made a plan to make sure everyday we were feeding Jude three times a day on a regular schedule when we knew he would be hungry.  And we have also tried to make at least 60% of his meals things he can pick up and feed to himself.  I guess the other big thing is that we decided to not stress about what he liked or didn’t like and how much food he is actually eating versus just spitting it out or throwing it to the floor and to just get into the habit of feeding him.  Which sounds much easier than it is, between bottle times, nap times and mommy forgetfulness, it is hard to keep much of a schedule.  But we have just been going with the flow and so far it is going great.  He seems to be eating so much more and loves making a mess and feeding himself.  He also LOVES blueberries cut in half (which I totally didn’t realize that blueberries arn’t purple/blue in the middle but rather a pinkish white, does everyone know that?) along with yogurt and a few other newer flavors.  He is still a bit weird about eating meat, even if he is feeding it to himself, but I think that will come with time.

Hope everyone else had a great holiday (or just a great week if you live somewhere other than the US). I’m excited later this week to share a blog about a craft project we did today that turned out awesome- a felt Christmas tree for Jude!  More details to come!

-Liz