Ivan's Diet: Dips, Sticks, Balls and Meat

A while ago, I complained about Ivan being a picky, sparse eater, and even wondered how can he grow when all he seems to want is milk rather than food.

Well, lately, in the last few weeks, his appetite has picked up. Except he knows exactly what he wants to eat and when. I find this rather funny. He's so little and new, what does he know about preferences!

His food preferences, in addition to a specific taste, seem to center around the food shape and how easy and fun it is to eat.

His food groups can be divided into: dips, sticks, balls and meat.

Dips
He's crazy about hummus--all varieties of hummus, including those spiced up with garlic. I give him a little cup of hummus, some bread or crackers and a spoon. While I'd prefer he eats the hummus with the bread, he usually licks it off the bread and take another dip. Or he just eats it with the spoon without any bread.

He'll also eat yogurt or sour cream, spooning it out of a cup. Tapioca pudding, which my parents give him, also fall into this category. (It never crossed my mind ot buy it because I don't like tapioca pudding.)

Then there is oatmeal. He didn't like it at first when I introduced it about a month ago. But lately, he loves some warm oatmeal in the morning. I just need to make sure it's not too warm, otherwise, he'll keep saying "hot, hot, hot" and not eat it. (Hot is a recent word acquisition, which he's been practicing any chance he gets.)

Sticks
These are mainly bananas and cheese sticks. He loves them. It must be fun to hold them and have control over them. I assume this because he always brings me a banana when he wants one, and tries to peel it, and then insists on holding it while eating it.

Balls
These are mainly legumes and fruits.

He's crazy about beans--cooking beans, warmed beans, Mexican restaurant beans, beans from a jar, even Trader Joe's Marinaded 3 Bean Salad, which I wouldn't have pegged as a baby food. But he loves it.

He's equally crazy about peas. I like to sautee peas in some oil and onions and tomato sauce. Last time, I added a few sliced carrots as well. He ate the peas--first with a spoon but then gave up and just used his fingers. He systematically ate all the peas but left the carrots.

And finally the blueberries and grapes. He spent a whole month this past summer living off blueberries. I hadn't bought them since (because they're pricey now) until today when my parents bought some. He went nuts and ate almost the entire 14 oz package. He was thrilled to see the blueberries and kept calling them "bub, bub." I was shocked. I didn't think he'd remember that far.

Meat
Lately it appears that he's becoming a carnivore---he loves chicken, he loves beef. He ate cooked brisket for dinner last night (courtesy of my parents) and insisted on eating "me, me," which we've learned today means meat as well as milk, this morning for breakfast. Some cooked brisket and bread!

And he's crazy about bread, unless it's served with hummus (or jam or cream cheese) in which case he'll just lick the dip of the bread and ask for more. This is when I step in and insist he bites and chews and eats his bread too!