Entering the Wide World of Food

We're having so much fun these days with lunch and dinner time (I haven't really gotten my act together enough yet to do more than bottles for breakfast - mama needs her coffee before she can be that organized). Steven and Eleanor are at a very adventurous stage, where they'll try anything once, and almost always ask for more.

They have a slightly different style of
eating - these were taken after they'd had their
plates for the same amount of time.

We do occasionally do jarred food or packets of baby food, since they're a quick protein when I don't have anything baby-friendly on hand and are convenient to throw in the diaper bag, but for the most part, they just eat cut-up softish foods. Steven still doesn't have teeth, but he does just fine gumming most things.

Some particular favorites (of mine, because they're easy, and of theirs) are deli turkey, cheese cubes, bananas, applesauce, bran muffins, and sweet potato puffs. 

And apparently rice - when the waiter set down my dad's plate,
Steven immediately grabbed a big handful.

Eleanor got in on the action in her typical neater way.

I'm not a big stickler for waiting to give them sugar - I'm more a fan of letting them try at least a taste of whatever I'm having, within reason. So they've gotten tastes of cookies, crepes, and coconut-milk ice cream.

Shortly post-crepe - Eleanor's a fan, Steven's undecided.

I really like the freezer microwave-steam packs of veggies... so far broccoli is, well, not a hit exactly, but tolerable, and a brown rice/broccoli/carrot mix was pretty popular. Green beans were not received well, but I guess you win some, you lose some. Steven was much happier with the taste of my guacamole I gave him shortly after.

First taste of broccoli - once again, Steven's undecided.

It's funny - Steven looks so skeptical in a lot of the pictures I have of them eating, but in reality, he's the more enthusiastic eater. He'll polish off everything on his plate and start reaching for hers or signing for more (his own sign he came up with) or just banging on his tray.

I'm having fun cooking for them - I'd love to have more ideas for options!