Yay Broccoli

So we have this theory about food. Baby food in jars tastes like adult food in cans, usually bland or overcooked. The fact that parents feed their babies one or two jars per meal fails to develop their tastes and ability to appreciate other foods, hence picky eaters who only want to eat hot dogs or macaroni & cheese. So we introduced many different foods to Leilani, and tried to make them fresh for her, so that she would have a taste for a variety of good foods. And for a while it looked like it was working, Leilani would eat 3-5 different foods per meal that we would change each time, and she would eat most of everything. She obviously had preferences, but we thought we had “won” and she would keep expanding her menu.

But then last week, she started refusing many foods, even ones she had eaten before. All she wanted was oatmeal mush and avocado (thank goodness for avocados). Maybe we introduced too many new foods too rapidly recently, and she was “protesting.” So when Mommy wanted to give her broccoli, I thought there was no chance she would eat it. We had given it to her before, it was one of those foods she seemed to eat out of “politeness” (because we put it on the spoon in front of her mouth).

To my surprise, Leilani loved the broccoli this time. I even had to cut up more for her. Maybe the fact that we made it a finger food helped:


Leilani loves to eat broccoli with her fingers and hands

Nice bib, by the way :-)

PS: The bandage on her finger was from the blood test at her 9-month check-up. They drew blood for several minutes through a prick, which made her scream her head off. I don’t know if she’ll ever want to go back to the clinic.

Potluck!

2 weeks ago we had a potluck at our house.

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Rhea and Jaya

Treesitter and other old photos…

When I blogged about our Kokee camping trip I promised more photos…

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One of the first photos – forgotten and rediscovered :)
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Happy Birthday Ruby!

Ruby’s first birthday was celebrated at our favorite beach Anini. SInce it is kind of late I’ll just post the photos, and try to make Andy write the captions :-)

Thanks Karla for some of the Photos!

The older kids are so nice to help out Ruby with the cake duties:
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“Mmmm, good cake, Mom.” Not that I can imagine Leilani eating cake in 3 months (sorry, no hi-res…)
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These kids know how to party:
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Who needs a bouncy castle when there’s a play tent (says Dad thankfully):
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Karla, Klaus, and Ian:
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Daddy likes these sitting down parties:
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“Come on in and taste this dirt with me:”
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“It’s my party and I’ll nap if I want to:”
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The Ulu Tree

At our wedding reception at the Taro Patch Andy and I planted an Ulu (breadfruit) tree. By now it has grown a lot and the first fruit is bigger than a tennis ball.

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john