My Gorgeous Boy,
We started you on solids just over a week ago. Your Daddy had been saying for a few weeks that he thought you were ready for food; you would watch intently as we ate, sometimes opening your mouth. I had started to let you suck on things, a slice of ginger, some beef fried in soy sauce, so you could start tasting things, but was waiting for other signs that you were ready for food. Silly me. I thought that you weren’t ready because you rarely finished your bottles and we hadn’t even moved up to the quantity for a four month old. You certainly weren’t finishing bottles and then looking still hungry and unsatisfied, like the books told me you would. I have since decided that you were indeed unsatisfied with just the milk, but rather than finish it and look for something else, you just kept snacking at it enough to fill basic hunger but didn’t ever finish it because it wasn’t what you really wanted.
The first morning of rice cereal you didn’t take long at all to get the hang of drawing your tongue into your mouth to swallow rather than thrusting it, and the food, out of your mouth. The smiles you gave me afterwards were fantastic – very satisfied!
It didn’t take long before we started feeding you rice cereal three times a day. So much for the careful approach of once a day for a week or so, then maybe twice a day, then maybe introduce some pureed food. Nope. Not for you, my sweet. Less than a week in and we’re trying you on pumpkin (not a fan so far – you’ll eat it, sort of, and frown the entire time) and apple (better results, once the apple was mixed in with rice cereal). Your Daddy isn’t a fan of the mess, but I love it! I love that your hands *and* your feet have to be part of the process. Clearly your big toe makes everything taste better. I love that when you’re really hungry, there is very little food dribbled down your chin as you intently open your mouth and stick out your tongue for a spoonful, thoughtfully draw your tongue and food back in to be successfully swallowed and then poke out your tongue ready for the next bit. I also love that even when you’re frowning at something new on your tongue, you will smile if I smile at you and say “Om nom nom nom!!!” The power of positivity!
Now that you’re getting solid food, you are finally drinking more milk too, in proper sittings rather than the constant snacking. Hooray! At five and a half months, we can now regularly make up the quantity appropriate for your age; not that you were wasting away before, but I was thinking that the formula companies were awfully optimistic in their advice of quantity for age.
Food is such a glorious adventure with you! I am so looking forward to your first taste of chocolate or ice cream, but that will have to wait a few years. First, all the nommy fruit and vegies of the world; it seems inevitable that you will have an intense sweet tooth like your Daddy and I, but hopefully you’ll develop a love of the good (for you) stuff as well.
You’ve been practising your rolling today. You can now roll from back to front fairly easily, and you are learning that it is far more comfortable to prop yourself up on your arms in front of you rather than having your arms out beside you like a little superman. Tummy time is still not your most favourite thing in the world, but now you are enforcing it yourself! It was so exciting to watch you practising and practising today until you could quite confidently roll; I wonder if you will remember it all tomorrow, or whether there needs to be a few days of consistent practice before it becomes like second nature to you.Next you need to learn to roll from front to back, but in the meantime I think the extra tummy time is doing you good!
You are getting very frustrated at not being able to crawl and move yourself around. You try so hard, but currently moving the legs forward and bum up only results in face-planting, not the forward momentum which you wish to achieve. It will come, but not immediately and not magically. An extremely early lesson in working hard to achieve a dream.
