She eats EVERYTHING!!!!

Oh Boy! Messy!
Originally uploaded by Isabella Youlan.

One member of the group we traveled with to China posted a recipe for Chinese egg custard for babies, like they made for us in Nanchang, but we’re not sure we will use it since Bella seems to be turning up her nose at “baby” food. We think she is already used to having a little more flavor, and she likes texture, too. We don’t think she was self-feeding in her foster home, but she sure loves it now, and is getting the hang of using a spoon as well. She still loves watermelon, as in China, and Cheerios are still the best way (other than the dogs) to bring her back from the edge when she is melting down (though once you start it is very hard to stop the constant flow of Cheerios.) The first time she had shrimp she threw it across the room (and in a restaurant, too, but it was a Chinese restaurant, so they cut her a lot of slack), but the second and subsequent times she liked it. She usually seems to especially like new foods, unlike many babies. She will love something one day and then snub it for the new food the next day or even the next meal, but then the next day she will love it again. She wants whatever mama and daddy are having, usually.

Her very favorite food so far seems to be Sweet Potatoes!!! We ate over at Danny and Elizabeth and Ch’aska and Callum’s house, and whenever her supplies of Sweet Potatoes seemed to be dwindling and someone else appeared to have more (or any!) she would scream and reach for them. Ch’aska carefully scraped out the bowl to get every last bit, and finally after we had demonstrated that there was no more orange substance on the table she stopped screaming for it. I swear she ate a pint, though!