Pancakes and kaspetties

Today we went to IHOP for brunch. We don't go there often, but we were making a trip to Babies' R Us to purchase Jonah's new carseat and a few other baby items, and IHOP is right across the street. We have come to a routine when eating out. I feed Jonah his purees after we order, while we wait for our meal to come, and then after our food comes Jonah gets puffs or other finger foods. We've been experimenting with different finger foods for Jonah. Today as he looked longingly at our plates of buttermilk pancakes, I gave in. Out went organic, out went whole grain, out went all of my health-nut-mommy rules. I tore up my pancake and gave it to my son. He loved it of course. He devoured each morsel laid in front of him, with huge smiles that melted the hearts of everyone eating around us.

We ended up not getting the carseat from Babies' R Us. They didn't have the model that I really wanted, and the models that they did have were at least $80 more expensive than what I've seen them go for online. I actually ended up buying a better carseat for $40 less than the least expensive one that we were considering from BRU. We were considering the Britax Marathon, which is a convertible carseat that extends rear facing to 35 lbs and forward facing to 65 pounds. I feel that it is extremely important to keep children riding rear-facing as long as possible, and then still in a five point harness as long as possible after that. Britax is by far the best built car seat sold in the US, and top notch in safety.

The car seat I actually bought online is a few models higher than the Marathon. Jonah will be riding pimped out in the Britax Boulevard. This car seat has safety measures to ensure as little movement as possible in either side collisions or front/back collisions. I wasn't too thrilled with the pattern of fabric that we got, but it was really cheap because the pattern has been discontinued. It matches the interior of the van, and was about $100 cheaper than current patterns, so it isn't so bad (just not my first choice.)
I also picked up some jarred baby food for Jonah. I've noticed that he can eat the textured baby foods that come from a jar, but he isn't doing so well with the textured foods that I make for him. I'm trying to get him used to different textures, but with the home made food, he gags until he throws up. So, I decided that the jarred foods might actually be better for introducing the textures. Tonight he tried spaghetti with cheese. There are a couple of new things in this meal- tomatoes and dairy. I had planned on starting yogurt tomorrow, so dairy isn't such a big deal. Tomatoes aren't that big either, since I was thinking about trying spaghetti with him soon anyway. I've found in my years of working at a nursery, that spaghetti is actually one of the best foods to start offering when beginning table food. If he has a reaction, we will wait a week, then try each separately. So far, it does not look like he will have food allergies. When he was a couple months old, he seemed to have a reaction to strawberries that were in medicine he was getting, but now berries don't seem to bother him.

It is just hard to believe that my little man is already eating pancakes ad kaspetties with cheese, and getting a big boy carseat. It seems like yesterday that he was kickin around in my belly, and I'm sure he'll be off to college by tomorrow.