Delegating. Genius.

 
Last night (or a couple nights ago?  Who can remember) Lucy volunteered to feed Oliver as I finished dinner preparations. 



Is this not the most beautiful act of delegation you have ever seen?  Marvelous, I tell you.  Marvelous. 



If this is what it feels like when one sibling drives another to school (14 years from now), I will be a happy camper.  I can't even tell you. 



ACTUAL helpfulness.  And she enjoyed every bit of it.  And so did he.  Amazing.

Dining Companions

Lucy loves dinner time.



Dinner time means holding hands to pray ("pay!!").  And stealing Daddy's napkin to see his reaction.  And hearing about everybody's day. 
And pointing to what is "hot!".  And blowing on said hot things.  She loves to point to various dishes and say, "Dat!  Pfweeze.  Dat!" 



And then at the end--"Lucy, are you all done?"  Daaant you table!  Daant you foke!  Daaaaant you pooon.  Daaant you, kichen (chicken)!  And then a quick little pointed finger in her open, empty mouth to show us she has swallowed her last bite. And she's down to play for a few minutes before bed.



I love dinner time with Lucy.

Dinner time with Elliot is such fun, too.



He's very "hot or cold" on eating.  If he wants to eat, his mouth is open, gaping, between every bite, and he does this adorable little laugh just before the food gets to his mouth--like he just can't wait another second. 



If he doesn't want to eat it, he really couldn't care less... and he lets you know it with this bored, glazed over look.

 

These kids are such great dining companions.

Yum, Yum, Yum. And on Finding a Thumb.

 

Elliot has been all about the solids this week! 




We started with rice cereal, of course, but once he got the carrots in his mouth, BOY was he excited.

 

The carrots are delicious.  I boiled 'em in chicken broth and seasoned them with garlic salt.  YUM.



It's nice to see that (so far) he opens his mouth really wide for each bite.  It's so fun.



He makes these terrible faces after the first few bites of everything.  It's so funny.



Also, he's found his thumb!  I love seeing him suck his thumb during the day.



He is one cute little boy.

Going Off the Reservation

 

I had every intention of starting Lucy on solids, one pureed vegetable at a time for four days in a row (so as to rule out any allergy to said vegetable).

 

You know--the way you're supposed to introduce solids. 



Solids are going well, but I have seriously strayed from that method.  It started with tomato basil soup.  Lucy was interested in mine, so I gave her a taste, and wow.  She loved it.  I mean... licking-it-off-her-bib loved it.  I think it's the garlic.  She really likes garlic.

 

I bet Italian babies probably get a lot of garlic early in their lives.

 

All that to say, I have become more adventurous in what I've given her to eat in the last week or two;  I'm mostly just following Lucy's cues.  

 

Of course there are a few serious no-no's for babies under the age of 1 (like honey), and I'm staying away from those.  But otherwise, Lucy and I are really enjoying the little adventure of feeding solids.

 

This morning Lucy enjoyed homemade yogurt with banana.  It was my first time making yogurt, and it turned out pretty good! 

 

She is so darn cute when she eats.

Lucy's First Solids!

With the 6-month mark a week behind us, it is finally time to start introducing some solids into Lucy's diet.

 

"Solids" is a relative term, actually referring to pretty much anything that isn't milk.

 

But babies (at least in the US) usually start with rice cereal, so that's what we're going with.

 

What a face, right?  You'd think she hates it, but actually she kept opening up for more.

 

Can't wait to introduce fruits and veggies!  

Coffee and Sleep

It's been a good week.  But Lucy's been sleeping terribly this week.  It was a mystery to me, because up until now she'd been sleeping so well!  I could feed her, and she'd fall right back to sleep.

I don't know if you recall, but coffee became disgusting to me almost the moment I became pregnant.  So I drank English Breakfast tea during the entire pregnancy.  Almost as soon as Lucy was born, I began to want coffee again.  Last week I finally bought some and enjoyed a good 4 cups of it in one day.  And a couple cups the next day and the next.

Does that seem crazy to you?  It does to me, now.  My sister pointed out that maybe Lucy's not sleeping well because of the extra caffeine.  How did I not even consider that?  What was I thinking?



I was thinking, "gosh I've missed coffee."



Anyways, I am cutting back now.  And Lucy had a great night last night!