Carrots and Apples and Squash, Oh My!

Lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) might be scary, but carrots, apples, and squash are now old hat for Violet. As of this morning, we can even add bananas to that list. And rice cereal, of course, as she has now been eating that regularly for several weeks.

We have had several requests for "messy baby face" pictures of Violet while she's eating, and have diligently tried to capture some of the messy moments. See for yourself:

Mike feeds Vi some rice cereal. They generally have quite messy mealtimes together...

Violet is contemplating her rice cereal and carrots. I believe that she decided carrots are not her favorite.

Vi adamantly says "FEED ME!"

Our first encounter with the manual baby food mill. We baked butternut squash and reserved some for Vi. I had always intended to make most of Vi's food, but had never acquired a food mill. Ellen helped me out by purchasing one for us last weekend. Thanks, Ellen!

Intent baby stare.

Intent, messy face baby stare.

Although I regret that we do not have any pictures to prove it, Violet did meet one other important milestone today. She petted her first horse, without help! OK, so she did have help in that Mike carried her outside and over to visit Airwalker, whom I had tied up and was brushing out. But once they were close, Violet quickly realized that there was a mighty big dog (I imagine that may have been her thought...) with me. She watched Airwalker closely for a minute or two, and then Mike held her closer so that she could touch the mare's muzzle. Then they moved to her side and Violet got to both touch her mane and rub her shoulder. The mare was a bit skeptical (albeit patient), and Violet seemed intrigued. All in all, a very good first impression for all four of us!