We started solid foods this week!! Charlie is starting to get the hang of it! He really is more interested in the bowl and spoon and bumbo seat and the dogs walking by and anything else that makes a noise or moves. He will occasionally open his mouth and lean towards the spoon, so that is definite progress! In Babywise II, the authors urge starting solids how you plan on continuing mealtime habits. They say teach now instead of reteaching later, which is wonderful advice, but harder to follow than you think it would be in all aspects of parenting! When reading it, I was thinking that this is all useful, yet pretty common sense. Well sometimes in parenting we need the common sense stuff to be spelled out for us... repeatedly. ANYWHO... The authors also recommend starting mealtime prayer with the very first solid feeding and continuing it throughout. So, we did. I grabbed Charlie's little hands and we gave a prayer of thanks. For some reason, that was really emotional for me. Giving thanks on behalf of my sweet little innocent baby boy. Wow. So moving. I cherish it because the serenity of that moment didn't last long. Charlie's hands started reaching for everything and oatmeal was flying everywhere. I kept putting his hands back down and saying, "Let Mommy do it," "Mommy's job," "Mommy's turn." He has no idea what I'm saying, but teach rather than reteach I guess. Here are some sweet pictures that David captured of mealtime:
Charlie is still enjoying his exersaucer. He loves to bounce, so we went to Target and got a Johnny Jump Up. David hung it from the balusters upstairs so we don't have to go to a doorway and Charlie just walks around in circles with occasional bouncing. He'll get the hang of it. He LOVES when David swings him in the jumper. He giggles every time he goes back and then shuffles his feet on the way forward. Every time we put him in it, the dogs seem to gravitate towards him. Luckily, they don't mind when he gets his hands on them!
PS... Thank you Mamu for the sweet letter and coupons :)
