Full Circle

And he is officially a Toddler.

My gorgeous little man.

Adventures in Solids

My son is doing things at a fast pace. He crawled at 6 months, had 6 teeth by 7 months and he took his first steps before 9 months. I knew that food would be no different. Being a new mom I thought for sure I would make every single thing that touched Ardun’s lips. He would have a developed palate all because of me. You can stop laughing now. I now know how unrealistic that was for me. I am a working mom. A really hard working mom and I knew my limits and making food for Ardun everyday was out of the question. I was so relieved to find HappyBaby. I originally tried starting Ardun on cereal when he was about 5 months because of reflux, that was a massive failure and the cereal we bought in haste at the grocery store was thrown out. After that, I started to research foods, I realized I could have made cereal for him myself, but again, I didn’t have time for that. I bought a can of HappyBaby cereal and Ardun loved it. I then was lucky enough to sample the HappyBaby line so I want to give you my thoughts.

We started with some HappyPuffs and some of the HappyMelts. Holy cow! Ardun loved them! We were road tripping to see my sister and her family for Halloween and Ardun was a complete a mess in the back seat, we had about ten minutes before we got there and before I could nurse him and so I grabbed the bag of HappyMelts and then there was nothing. I mean it was silent. Those HappyMelts honestly saved the end of the road trip from a massive meltdown. He smacked, sucked and smiled with his new food. Later on we tried the puffs which he loved being able to grab them and put them in his own mouth. I couldn’t believe how much he enjoyed feeding himself! I loved having something to give him to help build his new skills of pinching and picking up things.

The next week I made a run to Whole Foods and got the ice cubes of food. This was an interesting adventure into the food world. Up to this point Ardun refused anything green. We started with the Sweeter Potatoes and Purer Pears which he gobbled up, moved on to the Easy Going Greensand Great Greens next. This was met with mixed reviews. While the Great Greens were eaten with no problem, the Easy Going Greens were about 50% loved. He loved them the first time he had them, and even the second, but the last two times he decided he would just gag and refuse to eat them. I don’t think that this had anything to do with the food itself but with the reality that he was learning that doing something got a reaction out of me and I would switch to a more yummy fruit that I had ready for him as well. He was learning how to play me. I loved the convenience of the cubes and the only complaint was that the Easy Going Greens and Great Greens plastic covering didn’t just peel off, I had to cut it off from each cube of food which wasn’t hard but more time consuming. I know that is not the norm with these cubes, so, it must have been a fluke. A few nights later my husband and I actually got to go out to dinner with friends, of course we had Ardun in tow. We went to Grinder’s (which if you live in Kansas City and have eaten here you know it’s not a picture of perfect dining) and the waitress had me hold off on putting Ardun in the highchair because “what was left on it from the previous kid would stun her microbiology class.” I was sooo happy I had grabbed one of the HappyBaby Pouch foods that I had gotten. This was AWESOME. It was so easy to feed him in a busy, cramped space. I didn’t need him to be close to the table which maybe had the same science experiment in germs on it and I could just squeeze it onto my spoon and then feed him. It was awesome. That night he had the Banana, Beet and Blueberry, it quickly has become a favorite. I have to say, now that Ardun is older and demanding he touch and help feed himself everything I have just handed him the pouch and he loves just sucking the food out on his own. I know, parents be appalled, I am lazy and let my kid suck his food. At least it’s healthy and organic and I can feel confident I am giving him food that would be just as good as if I made it. And, honestly, I love that HappyBaby has interesting combos of food. I don’t have time to go out and buy a bunch of special foods to make baby food with, to have it right there to help him try new things is priceless, it’s just a little more time I get to spend with Ardun.

Overall, I really like Happy Baby foods and Ardun seems to love HappyBaby. Plus, it gives me more time to cuddle my little man who will be driving in the next few months if he has anything to do with it.