The only problem I have with seafood is the occasional smells that can come from it, not the bad smells of fish turning but the strong smells from how it’s prepared or packaged.

That was probably Malina’s problem with the canned tuna. I was expecting to run into issues today as well since we were doing another canned item, oysters.

Now, I’ve never had canned oysters before. I have eaten plenty of oysters though. So I wasn’t sure what I was getting us into. They were smoked and on olive oil, both sounded good to me and so we opened the can and found a very light smell.

I was now not so worried.

The rest of our breakfast was toast with butter, banana, and grated mozzarella cheese.

And the first thing she went for was the banana. I tried cutting it the BLW suggested way and we had more success with it today than previously, probably because Malina’s hands are bigger now.

She was able to gnaw off chunks of it and stuck at it for a while, that is at lest until she got the idea to throw it at me.

I did not catch it.

And so the banana was gone, since it touched the floor I wasn’t going to give it back to her.

Malina didn’t seem too upset though as she went for her next item. Toast.

We’ve have on and off success with toast. Malina seems to like it when it has something on it more times that when it’s plain. She also seems to not like the crust as she makes a face when she tried to bite the ends that she doesn’t make when she bites the middle. She also seems to prefer the toast just lightly crispy verses toasted.

It’s really amazing how she communicates using body language and facial expressions. It’ll be interesting when she can actually give me more input as well. Right now it’s a lot of trial and error still and sometimes it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

But today she liked her toast. Was it the butter? Was it the right level of crispy? Or was it just because she seems to be done teething for now?

The next thing she picked up was one of the oysters.

She shoved the first one in her mouth and I waited.

Then she went for a second one and in it went.

Again I waited. I expected her to spit it out. Even just a small amount like almost every other food. Instead, she reached for the third one and I stopped her to make sure she wasn’t just stuffing her mouth like a chipmunk.

The oysters were already gone and the only sign was a bit of the munched up paste they became in her mouth.

So I guess she likes oysters. A lot.

I grabbed this picture as I realized my awe had interrupted taking photos and was amazed once again. She had no problem eating and swallowing the oysters. She always had some level of difficulty with swallowing, she’s still learning that part of eating, but with this it was easy.

She had messed with the cheese throughout the meal but never really tried to eat it. So we called breakfast as being over without it.

So remember, even baby can give you good surprises every now and again, but even if it’s not a good surprise you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

We are starting the second from the last of our allergens: shellfish.

Now there are a lot of things that are considered shellfish. Shrimp, clams, muscles, scallops, lobster, crab, and many more than that.

I love seafood. It’s amazing and I love cooking it. But it’s hard to think of things to feed Malina that are easy for her to eat and easy for me to serve.

When I talked about it with her doctor he said there is no rush and just wait until she’s older and can handle shrimp easier. Because his thought on feeding shellfish was go inexpensive.

I don’t care if I pay for something like crab or lobster and she ‘wastes’ it. I got it for her to try and that’s the price so be it. It’s not like I’m giving her $20 or even $10 of food on her plate.

So I thought of ways to serve her shellfish and while at the store came across a solution.

Shrimp gyoza.

These things have a filling with small pieces of shrimp as well as vegetables. They steam fast and cool quickly. And they are soft enough for her to eat.

So breakfast today was these gyoza,thyme pan seared zucchini, and watermelon.

Malina has been the most interested in the new foods and was quick to pick up one of the gyoza.

(Note: I removed the watermelon fork so she would try the other foods first.)

She loved it. She ended up eating the insides and then attempted to swallow the whole dumpling skin. This led to three rounds of gagging and eating again before she managed to eat it.

Next, after munching on the other gyoza pieces some, she went for her zucchini.

She slapped the pieces around and only ate a couple small (even for her) bites. She did not outright seem to dislike it but she wasn’t interested in it either.

So I gave her the fork with watermelon last.

She really likes her watermelon. She nibbled the edges until the piece was rounded off and fell from the fork. It was really sticky too (did someone say bath day?).

I have to say that the pieces of watermelon we got were very good despite it not being in season yet.

So remember, it’s always good to try new things since you never know what baby will like and it’s also okay not to, either way you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica