The Baby Diet

Jackson's meals are getting closer to adult meals, but his are much healthier and chopped into tinier bites.  Since Jackson is moving around more and I have to chase him around so he doesn't get hurt, I have less time to eat snacks or even full meals.  So I have started what may become the next big trend:  The Baby Diet.

Jackson eats a variety of foods and if I only stuck to copying his meals, then I might have baby soft skin and his level of energy.  So technically, I am only on The Baby Diet when I feed him his meals and these are some of the ingredients:  drops of steamed broccoli tops, slivers of kiwi, bites of mango, and rejected, cold porridge.  Basically, this new diet is all of the leftovers that Jackson is too full to eat or has mushed in his hand and finds unworthy of eating.

These small snacks don't fill me up and sometimes my stomach urges me to carb-overload.  For instance, yesterday I grabbed a hotdog bun (finger roll) and dipped it into a pot of mashed potatoes and ate it like an ice cream cone.

Other than that, most of the time I stick to eating the same fruits and vegetables as Jackson.  We eat different mains and meats, but he is slowly getting closer to eating the same menu as us.  The reason we can't eat the same foods yet is because baby's salt and sugar intake need to be monitored very closely and too much of these is extremely unhealthy for them.  (They shouldn't have more than 0.8 grams of salt or 13 grams of sugar per day.)  For this reason, I haven't bought any baby food from the grocery store yet.  When I go back to work, things may change, but I'm going to try to continue making Jackson's meals from scratch for as long as I can.

The trickle-down effect for us is paying off as we're eating a lot more fruits and vegetables than we used to do.  Also, Jackson has continued to grow healthily and stay on the 91st percentile in height and weight so this method is working for him--which is the most important reason to continue serving fresh foods and cooking at home.

Looking grown-up and proud after his check-up with the health visitor

Climbing at his new playgroup called Outdoor Activities

Month-to-month photo shoots are not as easy as they used to be

Happy 10 Months, Jackson!

Splashing in his water table

Pictures from our walk through the village (our church's garden)

Developmental updates:  Jackson now weighs 23 pounds 9 ounces.  He can climb the stairs and made it to the fourth step by himself before stopping.  Luckily, we lowered his crib bed to the lowest setting last week because one day this week I walked in to find him standing up, chewing on the crib railing.  Jackson cannot be contained unless he's strapped in something or penned in with something that has high sides.  He can now crawl out of his ball pit and in and out of his garden centre easily.  We used to be able to entertain Jackson with any activity of our choosing and he would happily focus on that for about 20 minutes or so.  Now it's hard to find anything that will engage his attention for more than five minutes.  Jackson can pull himself up to stand and he is slowly realising that not everything around the house is a suitable pull-up device.  He's taken a tumble or two in the past week, but thankfully there hasn't been anything serious.  There is definitely no resting now that he is crawling, though.  That is unless he takes a nap.  Speaking of which, his naps have reduced in quantity but have become much longer than they used to be.  He had his 9-12 month check-up with the health visitor this week and she noticed that he has a 'good sense of humour' and is very friendly towards new people.  Jackson also showed-off his waving and talking skills while she was at our house and those didn't get overlooked either.  Yesterday he tried sausage for the first time and it went down very well so he had more today for lunch.

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.