Happy Hanukkah!

Chicken is very well-rounded. We're celebrating Hanukkah this week, while also setting up the Christmas tree. :) We had Chicken's grandparents over on Wednesday for the first night of Hanukkah. It was a lovely night and I loved having Chicken join us for a traditional dinner of roasted chicken and potato latkes. She wasn't in a great mood that night, which makes meal time a challenge regardless of whether she feeds herself or would be fed by us. However, she tried a bit of everything. She was a big fan of the applesauce I served to accompany the latkes. Honestly, this kind of bummed me out because that's basically just "baby food", but she is, after all, a baby! We loaded up her spoon with applesauce a few times and she enjoyed it. She tried sour cream, which she also seemed to like. Since she's a fan of yogurt and cottage cheese, I figured sour cream would be something she'd like.

(Chicken looks a little teary here...She was very tired, but still wanted to try some bites of dinner.)

Chicken's grandma made carrot cake for dessert. Now here's where BLW gets a little tricky. Chicken has tried pretty much everything her dad and I have eaten for the past two months are so. Does that mean we want her to be eating sweets and junk? No. Does it mean that we'll let her taste it? Usually. I say usually because I don't see any reason for her to have chocolate. She's exposed to the caffeine I consume, because she's still nursing. I don't think that she needs to have any more than that. We also (well, mostly me...) tend to eat dessert after she's gone to bed, so it's rarely an issue. But, if she's sitting at the table with us and we're eating dessert, I don't see the harm in her tasting it too. She was a HUGE fan of the carrot cake and probably would've had much more than what I offered her if she could have.

In reading back over this, I realize some people might not love the idea of a 7 1/2 month old eating fried potatoes and carrot cake. So, let's just remember the Cookie Monster comparison from a few posts ago. Chicken tastes, nibbles, and sometimes swallows many different foods, but isn't consuming an entire latke or slice of cake. In fact, she's offered a very balanced diet of foods and so far, she seems to enjoy them all!