Tricks of the Trade

With the onset of teething a few weeks ago, 7 month-old Maria has decided that she is NOT interested in eating anything except for mommy’s milk 🙂 Now clearly, the little munchkin is not starving, but she is constantly HUNGRY and I’m having a hard time figuring out what to feed her! She has never been terribly interested in pureed baby foods, but now I can’t even push the spoon into her mouth – when she sees the spoon coming, she clamps her mouth shut! I think that she may be like our eldest, C, who only ever ate food that he could pick up and put into his mouth himself 🙂 

So, I’m asking all of you mommies out there for some suggestions on nutritious finger-foods that I can feed my strong-willed baby! She still has quite a strong “gag” reflex, so even cheerios have a hard time getting into her tummy, but I’m sure that there must be some foods out there that I could try. She loves sucking on huge hunks of apple/carrot, but that’s mostly for teething purposes since she’s not really swallowing anything. Help! I’m starting to feel the effects of waking up a couple of times at night to feed my hungry child 🙂

Second question: How do you ladies tackle the weekly grocery shopping? Before Maria was born I would take C with me, but it has been pretty challenging to do a big grocery trip with BOTH kiddos in tow. I have occasionally put Maria in the Ergo carrier so that C can ride in the cart, but this is awkward and I’m usually exhausted by the end. Do you wait until the weekends when dad can help out? Do you use Peapod or another grocery delivery service? Do you make lots of smaller trips so that they are more manageable with the children along? I’d love to hear everyone’s input!