Feeding the Turtles

Audrey and I went in search of ducks the other day to feed with the end of a loaf of bread. We never found ducks, but we did find some turtles and I threw a couple of pieces of bread to them to show Audrey how it is done. She thought better of my idea and just ate the bread herself.

Notice the cute Fridley, MN shirt from Aunt William!

Granola Bar break down

For some reason Audrey has a disturbing reaction to granola bars. She likes to eat them - that is she likes the taste of them, but the fact that they break apart really unnerves her. Yesterday I forgot how traumatic they are for her so I gave her one as a treat. I handed her the granola bar inside the opened wrapper and within seconds she was hysterical - crying and screaming with the two halves of the granola bar in her outstretched hands. I asked her if she wanted me to try to fix it, which she did and when I was unsuccessful she had an even larger meltdown. I tried, to no avail, to explain that granola bars were like bananas they still taste just as good in smaller pieces, but she wasn't buying that. In the end, she sat on my lap sobbing her way through her granola bar. I held all the small broken pieces in one hand (and kept it closed) and all the larger pieces in the other. She ate the larger pieces and cried anew each time they broke. The whole exhausting process took about 10 minutes and I have learned my lesson - no more granola bars for Audrey - no matter what.

The funny thing is, with almost all of her other foods, she really enjoys the breaking apart process - sometimes more than the eating process. She regularly shreds small bits of toast, croissants, banana, green beans, etc. I can't figure out why granola bars are such an unusual exception.

Going Bananas

Recently Audrey has taken to eating bananas all by herself. I start the peel just at the top and she takes it from there. After very carefully peeling the banana, she tosses aside the peels (often to the floor) and starts the difficult work of consistently biting off more than she can chew.

As you can see Audrey also likes to dress herself and shoes are by far her favorite to change. Here she is wearing her moon boots about the house.

Olives

I mentioned in an earlier entry that Audrey loves olives - and I think these pictures say it all.

First she is digging around for olives for the fingers.

Once found she waves them around a bit and then eats them off her fingers with great enthusiasm.

Favorite Foods

Since Audrey's favorite foods seem to be regularly evolving, I thought I would post what her current favorites are.

-tortellini - she loves the frozen tortellini from Costco and she even tries to say it to ask for them (which she does at every meal)

-bananas - she still signs for bananas, but eats a whole banana in one sitting

-Irish oats - my favorite breakfast food so we both eat it almost daily

-yogurt - i made up a sign for yogurt because she loves it so much.

-pistachios - she loves the shelled, unsalted pistachios

-olives - she will eat as many as we let her

All Done!

One of Audrey's favorite (or at least most used) phrases is "all done!" (said with the exclamation point). Lately when she says "all done!" while eating, what she really means is "I am about to dump the contents of my meal out and spread it around." Case in point - is the cereal seen in these pictures.

Milk?

Audrey has the sign for "milk" (squeezing your fist like you are milking a cow) down pat. However, she has definitely taken a very broad interpretation of the word. She basically does the sign for "milk" whenever she wants something in the fridge because she knows that I will open the fridge for her and then she can run over and try to point to/grab whatever she thinks she wants while it is open. (It really is a race to get things into and out of the fridge before she can grab unsuspecting dressings, sauces and leftovers.) I, for one, am very impressed with her ability to use the words/signs she knows to communicate much more than her limited vocabulary permits.

Spicy Lady

The other day Audrey and I stopped into Popeye's for a quick lunch. I was thinking she would enjoy eating some of my chicken strips and biscuit. She was thinking she would help herself to some Cajun spicy fries. In fact, she had no interest in either the chicken or the biscuit. When she saw me dipping my chicken in the honey mustard sauce she wouldn't settle down until she had tried it too. I thought I would just dip her spicy fry in and let her taste - and then she would realize that she didn't want it after all. Boy was I wrong. While she didn't seem to like the honey mustard, she wouldn't eat another bite of her fries without it. And of course, she insisted on doing the dipping on her own too.

What's Up Doc?

The other day when I was cutting up carrots, I let Audrey gnaw on a large carrot. She was happy for almost a full hour cutting teeth on this carrot. Here she is outside on the deck gnawing away.

Pure Cream

Yesterday I figured out a good way to give Audrey some extra fat in her diet without much sugar. After finishing her dinner, I put some heavy whipped cream (with a touch of powdered sugar) into a bowl and gave her a spoon. She was extremely pleased with this idea.

Aside from the mess, this seemed to work out famously.

table talk

It seems like everyday stuff to me, but today Grandpa (my dad) asked what Audrey likes to eat and I realized that this everyday stuff, may still be of interest to the rest of you.

Audrey's favorite foods so far are - bananas, apples, corn, yogurt, chicken, and whatever I am eating.

Recently, Audrey has really taken to scrambled eggs. She even says eggs - which actually sounds more like a slow "x" - but she is close.

She now likes to feed herself and almost won't let me spoon feed her anymore. With eggs, that isn't too much of a problem, but yogurt, applesauce and babyfoods are scary. I have visions of food flying every time I reluctantly hand over the spoon. Thankfully she really is aiming for her mouth, so the food hasn't flown too far yet....

Her Aunt William came up with a game where she basically chanted "A" or "O" depending on the finger food and then put it in Audrey's mouth. Well, the game is a huge hit and Audrey now chants the "A" and "uh" (her version of "O") at each meal.

Basically there isn't anything that Audrey won't eat. She will make a this-is-awful-face while eating her food if she doesn't like it, but when that bite is over, she will still open her mouth for another.

Broccoli Squirrel

Audrey likes to just put things in her mouth and leave them there - saving them for chewing up or other further processing at some future point.

Sometimes after feeding her some finger foods, I will think she is done and clean her up and set her down to play. Ten minutes later she will start chewing and so I will rush over to her and make her give me the contents of her mouth, only to discover that it is legitimate food that she has just saved in her cute chubby cheeks.

Last night, we gave her some steamed broccoli. She liked it a lot and I thought she had eaten most of it. I was wrong on that one. I went to nurse her right before putting her to bed. When she opened her mouth, I couldn't help laughing. She had a big wad of green broccoli tucked into the side of her cheek.

Future Chocolate Connoisseur?

I made the mistake of leaving our box of Easter chocolates within Audrey's reach. I soon discovered her working diligently to get to figure out what was in the box.

"Eating Nemo"

I think this could be a good name for the sequel to "Finding Nemo".

The gripping plot involves a young (and adorable) little girl trying to eat the real Nemo because he looked so much like her plastic Nemo.

And, after all, everyone knows how delicious that plastic Nemo is!

Sweet Potato Pie

Audrey's great-grandparents got her this fabulous high-chair.

She broke it in with sweet potatoes. She loves both the sweet potatoes and the new chair that lets her sit so high up and be a part of all the action.