Crystal, what does Caroline eat?

WELL. What doesn't she eat is more like what you should be asking. The girl has inherited her dad's vast food palate. I'll post some pictures of what she likes. And for the record, no, I have not opened up a baby food store contrary to the amount of food you see. :) We have to be stocked up at all times just in case a typhoon were to hit. Oh, and a very important side note, but TMI alert for the men... Caroline is still breastfed. She nurses first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I have let her decide how frequently she wants to nurse. I'm so proud that we made it to the one year mark, especially with all of the difficulties along the way. She's never had a drop of formula - my goal - and I'm thrilled. I know that's not for everyone though, so please know that if you chose a different way to feed your baby, I DO NOT judge! (Oh and if you're wondering why I don't make my own baby food... Guam doesn't exactly offer the best or freshest options. Maybe when we get back to the States and have Baby #2 though... we'll see.) Moving on to the pictures:

Fruits to veggies to meats! Bananas, Applesauce, Pears, Mangoes, Hawaiian Delight, Apricots (more on those later), Apples with Blueberries and Banana Strawberry are some of her favorite fruits. She also likes fresh bananas but not fresh grapes or apples. Her favorite veggies are Mixed Veggie Cocktail, Corn & Sweet Potato, green beans with meat mixed in and... hmmm, that's about it. She'll eat carrots sometimes and broccoli but that's about it. Her meat dinners have veggies mixed in, so that's where she gets a lot of her veggie intake. As for her favorite dinners? Spaghetti, Chicken with veggies, Beef with veggies, Apple Chicken, Sweet Potato and Turkey and Chicken Noodle. I also give her bites of what I have for dinner, which she loves. And the girl is a HUGE bread fan, just like me. Oh and blueberry muffin fan as I discovered the other day when I tried to eat one. I think I got about 25% of it while she scarfed down 75%. That folks, is love.

I almost forgot to tell you the apricot story! So Benjamin may not be thrilled that I am sharing this with you all, but too bad. Thine who bloggeth gets to chooseth. One day he took a bag of dried apricots to work and ate the whole thing. Luckily he wasn't flying yet because the urge hit him and well, let's just say that the apricots cleaned the man out. I wondered if this would work as well in mini-Ben, so I gave her Gerber apricots one day and it worked like a charm. So any time I suspect she is getting a little backed up, I feed her apricots and voila!

Think you saw all of her baby food supply? Nope! Caroline loves Gerber cereal puffs in Banana and Strawberry Banana flavor. She also likes Gerber Apple Wheels. But what do we call "baby crack" in this house? What gets Caroline more excited than birthday cupcakes? Gerber Lil Crunchies! They are these tomato flavored puffs that have quite the kick to them. They are pretty tasty but so zesty that I'm surprised that they are baby food! And yes, they do look like Cheetos, Dad, but I'd never feed my baby Cheetos!

To drink, Caroline likes Whole Milk. She'll drink juice too but seems to prefer milk.

On the subject of food, you all know that my little sister is coming out in only TWO SHORT WEEKS, right? Well, my stepmom, Vicky, emailed me asking if I wouldn't mind teaching Katy how to cook. "She could use some basic direction" she told me. "Sure!" I said and I've been very excited about teaching Katy everything I know in the kitchen. And I'm a pretty darn good cook, if I do say so myself. On the menu this week? Chicken Enchiladas, Baked Ziti, Roasted Honey Rosemary Chicken, Homemade Pizza, Apricot Salmon and some other goodies. I have a decent cooking range and love trying new things. Anyway, as I said, I've been excited about teaching Katy. And then... she posted the following picture of herself online:

Wow Vicky, just wow. You weren't kidding. That, folks, is, er, was microwavable Easy Mac. Those crispy black things? Noodles! Looks like I have my work cut out for me! Don't worry though, Katy. This will be you when you leave Guam:
My cooking skills far exceed my Photo editing skills, I promise. Sidenote: Isn't my sister adorable?! LOVE HER! CAN NOT WAIT FOR HER TO GET HERE!!!