Pandora's Box

Now that I let Baby L have her first taste of food (oranges), it's like I opened the floodgates to a whole new world for her.  She anxiously awaits her share of food when we sit down to eat, and I am pretty sure in her mind she's ready for solids, even though she barely eats any.  I may have created a monster.

At any rate, since the sticky oranges, we've experimented with a few other foods.

AVOCADO
She sat down with some wedges of avocado the other day.  It was a messy messy affair, resulting in green goopy stains all over the miSwivel straps, her shirt, her face, her hair, and of course the chair, tray and floor.  I think it took me 20 minutes to get her and everything else cleaned up.

But she loved it, even though I think in total she only ingested enough avocado to cover the surface of a penny.  If that.

STRAWBERRIES
We also gave her some strawberries (halved or whole, with the tips cut off).  She wasn't interested, and the strawberries didn't even make it to her mouth before they were tossed on the floor.  Remind me to try that one again later.

YAM FRIES
Bad us.  We were out enjoying a gorgeous evening on the patio at Earls, and of course my baby wanted in on the dining.  She whined and whined and so, when Hubbs was holding her in his lap, we decided we'd wipe some of the salt off his yam fries and give her one or two.  Success.  She sort of ducked her head and made like a squirrel, noshing away at her fry and eating the tip off one or two.  Of course, those fries weren't super crispy and were very mushy in the middle, which meant that she managed to get little globs of orange on her shirt and her pants and of course, all over her face and hands and neck.  Thankfully we had packed a whole package of Costco baby wipes with us, because we ended up using quite a few to wipe her down.

On our way home, we were overcome with bad parenting guilt and vowed not to give her fries again for a long while, since at her age the oil and the salt are wholly unnecessary and we don't want her to end up being a junk food lover.

MUMMUMS
Have you heard of these things? They're like baby rice crackers, and they melt in baby's mouth super easily, so they are supposed to be a transitional food for infants going from stage 1 purees to stage 2 solids.  Of course, with BLW there are no purees, so we were happy to jump right in and give Baby L a cracker or two tonight.  In the end, we gave her 4 Mummums, though I think in total she only ate about half of one.  The other chunks ended up on her tray, the floor, and her seat.  Oh, and there were a few small chunks trapped underneath her two chins.

She really enjoyed her crackers, although she tried to reach for my pizza while we were having dinner.  Apparently, she noticed that her crackers were not the same as my meaty slice of pie, and she wanted in on the grown-up food.  She also reached for my protein shake earlier in the evening (all the while smacking her gums).  She is *so* ready for solids!

This week, I am hoping to introduce her to steamed zucchini (we'll be eating zucchini fries a la Pinterest), lasagna noodles, more avocado (this time with a bib), steamed broccoli, and maybe some toast (we'll see about that one).  I am also planning to switch her to Similac Advance ready-to-serve formula, and see if she can tolerate it.  She has been drinking Similac Sensitive for the past 3-4 months but I am wanting to stop boiling water, and the Sensitive stuff doesn't come in a ready-mixed bottle (not in Canada, at any rate).   Hopefully she won't suffer any digestive repercussions from the new formula mix.  It's supplement, at any rate - she mostly still drinks Mommy milk and we know that she still loves the stuff, preferring it to everything else.

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Striking a pose in her 18-24 month Old Navy shirt - LOL!

Totally unrelated note, but Baby L has been sleeping a LOT today.  As in, she slept more than she was awake (very rare occurrence).  She went to bed at 8:50 last night and dream fed a few times, but didn't actually wake up until 6:00 this morning.  Then she had a lengthy 3h45min nap, followed by a nearly 2-hour nap, and one more 1-hour nap before she hit the sack at 8:30.  If you know Baby L, you'd know that this is highly unusual.  Is it a growth spurt at 5 months? Should I be concerned?!

Well, if it keeps up I'll be worried, but for today I was glad to have some extra time to rest alongside my girl.  And with all that sleep, she was in great spirits which made life generally awesome for Hubbs and I (and for her, too)! We'll see if she's suddenly an inch taller or 3 pounds heavier or much more chubby-cheeked when she wakes up.  ;)