Precautionary or Paranoid? The feeding fine lines that are giving me fine lines (and grey hair.)

I don't like to cook. My husband of almost two years can attest to this. The preparation, the time involved, I want none of it. I also have no confidence in my ability to cook anything I've never cooked before, and therefore, I rarely try. Lame, I know.

However, with V eating solids now, there's a whole world of good fruits, veggies and grains that she can have to widen her palette. But with her having no teeth yet, most everything has to be specially prepared and pureed to a fine paste that will inevitably have only about 85% of it end up in her mouth.

Or you can buy it in a jar, like I have. I'll hand it to Earth's Best, they make a good jar food. At least V seems to think so. But like any brand, their choices are limited, and after a month and a half of the 1 new food every 4 days rule, we are running out of new options.

Anxiety is now starting to take it's stronghold on my heart. Not only do I need to start giving her more variety, but I have *gasp* prepare it MYSELF. Why would I not just stick with jar foods? Because honestly, they offer more fruits than veggies, and I'm worried about her natural sugar intake. Yes, you read that right. I bought her prune oatmeal today, and decided to also pick up some more of her yogurt and apple banana cereal. As I looked at my cart, I thought "That's an awful lot of fruits for one day." And I felt the worry start to creep. I thought about going back to the baby aisle and grabbing some carrots instead, but I had already had an uncomfortable conversation with the small Russian woman stocking jars on the shelves about how (she thinks) I made a  mistake by feeding V fruits and veggies alternatively. "Some people say you should start with veggies first, or they will develop a sweet tooth." Really? I had never really heard of that but thanks for making me feel like I just screwed up the last month of my daughter's crucial development. Our pug who spends 15 minutes licking various parts of her gross anatomy and then gives my daughter open mouth kisses doesn't bother me, but I'm worried about if I'm giving her food in the wrong order. Sounds about right.

So, back to the cooking. I sometimes imagine how my mom star power would surge as I pull out an ounce or two of homemade green beans, and maybe an ounce of carrots and fresh blueberries and fix my daughter a well balanced dinner that would make her inevitably the President of the United States someday all because of my mom-awesomeness.

But I clam up every time I think about buying those things, cooking them (steam or bake? I don't know!) and then blending them to be poured into our now pristine (because I would have to clean and sterilize them like crazy) ice cube trays. Why? Why does that sound so hard? It can't be laziness. I do laundry, wash bottles, do bath time and clean my house a little bit every night, but I can't BAKE A POTATO?

So I gave her jar food because I convinced myself that Earth's Best does it better. And now she's eating three times a day, and I'm being backed into a corner having to prepare good food for her. And it's scary. I don't want to screw it up. I don't want her to get sick because I under cooked something, or I bought a bad batch out of season or something weird like that. My lack of knowledge about fresh ingredients would astound you. But I'm going to do it. Because if nothing else, I feel like I have to try for her. For my little President.

Wish me luck, and happy Wednesday! I'll post pictures of my homemade baby food adventure after this weekend.

Love,
Dominique