Starting Solid Foods Part 1: Adventures and Opinions

I'm no parenting expert, but a lot of my friends are in the early phases of the parenting journey at present, so there are a lot of emails and text chains in which questions and experiences are traded. Questions about when and how to introduce baby to solid foods are by far the most common and consistent emails I get from friends--usually when baby is about 4 months old and they start to face pressure and conflicting information from different directions.

If you're not currently wrangling very small humans, some background:

1. When we were babies, the general recommendation from pediatricians and others in the know was to begin introducing solids (i.e., rice cereal) when baby was 4 months old. Cereal was the name of the game for a while and then jarred/strained baby food joined the party. Gerber was the shizz.
1. This means that our moms were told--by doctors and their mothers--to start solids at 4 months. They also thought that adding rice cereal helped babies sleep (current evidence does not support this and rice cereal is empty calories anyway). But at that point, you'd try anything if someone said it would help with sleep.
2. Current recommendations are moving toward introducing solids at 6 months of age. This is particularly true of breastfed babies, as there is a push toward exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months (for those who choose and are able to do so), but also applies to formula-fed babies.
3. This leads to present-day parents receiving conflicting messages about when to start solids. Some pediatricians are old-school, and some more up on newer research, so even different actual doctor people will tell us different things.
1. On top of that, our parents (now the grandparent set) know how they did it, and that's how they assume we will/should do it. Some because they simply pass on their experience, and some because they think any other way is just plain wrong. 
1. On top of THAT, there are few issues more emotionally fraught than how you feed your child, so any suggestion that encroaches on your parenting territory on that question feels extremely critical and indicative of The Type of Parent You Are.

Before continuing, I'll just say that the rest of this post is probably not relevant to anyone other than current parents and also contains a lot of talk about breastfeeding, so if that's not your thing, feel free to move along.

Googly Eyes

Gets me every time.

I always knew it would be the ferns...

In Case You Thought I Was Exaggerating...

I call this one "Hockey Guy."

#superfan

Chatty Mr. C

I'll tell anyone that asks that I think this age is super fun (Mr. C is 20 months now, but I've been saying it since about 18 months). Yes, he has a lot of opinions and it takes us 12 minutes just to walk in from the car (STICKS! STAIRS!), but he is so sweet and really starting to talk.

I think we tend to judge people's cognitive abilities based on their ability to communicate, which is clearly an error but probably innately human. As C has started gathering more words--too many to count or list now!--and stringing them together, I've realized that there's a lot more going on in that little noggin than I may have been giving him credit for. Both in terms of what he understands or puts together, and what he is able to remember from the past.

We're typically hearing two- and three-word phrases now, with an occasional four-plus utterance to kind of tell a story of sorts. Some notable phrases of late:

• Reminding himself what belongs to whom: "mommy water" or "dada work"
• Quantities: "yights! More yights!" and requests: "More awuls [waffles] please" 
• he almost always says those while still signing them, which kills me with the cute
• animal cracker shoe! (I look over to see that, yes, he is filling his shoe with his animal crackers)
• Yaya ride choo choo! (We saw a choo choo in a book on Wednesday, but I didn't understand what that had to do with Yaya. Then he said, "Yaya ride choo choo...baby" and I realized he was talking about riding a train with her at a birthday party the previous Sunday)

• watch hockey [with] dada?
  
  
• We saw a fire truck drive by the house and waved at them. The firefighters waved back! He later told BA "Hi, wee ooo wee ooo! BIG wee ooo wee ooo."

He's pretty much right on track: lots of nouns, a few verbs, and missing prepositions/other connector words, and I'm not making claims of baby geniusing, but it's so interesting to see how he puts it all together to get his message across.

Back in the Saddle

Hey everyone--

Thanks for hanging around during a bit of a hiatus. As you likely know, my favorite middle sister got hitched 2 weekends ago, so the time leading up to that was a whirlwind. Add in some school closings in the weeks since then, and I've been spending my time coming up with rainy day activities for the little man in lieu of writing posts. But I'm here now and will try to get caught up!

As a token of my laziness gratitude, I will throw some random photos at you while I work on some bigger posts.

Wedding teaser...

I have some iPhone photos of the weekend and the event, but it really doesn't do everything justice. I think I'll wait for the professional shots to come back and ask Yaya what we can share. So I'm not trying to do a full recap here.

He only wanted to sit with her on the bus to church

(and is still talking about BUS--maybe his highlight)

The outfit!

Contemplating the path ahead...

 They handed (threw?) these out on the dance floor at the wedding...

Obviously C was not present at the dance party, but found several afterwards and was reluctant to let the party go

("Neckniss?")

 and LOTS of hockey!

all of the above photos were taken on separate days...I just wash the jersey a lot and always have the hat handy. He gets full credit for the jaunty angle of his backwards chapeau--that's all him.

He loves the jersey, but it's undeniably too small. Like, they're half sleeves on him and he looks like a 7-months-preg lady trying to make a regular shirt happen in the belly region. The grownups went to a game a few nights ago and I was on the prowl for a new (toddler-sized) jersey, but apparently they only make jerseys in infant and adult sizes. All the kid options are t-shirts, which I didn't feel as wild about. So now we have a toddler shirt but...as predicted...it didn't replace the jersey. I merely have TWO items I must now wash nightly.

I think we can stretch it--literally and figuratively--another few weeks so that he can be a "hockey guy" for Halloween. Resistance to the wee ooo wee ooo has not abated and we know he'll happily wear his ah-ckey gear, so there you go. Laziest. Costume. Ever. I will be sure to explain the photos to him when he's older and point out I was not depriving him, but that he was scared of all costumes. 

How are YOU?? What has everyone been up to? Pictures or stories you are particularly wanting to see/hear? Burning questions you want answered?

That Time We Made Cupcakes

and, for whatever reason, C would not touch them with his hands.

All the cool kids eat them like that, mom.

Super Fan

On Saturday, I attended a lovely baby shower while BA joined the dad-to-be for some drinks with the dudes (his deal sounded better...motion to make baby showers at bars...seconded?) Actually, the shower was fun--she got a major haul!--and the party favors were this insane homemade caramel corn, so...I'm not complaining.

Point is, we were both busy, so Mr. C needed alternate supervision. As luck would have it, there was a matinee preseason hockey game, and my dad (foolishly) volunteered to take the kiddo. I think he's a couple years early on making that an actual activity, but I wasn't about to argue.

In preparation, we practiced wearing the headphones.

That morning, Jules gave him a hat to wear to the game. He insisted on taking it to nap. 

(I removed it after taking this photo).

A big time was had by all. Doc reported "he especially liked the BOOMs!" Sadly, Gnash the mascot is on injured reserve with a broken leg (occupational hazard?) so I made a liar out of myself when I promised C he would get to see Gnash. 

However, he got to see a picture of Gnash in a wheelchair, which I'm told was just as exciting. And, while I had prepped Mr. C that Doc does NOT buy treats at games, he came home with a little stuffed Gnash, dressed as a mumpmin and just the right size for little hands. Grandparenthood is clearly making Doc soft.

Apparently he had SO much fun that he is now obsessed with all things hockey. Pulls the jersey out of the laundry basket every day--I have to wash it nightly. Requests hockey on tv; cries when it's not on (it's never on--the season hasn't started). Then requests football and last night settled for baseball(?)

Carries the small Gnash around everywhere. Insists on wearing his hockey hat (we found a kid one, but it's still too big). Found two koozies in the kitchen and carries those around, too. 

We've created a monster. For at least as long as his tiny attention span lasts. Fang fingers, y'all.