An acquired taste

Nothing is more eye opening at times than having a child.  It’s funny how your perspective changes and you begin to see things in a different light, and are even amused by the simplest things as you attempt to see them through the eyes of your “mini me.” In the case of solid foods, it’s been fun seeing what foods Enzo seems interested in and which foods are a complete bust (for now).

The funniest experience so far has had to be avocado. I don’t know that he’s ever been so expressive in his faces… kind of awesome. There were times when it looked like he was begging Josh to save him and then he’d kind of ROAR and throw the spoon and bowl down and mash the avocado into the tray.

At least he tried something new. I’ll let the pictures tell the story… they kind of speak for themself.

Needless to say, we probably won’t try avocados again for a while.

6 months old

Mr. Enzo,

You are now officially 6 months old, and I love you more and more each day. Just ignore how cliche that sounds, as one day, you too will understand the sentiment.

These days you are sitting up by yourself and attempting to crawl, though, you haven’t quite figured out the mechanics yet, and I think the cats are both grateful for this as they can still run away from your very curious hands.  Aside from the cats some of your favorite things are:

*Baths. You love to splash around in the water and as soon as you hear the water in the tub, your eyes light up and you get so excited because you know exactly what time it is.

*Mirrors. You love to smile at yourself and whoever is holding you. Playing your piano is twice as much fun now with someone to play with. 😉

*Your lovey(s). Sometimes the only way to get you settled for the night is if you have a lovey in hand to rub your face and hands in – yours are a monster and a robot.

*Throwing things. You’re one of the few kids at day care who constantly throws their pacifier out of their crib during nap time and have discovered how fun it is to toss your bowl and spoon off of your high chair rather than trying what is in the bowl.

*Talking. You crack your dad and I up when you get on a talking streak – so much to say!

*Jumping! You can keep jumping in your jumper long after I can manage to keep up (you think it’s fun if your dad or I jump with you). You also love to jump when in the tub (tsk tsk) and when you’re being held.

*Lights. Especially the red numbers on your CD player. Some nights if you’re not sleepy after your bottle, all you want to do is look at the red numbers while we listen to various Rockabye Baby! CDs.

There are so many things I love about you, including:

*Your determination with a dash of stubborness. You have a bit of an independent spirit and you are determined to do so many things on your own. You took the spoon for a day and then decided you should feed yourself or not have food at all (you’ve been trying to feed yourself your own bottle for ages, but your hands aren’t quite big enough). You sometimes get frustrated if you can’t do everything yourself, but I love how determined you are to keep trying and figure it out and too stubborn to accept help at times. I imagine this is a trait that will stick you, so hopefully when you’re older you’ll learn to accept help when it’s offered rather than trying to do everything by yourself. I can’t imagine where you got that from. :p

*Your smile. It’s infectious and I look forward to it the entire day when I drop you off at day care.  When I’m having a bad day I just count down the hours until I get to pick you up and see that smile.

*Your sense of humor. Okay, so you think your dad is funnier than I am – I can live with that. I love your silly faces and how much you laugh and giggle at your ridiculous parents.

*When you aren’t being a ham, I love how alert and serious you can be. You seem so contemplative at times as you watch what’s happening around you. What are you thinking?

You are a gift and I treasure you, little man.  I love you to the moon and back!

Oh blah-di, oh blah-dah…

The end of October and potentially Fall already? How did that happen? I can’t really think of anything exciting that’s taken place during our month of October, which in a way is kind of sad, but on the other hand, I don’t necessarily mind.  I get a little stir-crazy now and then, but we’ve kept ourselves busy with a few house projects, and the wee man also makes the time pass very quickly.  I remember getting bored if we went two weekends with no plans, but now?  Not so much. I feel lucky when I can kick back and relax for an hour or two with nothing but a book or sit down and watch a movie with Josh. For people who love movies, we’ve watched very few in the past 6 months. :p We also realized it’s been two months since we had a “date” night where we went out.  Sure, we’ve had a few nights where we’ll pour a glass of wine after Enzo is asleep, and hang out, but does that really count? I’m not so sure… I imagine our pediatrician will say no if she asks at his 6 month check up. 😉

 

Anyhoo, the wee man is doing great, aside from teething. He’s so good at sitting up by himself now!  He still gets wobbly and has taken a few topples, but nothing too severe. He’ll cry for a few seconds, but then is perfectly all right again. What can I say?  Even when you’re right there it’s easy for them to just suddenly topple over in a direction you weren’t planning while you were grabbing something and *smack* floor. I felt really bad about it the first time when he managed to hit the only part of the floor that I hadn’t padded. Go figure.

 

Food is going well. He’s tried several other fruits/veggies in his mesh food thing, which I think sort of helps while he’s teething and makes me not worry about him choking on any food and allows him to take control of his feeding.  We’ll probably try a few “whole” foods soon and see how he does… maybe some sweet potato sticks and avocado slices. I figure if he doesn’t like avocado, I can just whip up some guacamole for Josh and I. 😉

 

In other events, not much is new. Enzo continues to amuse us as his personality becomes more distinct. I can’t believe he’ll be 6 months old on Saturday. We’re also not always boring… we’ve having some people over on Saturday to hang out. We were going to do one of those Murder Mystery parties, but alas, it had to be postponed until everyone can make it. I’ve always wanted to do one, so I’m looking forward to when we actually can.

And on that note… Flying ninja baby!

“Food Should Be Fun” ~ Thomas Keller

We’ve been continuing introducing new foods to Enzo with mixed results.  It was definitely funny to see his many reactions when we decided to try peas as a first veggie after we tried out rice cereal and oatmeal. At first, he wasn’t thrilled.

But, he seemed to get more into it as we tried some more.

He seemed to be more interested in trying to use the spoon himself, but we got some laughs and he did manage to eat quite a few spoonfuls.

The next few days with peas were hit and miss, so we didn’t force it and moved along to carrots.

Enzo did not seem terribly interested in carrots, which didn’t surprise me too much, and when he showed little interest in them the next day, we gave it a break – I also got sick, so our nightly routine got a little out of whack. His new fascination, however, became the bowl.  He didn’t care about the spoon… or the food, just the bowl.

So, since he didn’t seem too keen on carrots, I thought maybe he’d like sweet potatoes as they’re a tastier vegetable (in my opinion).  So, tonight we gave it a try, but once again there was little interest in being spoon fed and more interest in chewing on the bowl. At one point, though, he did grab the spoon and proceeded to hit the bowl, and then what looked like to us, attempted to feed himself.

Towards the end he seemed to get a little frustrated, and I’m thinking we may give solids a little bit of a rest.  Our little independent stinker has me thinking that purees might not be the route to go with him after reading a few baby-led weaning sites.  He wants to do so much for himself, that I’m wondering if he might respond better to food if he was able to take more control and feed himself?  I’m not expert, obviously, so I’m going to do a little more research and see what we can do to meet his needs best.

Granted, he could just be teething, so he’s just not interested in really trying new foods right now at all.  :p  It’s never straight-forward is it?  Ha ha.  I am really wondering about the teething thing, though. Josh and I tried to get a good look today after I thought I felt something when Enzo started gnawing on my finger.

I’d like to say we have more going on lately, but not really.  I managed to get food poisoning or the flu… thankfully neither Josh or Enzo got sick, so at least that.  Otherwise, life is grand!

Spoons and Pumpkins

We were originally going to wait to try solids until Enzo was 6 months old, but he’s been showing more and more interest in what we’re eating and grabbing for food, so we decided to give him rice cereal this weekend to see how he would take to a spoon.

He was all over that first bite and immediately wanted more, which I wasn’t expecting. I’d heard that a lot of the time babies don’t necessarily like the rice cereal, but whether it was the taste or the experience, he wanted more.

Seeing his reaction, I think we’ll try a veggie next week – most likely sweet potatoes and see how he likes those.  We aren’t in a rush to replace his bottles with solid food since most of his vitamins and minerals come from his formula, but we figure introducing new tastes in small amounts won’t hurt anything, and he really likes it, so it keeps him happy at dinner time.

The rest of our week has been fairly low-key.  Enzo has been practicing his sitting more and more, and is getting closer and closer to not needing us for support.

Today we also decided to get some pumpkins for the front porch so it doesn’t look so bare and sad, so we hit up a nearby pumpkin patch!  Enzo, however, fell asleep so he did not get to sit out in the cold with us. Ha ha.

Instead, we took him home and let him check out our awesome gourds.  He’s also been non-stop talking today, which is hilarious and also awesome.  This kid has a LOT to say!