Banana Supreme

We opened up a jar of Beech Nut "Banana Supreme" last night for Annika. Prior to this jar, I was just pureeing bananas and feeding them to her. (I would eat the leftovers, particularly if they were mixed with oatmeal, and I thought it tasted quite good!) But we had this jar of bananas that someone gave us, so I figured we should try it. Now I understand why people say that baby food bananas are nasty. Banana Supreme was really gross. It didn't look or taste like bananas. It was this odd orange color and sort of tasted like someone had mixed in some pork with vanilla pudding and then added an artificial banana flavor to the whole mess. Neither Jim nor I could even stand the smell of it. Annika didn't think much of them either, although she doesn't like real bananas either.

So here's our tally so far:

Foods that Annie loves:
Carrots
Pears
Any sort of baby cereal (rice, oatmeal, barley)

Foods that Annie feels ambivalent about:
Apple sauce
Maybe peas

Foods that Annie hates:
Squash
Bananas, but not as much as she hates squash.
Avocados

For squash, if you put it in her mouth, she will keep her mouth open, with the squash stuck to the top, so that it doesn't touch her tongue. Then she'll slowly work it out of her mouth with her tongue. Last time I fed her squash, she kept her mouth open and started crying. I guess she really hates it! She doesn't do this with any other food.

Jim gloats that Annie has the same palate as he does ... he doesn't like bananas or avocados (unless mixed with something else, like in guacamole). He hates, hates, hates squash - can't even stand the smell of it. He loves carrots. He loves pea soup (which is basically what baby food peas is), and all forms of apples. He loves oatmeal and has it for breakfast frequently. I guess the true test is when we puree up some asparagus, which Jim absolutely hates more than any other food, except maybe turkey stuffing.

As you can see, the food thing is sort of slow-going. We've been waiting 3-4 days in between each food to watch for food allergies. All the moms at my play date yesterday have stopped doing this, without any problems. One of my friend's pediatricians told her that you don't have to do the waiting thing unless your family has a history of food allergies. But our pediatrician has recommended waiting in between each food. It's OK. She has tried enough foods now that it's not hard to find things for her to eat while we're trying new things.

Today we're going to a birthday party for the little boy next door, who is turning four. We realized last night that the party was today. (Something about time creeping up on us). So we have to go to the mall at 10 to pick up a gift. Now that we get up at the crack of dawn, we seem to do a lot of waiting for things to open. Doesn't it seem like stores should be open earlier than 10?