Mum Mum Mum

So I'm blessed with an incredibly independent nearly 8-month old tot.  He wants so badly to be doing everything for himself, which includes eating.  Problem is, he's not exactly in possesion of the motor skills (or full comprehension that things must be chewed/swallowed) to do this very well.

Luckily we were with some friends who have 2 children older than ours this past weekend, and they shared some of their 12 month old's snacks with us.  And Mitchell fell in love.

What, you ask, was this glorious snack?  The Mum Mum...

Let me state first that I know that these provide hardly any nutrition.  They are basically air.  However, he will attack one with gusto mainly, I think, because he can feed himself.  I hardly even have to worry about him choking becuase they mush up almost immediately.  I do watch him, don't get me wrong; it's just that with some of the other puffs and things that we've tried he can still get them in his mouth and swallow them before they start to dissolve, so we've had a few minor incidents that have resulted in back blows (or fishing them out of his throat, fun). 

Luckily I'm trained in infant CPR and it's clear that we aren't quite ready for those yet!  If we do use those I smear them with something wet (baby food of some sort) so to start the softening process before he gets his little paws on them.  These Mum Mum things come in original flavor (which basically means none) and vegetable.  They are apparently available in an organic version too, but my Wal-Mart doesn't carry those.  These snacks are made in China, but I did some research and the milk powder that they use is imported from New Zealand and there is no danger that they are affected by the tainted milk recalls that Chinese food products have been subject to lately.

The other thing we are LOVING right now is this contraption:

This one is made by Munchkin but other brands carry them too.  You can put fresh food in them and babies can mush their food up.  Mitchell didn't cotton to his right away, so I started using it as a teether so he'd get used to it, putting ice in it and he'd go to town on it to soothe those poor swollen gums!  Now, though, it is a fixture at mealtime.  We've had banana, watermelon, canteloupe, avocados, and peas in ours.  They are very messy but lots of fun for the kids!