It's a very convincing beard, you must admit. Especially if you've been hitting the eggnog.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Merry Christmas from Santa Yogurt-covered Jim
It's a very convincing beard, you must admit. Especially if you've been hitting the eggnog.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Look at him gooooo!
Last video for a while, I swear. This one is of Jim trying desperately to get to my Cream of Wheat across the room. Don't worry, we did give him some after he worked so hard to get it - we're not cruel. I don't think this is technically crawling, but he's still a speedy little bugger. He just wallops his way around all day long.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Promoting baby literacy.
Jim's book shelf. Not yet overflowing, but soon...
Our living room has three overflowing bookshelves. The spare room has one. The closet in the computer room is almost completely filled with books that won't fit on our shelves. We like books, Noah and I, and we'd like Jim to like books too, so we're getting started early.
DONE with this page; NEXT please.
To that end, we read to him a LOT. He gets a story every night before bed, sometimes before naps, and at random times throughout the day.
M-O-O-N, that spells appropriate for children.
*Take a look at THAT grammar. You can tell we're literary types, right?
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Being people.
Since we were just talking about Jim's eating habits, I thought I'd show you how he manages. The above video features Jim devouring a delicious pear. He gags a little at the beginning (silly boy tried to have three bites of pear in his mouth at one time), but carries on munching quite happily. The below video involves a spoon and some yogurt. He was pretty funny with the yogurt, actually; kept making absolutely terrible faces while still slurping it up. He can handle a spoon okay, as long as I load it for him. He smears things around a good deal, of course, but at least he knows which end goes in his mouth.
Oh, slight side note of minor importance - guess who got his first tooth yesterday morning!
Friday, December 16, 2011
He's cute, but his sense of humor needs work.
Jim thought it was pretty hilarious whenever I picked up this purple stress ball. Dropping it was kind of amusing, but picking it up was comedy gold.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Baby-Led Solids: Pros and Cons
Jim LOVES food. Well. Sort of. It might be more accurate to say that Jim loves being people. Anything that people do, Jim wants to do. People play with the computer? Jim wants to play with the computer! People read the newspaper? Jim will have a newspaper too! People eat food? Well, Jim must eat food too.
In the interest of helping Jim be people, we decided to go with a thing called baby-led solids (or baby-led weaning). It's not quite as hippie-dippie as it sounds. Basically, it just means skipping the purees stage and going straight to table food. He kind of started this himself when he seized Noah's chicken leg on night, and we've been carrying on with it since.
This is how people use spoons, yes?
Pros of Baby-Led Solids (so far)
Ease. Essentially we just sit Jim at the table with us at dinner and put a little portion on his tray for him to do with as he pleases. No purees, no spoon-feeding, just a little of whatever we're having. This is especially good because it means we can have dinner as a family every night with no hassle. Jim loves being people, like I said, so this is usually the highlight of his day.
Variety. At the advanced age of about six and a half months, Jim has had the opportunity to try quite a large variety of foods. His favorites so far seem to be enchiladas, steamed broccoli, baked sweet potatoes, baked ziti, sauteed green beans with garlic, toast, chicken, baked potatoes, and pulled pork. Foods which he will consume readily but without great relish include bananas, cream of wheat, curry, cauliflower, meatloaf, mac n cheese, pears, carrots, mashed potatoes, and pork chops. The only thing that he doesn't like so far is spicy pasta. I think this wide variety of flavors and textures will help him to not be a picky eater when he's a bit older.
Never let your baby wear long sleeves on enchilada night.
Fun. It's really entertaining to watch him eat. He uses his hands for everything, of course, but he hasn't quite worked out how to get at stuff inside his fists, so he winds up grabbing a big handful of food, eating whatever winds up on the outside of his hands, and then cramming his fist into his mouth wondering why he's not eating whatever is inside. At first he didn't know which end to put in his mouth, either. He'd pick up a green bean, for example, and cram his fist into his mouth with the bean sticking out the other end. He has since figured out that the food end is supposed to go in first. Obviously he isn't perfect at getting stuff in his mouth yet, especially since he's really just exploring flavors and textures right now. Generally about 50% goes into his lap, 20% goes onto the floor (where it is subsequently sniffed and disdained by the cat - we really need to get a dog), 20% goes onto his onesie/face/hands/hair, and about 10% is consumed. Which is okay, seriously - 'food before one is just for fun' and all that.
Cons of Baby-Led Solids (so far)
Scary (but only at first). The first couple of times we let him have food were a little bit nerve-wracking. He's gagged a few times on things, but we've come to realize it's actually a good sign. If he bites off something too big or gets it too far back in his throat, he can kind of just gag it forward until it plops out disgustingly onto his shirt. Still, this was kind of alarming the first couple of times it happened.
Enchiladas and Avocado: The Aftermath.
Messy. And how... Jim doesn't like to wear a bib. If we put a bib on him, more often than not he'll spend the entire time trying to eat and/or yank off the bib. So, we just leave it off and resign ourselves to a lot of laundry and a post-dinner bath every night. Maybe eventually his targeting skills will improve to where he doesn't need a bath after EVERY meal.
In the interest of helping Jim be people, we decided to go with a thing called baby-led solids (or baby-led weaning). It's not quite as hippie-dippie as it sounds. Basically, it just means skipping the purees stage and going straight to table food. He kind of started this himself when he seized Noah's chicken leg on night, and we've been carrying on with it since.
This is how people use spoons, yes?
Pros of Baby-Led Solids (so far)
Ease. Essentially we just sit Jim at the table with us at dinner and put a little portion on his tray for him to do with as he pleases. No purees, no spoon-feeding, just a little of whatever we're having. This is especially good because it means we can have dinner as a family every night with no hassle. Jim loves being people, like I said, so this is usually the highlight of his day.
Variety. At the advanced age of about six and a half months, Jim has had the opportunity to try quite a large variety of foods. His favorites so far seem to be enchiladas, steamed broccoli, baked sweet potatoes, baked ziti, sauteed green beans with garlic, toast, chicken, baked potatoes, and pulled pork. Foods which he will consume readily but without great relish include bananas, cream of wheat, curry, cauliflower, meatloaf, mac n cheese, pears, carrots, mashed potatoes, and pork chops. The only thing that he doesn't like so far is spicy pasta. I think this wide variety of flavors and textures will help him to not be a picky eater when he's a bit older.
Never let your baby wear long sleeves on enchilada night.
Fun. It's really entertaining to watch him eat. He uses his hands for everything, of course, but he hasn't quite worked out how to get at stuff inside his fists, so he winds up grabbing a big handful of food, eating whatever winds up on the outside of his hands, and then cramming his fist into his mouth wondering why he's not eating whatever is inside. At first he didn't know which end to put in his mouth, either. He'd pick up a green bean, for example, and cram his fist into his mouth with the bean sticking out the other end. He has since figured out that the food end is supposed to go in first. Obviously he isn't perfect at getting stuff in his mouth yet, especially since he's really just exploring flavors and textures right now. Generally about 50% goes into his lap, 20% goes onto the floor (where it is subsequently sniffed and disdained by the cat - we really need to get a dog), 20% goes onto his onesie/face/hands/hair, and about 10% is consumed. Which is okay, seriously - 'food before one is just for fun' and all that.
Cons of Baby-Led Solids (so far)
Scary (but only at first). The first couple of times we let him have food were a little bit nerve-wracking. He's gagged a few times on things, but we've come to realize it's actually a good sign. If he bites off something too big or gets it too far back in his throat, he can kind of just gag it forward until it plops out disgustingly onto his shirt. Still, this was kind of alarming the first couple of times it happened.
Enchiladas and Avocado: The Aftermath.
Messy. And how... Jim doesn't like to wear a bib. If we put a bib on him, more often than not he'll spend the entire time trying to eat and/or yank off the bib. So, we just leave it off and resign ourselves to a lot of laundry and a post-dinner bath every night. Maybe eventually his targeting skills will improve to where he doesn't need a bath after EVERY meal.
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