A new era has begun. Last weekend at brunch (yes brunch — we fancy), Babystar refused her carefully thawed and packed puree (just kidding — I brought pouches) and instead shared my meal. First time ever. In fact, I think she ate about five percent of my thirteen dollar dish so I guess I have to add 0.65 to her totals. I had French toast and turkey sausage and home fries and scrambled egg and plus there were free homemade donuts on the table in lieu of a bread basket. FREE DONUTS, PEOPLE. She mostly ate the scrambled egg with a few bites of potato and French toast. She did not eat the food I packed for her. Not at all.

So now we share cereal and fruit (cut reallllly small) for breakfast. Pasta with tomato for lunch. Fried rice. Scrambled eggs. A waffle fry at Chik-Fil-a (yep). All of the strawberries. Peas and carrots. Extra ripe pears. Quinoa waffles. Thai noodles with tofu. Toast and applesauce. Pulled pork and mashed potatoes.

Plus she still will eat some purees sometimes* as long as she has something more solid to accompany the mush. It is fun and hilarious and annoying and I love it.

And it’s a natural forced diet because I can no longer eat anything that I wouldn’t want her to eat. Lame. Mmmm. Please pass more roasted veggies. (Ok, yum, but COME ON CAN I GET SOME POTATO CHIPS?! Nope.)

Organic eggs + strawberries for days + ten percent of most of my meals for the last week + tiny cans of diced veggies for when I’m lazy + diced tomatoes for her pasta because she doesn’t know about sauce yet + all of the Cheerios = let’s call it $25. Conservatively. So, $25.65, I guess.

*Babystar doesn’t like ‘big girl’ sweet potatoes. She only likes loves the sweet potatoes I roast and puree for her. Are the regular ones too stringy? Does anyone else’s weirdo kid do this?

RAISING BABYSTAR:  $7,823.04