Today Josie tried some banana. She was raring to eat and grabbed the banana before we even got the tray all the way on her high chair. Again she picked it up no problem and put it in her mouth and made a big face of ‘ewww what did you just give me?’ that she seems to make the first time with all new foods. She was very eager with the banana, probably a little too eager, as she managed to make herself gag and choke on it unlike with the carrots and sweet potatos. After the third time she gagged, even on the totally mushed up banana on a spoon, and I fished the food out of her mouth we decided she was done. We will try again tomorrow. Jordi thinks the banana might not have been ripe enough, he prefers his bananas much more brown on the outside than I do.

This past Monday we started Josie on steamed carrots. I think she was surprised that something that looked so similar to her sweet potatos didn’t taste and handle the same way. The first night she was not into them at all and balked at how they tasted but by Wednesday (picture below) she was grabbing them and taking small bites like a pro. I think she even likes them now even though I burned them (don’t ask how you burn steamed carrots… I need more sleep).

See her eat them in action on Monday:

Josie isn’t a big fan of cameras and flashes. So we get lots of pictures like:

Last night we started Josie off on her first solid food, yams. Somehow I couldn’t find sweet potato’s in the store, so yams it was! We are following the baby-led weaning approach to eating which basically means we put very soft french-fry shaped finger food in front of her from day 1 and let her decide what to eat and how much. She was definitely ready as she was interested in the food and picked it up like a champ. She had a little trouble with not shutting her hand completely and squishing the yam out of it. But she definitely got a bunch of it in her mouth and swallowed as evidenced by her output this morning. Initially I think she was overwhelmed at all the cameras pointed at her as the food was put in front of her! The high chair unfortunately seemed to get a bit in the way with the big straps and the high table part, she was much more excited and quick to grab and shove the yams in her mouth once I put her on my lap and the yam on the table in front of her. It wasn’t as messy as I had feared, although the cats all came over to check out the goods on the floor.

I went a little nuts with the cooking yesterday and cooked all day long when Josie would let me and so the adults had quite a feast (*relative to normal dinners of mac + cheese or takeout which are more common now) as well. We had yam pie, yam, spinch, carmelized onions and fresh mozzarella pizza, and butternut squash soup. I hope to continue making double duty out of making food for Josie and food for us, such as the baked yam’s that made their way into her dinner and our dinner and dessert. The butternut squash soup happened because they were cheap at the store, it would also be a great baby/adult meal with steamed squash for the baby and soup for the adults, it was really easy once you’ve put in the effort to peel and chop the squash already. I’ll post that recipe later.

Josie’s verdict on the yams: not loving them, not hating them. The only time she spit anything out was when she bit off a chunk of yam, otherwise she seemed interested but not thrilled. We’ll try again tonight, maybe she’ll like them more.
 

 

I can’t believe it’s been half a year since Josie was born. It feels like it was such a short time ago and while some individual days can drag by (like when we’re sick) the weeks seem to be flying past us. This last month we’ve seen some dramatic changes. Josie has mastered sitting and only falls over when she’s grabbed for something way outside of her reach. She loves to walk now while holding hands and took a few steps on her own.

Otherwise this month she’s spent a lot of time comfort nursing because of her painful teeth. She’s got a bigger double chin for it too which is good since she also likes to walk everywhere and will need that stored up energy. She loves the cats and get’s very excited when she see’s them and wants to chase them, giving them ample time to avoid her. Mio and Fred tend to only go about 5 feet away and wait for her to catch up to them before sneaking a bit further away again. She is very clear about which way she wants to go and what she wants to do. We keep having to divert her from eating the cat food. It’s very convenient to understand when she wants to eat as she just walks over to me now and dive bombs the food source. She is highly distractable while nursing now.

She is starting to have some patience for reading books, as opposed to just eating them. She seems like she might have started to understand the idea that her ‘touch and feel kitten’ book has pictures of the same furry creatures that run around her house. She will pat the cat in the book about as well as she pats the read ones, gently about 2 out of 3 times. She also appreciates the books with funny animal sounds for her reader to make like ‘moooo’ and ‘baaaa’. They are still shoved in her mouth before we finish reading them, but now I might get a couple of pages in.

This evening we start solid foods, sweet potato is first! Carrots will be second. Otherwise she loves to drink milk from a real cup with great assistance, plays with milk in a bottle without drinking, and will drink small amounts from a sippy cup unintentionally.

Here are some vital stats:

• Size/weight: some 9 month, some 12 month, check for weight and height next week from doc
• Favorite food: breastmilk
• Favorite toy: plastic photo album, xylophone dog, your hands, teething toys
• Favorite book: touch and feel kittens, moo, ba, la la la.
• Favorite activity: walking around while holding our hands, everywhere
• Sleeping: (on rare good days) wakes up twice a night, 9:30 bedtime, ~7am wakeup, bad days she’s awake up to 5 times a night, napping does not happen unless I am wearing her, or nursing her
• New skill: walking holding our hands, clear direction when walking as to which way she wants to go
• Teeth: source of all misery, not yet arrived
• Vocalizations: whining from teeth, louder babbling

I’m a little older in this photo than Josie currently is, but you get the idea.

 

Josie has been having a rough week and therefore so have I. Lots of fussing, maybe teething, maybe growing, maybe the yeast infection she’s now lucky enough to have from the antibiotics? I also am now sick yet again with a sore throat and congestion. Last weekend we had a fun trip out, need to post on that too, but for now, here’s some cute photos!