Homemade

As I prepared carrots for Baby Beck tonight it hit me that this may very well be the last time I make a large batch of baby food. Who knows if I will have another a baby and Beck is eating nearly all finger foods these days. (Carrots are the last of the purees as they make me the most fearful of choking.) I have had two babies to feed now and am proud to say I have not once purchased a jar, a little tub, nor a pouch of pre-made food for either one. OK, I do buy the squeezy things of apple sauce, but that is simply because Anderson thinks they are so much fun.

It's not that I have anything against store-bought baby food, it's just that I could never personally justify the expense (I mean, a pound of organic carrots at Trader Joe's only costs 79 cents. Yes, the fancy organic ones. That's a lot of premade pouches of carrots for a fraction of the cost) nor the not-entirely-natural color of those pre-packaged baby foods. Because even the organic, all natural, super expensive carrots are strangely dark in color compared to the ones I just pulled off the stove.

I don't know that I ever intended to make all of the food for both of the boys, but it just became the way I did things. I made it every two weeks or so and suppllemented with finger foods as it became easier to do so. I never worried about "stages" or readiness for certain foods and they transitioned from purees to solids without issue as I offered both at the earliest signs of them being ready.

With Baby Beck it seems like I have hardly spent any time at all in the kitchen peeling, steaming, and mashing (maybe I have just become more efficient). It's just one more sign of how fast he is growing up. Who knows if, in the long run, it makes any difference at all that I chosen to make food as opposed to buy it in the baby aisle. I'm sure it probably doesn't. And surely it doesn't make me any better than evry other mom out there who buys their baby food. But I have a toddler who requests spinach as a snack and who recently pushed aside a cupcake to eat carrots, so I have to believe there must be something to being raised on food that looks, smells, feels, and tastes the way it should.

 Wow are those are some seriously bright carrots!