The Intersection of Design & Motherhood
June had her first solid food last weekend (rice cereal with water) and it was major event at our house. Her brothers and sisters were so excited — it was like Christmas morning! June is loving solid food — in addition to the rice, she has now mastered apple sauce as well. A true gourmet!
What was your baby’s first meal? Any unusual first foods your baby loved?
I wonder if she thinks it’s normal to have lots of adoring people around for each meal?
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My name is Gabrielle Blair. I'm a designer and mother of six. We are currently living in a dreamy farmhouse in the French countryside. (I have to pinch myself each morning!) I post on the intersection of design and motherhood.
Like what you see? Join me!
New to Design Mom? Here are 10 posts to get you started:
What to Wear To Middle School
Napoleon Dynamite
Our Birth Announcements
Potato Print Clothing
Having Another Child
Young Einstein Birthday Party
Little Red LightHouse Outing
Porch Makeover
Waving Goodbye To The Atlantic Ocean
Build Two Toddler Beds for $75
Pimp My Ride: Family Edition
We've used our base in France to do lots of traveling. It's addictive! Here are some of our adventures:
A trip to Amsterdam.
Canoeing on the Dordogne River.
A Belgian Waffle Tour.
A wintery visit to Cologne.
Three cheers for Barcelona!
The tulip fields in Holland.
We saw the final match of the French Open.
One of our favorite spots is Mont St. Michel.
I wonder where we'll wander next! To see more of our travels, click here.
Here's something fun. Our family was featured in an episode of House Hunters International! Spoiler: we choose the gorgeous French Farmhouse. It's called La Cressonnière and we take pictures of it all the time. If you're curious, try these links:
The Kitchen
Summer at La Cressonnière
The Halfbath
The Stairwell
The Neighbors
Ralph's Bedroom
The Studio
Springtime at La Cressonnière
The Living Room
Maude's Bedroom
The Artists
Oscar & Betty's Bedroom
The Exterior
The Floors
Olive's Bedroom
The Treehouse
The House: La Cressonnière
I hope you enjoy the house tour! Oh. And if you'd like to see the episode, you can find it on Youtube here (it's in four parts).
I write a weekly column called Inspiration Scout on Cafémom. Find new posts on Thursdays.
I write a daily post (Monday through Friday) for Babble's Family Style blog.
{ 68 comments… read them below or add one }
Beautiful baby and family. Great photos too.
I just found your site and have enjoyed looking around and reading older posts.
So cute. Love the big bro’s face.
I adore the pictures of her brothers/sisters hovered over her too funny! You know she is thinking “people I am just eating!”. LoL. My kids both started with rice cereal and then graduated to fruits…..Both my kids were not a fan of meats etc in a jar. They seriously only ate jar food b/c they had to. They couldn’t wait for table food! They always would stare at us while we were eating.
What a sweet family! My word, that baby is cute!
Now I chant (like I almost mean it), “I am done having babies. I am done having babies. I am done having babies. I am done having babies.”
I think my little Espen would LOVE to have an adoring audience around him for every meal. The funniest thing Espen has liked so far has been a taste of my Jalfrezi chicken curry! His Gerber mac and cheese – no thanks. My spicy Indian curry – yes please, mama!
I plan on using Avocados (a friend said that is what she started with). Then Rice cereal.
after the purees, my boys first solid (non-pureed) meal was brisket.
what a hit
I can second the recommendation for avocados. They’re a great first food. (In fact, I usually skip the rice cereal. It sort of, well, backs up my babies, if you know what I mean…)
I just LOVE your adoring children attending her first solid food meal! So so sweet.
I love how much your kids love her! That is a brilliant photo. My daughter absolutely adored (and still does) sweet potatoes.
sweet little princess! ♥ ♥ ♥
My youngest didn’t like any fruits…and still doesn’t with the exception of apples and bananas. He would eat squash, sweet potatoes and beans…but no apples or pears or berries.
that is just about the sweetest thing i’ve ever seen. your children seem like such wonderful, happy + playful little people. june is a very lucky baby :)
: )
On a side note, I love her bib. (And all of the children huddled around her!)
Kelly
Awww!!! I love how they’re all around her enjoying her first meal! My son LOVED applesauce and rice for his first meal! He still likes his applesauce & rice (grain rice) but I don’t know if he’d eat them together! Ha!
My oldest daughter adored avocados. I would almost whip them up and she would eat and eat and eat. This was her first baby food that was not rejected. My youngest had a thing for pear sauce…. I miss the days of feeding a baby! I would take the mess, smeared food and drool anyday over the eyes of both my girls staring their “gross” dinner down. Sigh….
Both our girls had avocados as their first solids – they LOVED them, and still love them today (they are 4 and 2).
Jealous! My son is 6 months old now and trying to get him to eat food has been a bit of a challenge. He is always reaching for our food, but when we go to feed him rice cereal, bananas, applesauce–he takes a bite and makes a face like it’s the grossest thing he’s ever eaten. Maybe I just need to find the right food… avacados and sweet potatoes, you’re next!
Aw. Little kids love babies :) It must be exciting for little June to have so much attention too!
After rice cereal, our baby’s first solid food was broccoli. He liked it but it was messy to feed :)
So, so cute. You are truly blessed!
This is too cute of all your kids watching June eat her first bites. What a darling family you have!
look at those proud sibling faces.
so sweet, so cute!
Avocado was Elleanor’s first food followed byapplesauce, mango was another great one she loved! Cute Pictures, having an audience is the best :)
What adorable children you have! Henry first tried green beans (I know, not the best first food to give him, I’m sure). Since then we’ve added sweet potatoes, bananas (a favorite), and some others that aren’t coming to mind right now. :) It’s always fun trying new foods!
We do avocado as a first. Its been a big hit s far.
So cute ! The whole lot of you!
Oh, I love the picture of your kids all gathered around to watch June eat. Such a cute family!
So much love, it’s exuding off my monitor!
I had to insert my “Awwww!” The pic with her fan club is a keeper!
I love those photos. Baby June is such a lucky gal!
I think it is soooo sweet that your children are all so interested in the new baby. Adorable!!
well this is the sweetest thing i have ever read.
Those pictures capture the essence of the true joy of motherhood! Love it! :) What a darling family.
Aw how awesome for all of you! I skipped rice cereal with the Girl and went to the oatmeal stuff. Both my kids were huge fans of sweet potatoes, applesauce, and avocados (which would totally gross out a few of my daycare gals!). I love making my own babyfood, although guests often found the green/yellow/orange ice cubes a bit perplexing. : )
How cute are all your little munchkins gathered around June? I love how they are all eagerly anticipating her reaction.
oh my goodness. all the cuteness is killing me.
Maddie started solids this summer and she ate anything and everything from our CSA shipments. Her daycare teachers were very surprised when I sent her in one day with beets (which she loves!). Her favorite is blueberries, but she eats parsnips (with nutmeg), zucchini and basil, pears, mango, cucumber, etc.
My baby just had beets this week, too! I didn’t think of giving her the parsnips; I’ll have to try that. I did the beets with onions. Her first food was potatoes (Iused potato flakes). I also made a pinto bean puree for her, and se loved that.
I haven’t done cucumber; did you just deseed it and blend it?
The look of anticipation on her face is priceless. Everyone should have such an adoring entourage!
that’s a whole lot of love right there! how very blessed you all are.
So adorable! Harper is just a little bit younger than June and we are hoping to start some solids soon! Glad to read all of these suggestions.
That is SO sweet. Big families are great! (I’m second to oldest in a family of 7 kids)
i see there’s already a lot of avocado love on here, but as a dietitian and a mom of three, i have to agree as well. we are all huge avocado fans around here and my girls all loved them as first foods. they’re so easy to mash and they are so nutritious with all those good fats that babies (and all of us!) need! i used to mix them up with anything and everything– put anything through the baby food grinder and then mix it with a little avocado to make it nice and creamy. potatoes and avocado, pears and avocado, cooked carrots and avocado, rice and avocado– the possibilities are endless!
love all of june’s doting fans! so cute. i remember watching the same thing with my last girl– the two older sisters were SO excited for the big day!
P.S. we just moved to Denver about 6 weeks ago– Centennial actually. we are also LDS and in the Littleton Stake! we’re liking it so far, but do miss the East Coast!
Such a sweet family. Another awesome first food is pureed pumpkin. I’m convenient and just use the Libby can from the grocery store and put the leftovers in an ice cube tray.
Adorable!
Thought I’ll just share this piece of information about a different culture.
I’m Bengali and in our culture, the first solid food that a baby eats is a major ceremony called the Annaprashan. Held around the 5th month for girls and 6th for boys, the ceremony happens at the father’ side of the family. A plate with many, MANY little bowls of different kinds of curry are served with the most important part which is the dessert called “Payesh”. Payesh is made from boiling rice in milk and sweetened with sugar or jaggery and flavored with cardamom.
Traditionally, a little bit from all the different types of curry are brought near the baby’s lower lip and touched to it. It’s pretty cute watching the baby trying to lick his lower lip, figuring out what the hell is going on. But the food is not “fed”. This is said to have made the baby angry.
Another ceremony is held at the baby’s maternal home a couple of days later, called the “Raag Bhangano”, literally translating to “Pacifying the baby’s temper”. (The baby was angry from not being teased with the food, remember? LOL) A similar lavish spread is laid out, and this is when the payesh is actually fed, just a spoon or so.
The most interesting part of the ceremony is perhaps what follows the eating. A tray with a gold ornament, a pen, a book and some soil will be brought to the baby. These symbolise money, career, learning and property repectively. What the baby picks is said to be related to its future.
Given the lack of time and the fact that getting the family together at a big function is difficult these days, both the ceremonies are merged into one called the Annaprashan. This is also when the baby is named, though that happens much earlier these days because of legal formalities such as getting a birth certificate etc.
Pretty strange and elaborate, but these little ceremonies are now just a way for the families to meet and have a good time :)
your children all huddled around baby june is just too stinking cute. do they all open their mouths? i always ended up opening my mouth while feeding my babies. my oldest’s first meal was mashed potatoes–it was thanksgiving and my own mom couldn’t wait to feed that baby. lol. but, then we went to rice cereal and then to veggies then fruit–giving a few days between adding a new food.
Avocado and then roasted sweet potato! Then we quickly moved on to a little bit of everything we were eating. Curried lentils. Salmon puttanesca. Yes! She likes food with flavor, not bland things. She’s my daughter, that’s for sure. Enjoy!
My son’s first food was rice cereal, and as Krissy mentioned, it slowed him down. I didn’t want to omit cereal from his diet since he needed the iron, so a little pureed prune or apricot mixed in solved the problem. Now he’s 7 months old and will eat almost anything, with mango being a particular favorite.
Oh! Solid foods have been such a blessing! My son loves to eat! He eats just about everything now, except beef and peas, which is OK by mamma since she doesn’t like them either! :o) The doctor suggested starting him out on meat because of the iron, and he loves turkey. He’s never liked cereal and the doctor said it wasn’t necessary, but sometimes if my homemade stuff is a little juicy, I’ll mix a little cereal in to feed easier. Sweet potatoes are his favorite by far, but he also loves raspberries and pineapple mixed together.
Aww, I wish I had an entire cheering squad every time I ate! She’s an absolute doll!
Oh, so sweet! And who wouldn’t want an adoring crew watching!?! My daughter loved pumpkin puree. I confess I bought the canned stuff (that’s only pumpkin, not the pie starter).
I bet the other kids wish they were still spoon fed. Ahhh…the good life.
Uh, those are the most adorable pictures ever! It’s like one big family meal!
She is adorable!
We discovered Happy Baby frozen baby foods with my last babe. He loved them, and they taste so fresh, I’d eat them myself.
(I actually do season them and put them in quesadillas and other sandwich filling for my older kids.)
yay for first food. Now I want to come over to your house and make her a big bowl of something yummy just so I can see her enjoy it myself.
Oh Gabby! This is the happiest I have felt since giving birth! Thanks for these photos-a tribute that life is beautiful in its complete simplicity.
hi Gabby, i’m a huge fan of your blog. these photos are especially adorable and baby june’s face is priceless!
Congratulations to baby June! Great milestone. I love that the whole family celebrated the accomplishment.
My daughter Adyison is 6 months old. We skipped the baby cereal and went straight to homemade baby food. Avocados followed by bananas… the second week we added peas and sweet potato! Next week is sweet pumpkins and beets! yum!
Aw!! June is such a superstar! I LOVE these pictures. I love how big brothers and sisters can make little ones feel like such a big deal!
hi baby J!
same with Adyison, my son Dante skip the cereal.
it’s called BLW method, and it’s fun!
Hi,
I just went through a miscarriage. And then always am wondering, doudting if I really need a second baby. But picture like yours makes me want 6 also. What a happy household and what lucky kids to have you. Don’t know how you do it all. Have six, a carrier and even art.
Love the photos! Emmeline’s first food was avocado mixed with breast milk. We had a heck of a time finding foods that wouldn’t constipate her, so anything starchy was a no go until she was a toddler. That’s okay though because this kid loves avocados. :)
Moiteyee – I’m sorry to hear about your miscarriage. We lost our first baby at 12 weeks, and I know how awful it can be. Not to be some random person on the Internet handing out advice, but I found that a good abdominal massage helped me quite a bit. Any massage really because being good to yourself now is important. {{Hugs}}
And I don’t know she does it either, but I sure have fun reading about it!
I did baby led weaning with both of children and seriously cannot recommend it enough. It is amazing to see a 6 month old eating independently the same food as the rest of your family. I think their first food was roasted sweet potato chips!
Angel, thank you so much. Massage does feel like a great idea.
We did baby led weaning along with some purees. He didn’t start liking purees till a little later though. His first meal was chunks of chicken + avocado wedges. I ate the same thing. He loves peaches and apples — but no bananas.
June is so lucky to have so many admirers watching her eat. Jax only has our dog who is not so admiring, more hungrily observing.