New Foods!

We are slowly introducing Jack to solids. However, I wonder, can one call them solids when they are basically vegetable purees? I bought squash the other day and it looks slightly thicker than orange water. When I read the ingredients, it said: Squash, water. Well, there you go! It doesn't look so appetizing but little Jack is really starting to be interested in what we are eating. If I am eating cereal in the morning while he is in his Exersaucer, he intently watches me until I am done eating.

On Sunday, we took him out with our team for dinner after our softball game. I held him and ate fries while Paul ate his sandwich. Jack grabbed for my food basket numerous times, got a fistful of wax paper and then whined when I pulled it away from him. After Paul finished his sandwich, he took Jack so I could eat and he started in on his french fries. Jack swiped at them everytime Paul put a fresh fry in his mouth. Needless to say, we think Jack is ready for something more than formula. So I will put a running list of the foods he tries and his reactions to them. I am only allowed to give him a new food once every 3-5 days so that I can watch to see if there are allergies, so it may take awhile to fully develop this list!

Rice Cereal: Ah, every baby's first food. Low risk of allergy, easy to digest. Tastes like crap. But Jack seems to like it. We started while we were in Florida. We have been using it to practice the whole spoon thing. Jack has gotten way better at it as he has had more practice, though he was pretty good at the beginning. This should be no surprise since he is nearly 20 lbs at 5 months! He usually takes the cereal with minimal face smearage! He sometimes attacks the spoon and sometimes he likes to try to blow bubbles in the cereal. Overall, I think he likes it. He gets smiley when I say silly things while he is eating and you see a pasty white face in a big goofy grin. I don't think he loves it but I think he finds it interesting for the most part so he usually wants to keep eating.

Squash: Jury's still out on this one. He first had it in Florida but then we put it on hold due to the fact that it was hectic, we were traveling, etc. We started it up again on July 30. He was hesitant on the first spoonful, even making a bit of a yucky face. I make the same face when I am eating squash! But then he began to take it better. He didn't want much and switched back and forth between readily opening his mouth and making a stink face. He may have been full from his formula. We'll try it again over the next few days and see if the squash gets a more favorable response.

Today, July 1, I warmed the squash and he made a stink face and kind of gummed at the food and blew bubbles in it. So I dumped it and gave him cold squash. Sounds repulsive, but Jack attacked it! Maybe he liked the cold on his teething gums or maybe he just likes squash but he was a champ! He polished off the cold squash and I opened a new one. He ate the room temperaure squash with no problem. He really seemed to take to it better than rice cereal, which could bode well for the future! Maybe he'll love veggies!

Up next. . .Sweet potatoes or carrots!

Sweet Potatoes: Jack tried sweet potatoes on July 5. One might say it was a five month old birthday present! I think Jack would consider it the best present he has ever gotten (at least after the Jumperoo--and you can't eat that!). He took the first bite, squished it around in his mouth, considered it and then began attacking the spoon with each subsequent spoonful. I would say that he likes sweet potatoes better than squash but I really think that he would like anything you put on a spoon. He really likes trying new foods. I have been giving him half of the package per day but I think he would take more. I get the feeling, however, that I will need to be the one to stop him, rather than waiting for him to tell me he is full. He doesn't get too much on his face while eating. I think that he is afraid of wasting it!

Carrots: Surprise! Jack likes carrots. I think I am going to stop writing about the foods that he likes, and instead mention those that he doesn't. I don't think I am going to be writing much about foods. Jack basically likes anything you put on a spoon.

Evicted!

We got home from our wonderful trip to Florida with Nonny and Poppy, after a 15+ hours of driving. Jack was amazing (again) throughout the entire journey, crying only the last 45 minutes of the drive there and merely whimpering the last 45 of the return trip. Even with a poopy, soggy diaper and besides the fact that he was starving! He's also extremely adaptable, sleeping well in hotels, Pack n' Plays, etc. He's ridiculous. In fact, Paul and I are afraid that if we have another one, we are really in for it. Either we are going to have Rosemary's Baby or a good kid that pales in comparison! No matter how good the next one might be, he/she couldn't possibly be as good as Jack. Therefore, I feel bad for the potential future offspring, since, even if he/she is good, he/she is still "the bad one!" Kidding aside, we feel extremely fortunate.

Upon our return, I held firm to my decision to evict Jack from our bedroom. I figured it would be the prime time, since he is 4 months old, we would have time to work on any sleeping issues since we are off from school, and since he has exceeded the weight limit on his bassinette! So, Monday night, I prepared his bed, set him up with fresh sheets, set up a fan, turned on the baby monitor, and worried that little Jack would wake up distraught, missing his mommy in the middle of the night.

I woke up at 4 a.m. to the sound of the baby monitor beeping to tell me that it was running low on charge. So I got up to get the other one in his room. I checked on Jack, only to find that he hadn't moved an inch since I had set him down. I went back to bed, impressed that I had been able to sleep and that I hadn't checked on him 100 times to make sure he was okay. And the kid slept until 9:00 a.m.! He didn't miss Mommy. He didn't wake up distraught. He didn't cry to be fed. He didn't toss and turn trying to get comfortable. And I know I should be thrilled with all of this. BUT HE DIDN'T MISS MOMMY! Hopefully, I will get a different reaction when he is heading off for college!

Tonight, I set him on his back, turned his new mobile on, left a little light on and left him, awake in his room. He watched and listened to his mobile. When it stopped, he flipped over onto his tummy and went to sleep without a peep.

It's pretty clear to me that evicting Jack was a lot harder on Mommy. But Mommy did get one of the best nights of sleep she has gotten since before she was pregnant!

Summertime fun

Dressed for Florida

Future Wunderkind?

Hangin' with Nonny

Chicks Dig Me

New Rapper: Iced Latte

Jack thinks everything is cool. He laughs and smiles and screams with delight and never seems to tire of it! He has, this summer, already swum for the first time, eaten his first rice cereal, watched fireworks and learned to roll over. And he thinks it's all awesome. Rolling over, in fact, is so awesome, that he no longer cares to spend any time on his back. This makes changing diapers a real challenge. And as many times as I try to flip him over in the night to make him sleep on his back, he flips back over in a matter of seconds, preferring to sleep on his tummy.

Rice Cereal Rules!

Waiting

Here Mommy, let me help you!

Little bird

All done!!

Firsts in Florida

Family Swim

Michelin Man

Blowing bubbles

Jack decides he likes the water

School's out for summer and I get to be a stay at home Mommy for the next three months! School let out on Friday and we left early Saturday morning for our first big family car trip. We packed the new minivan with two adults, a baby, two cats, a litterbox and a bunch of bags. Needless to say, the majority of the bags were Jack's. It was WAY harder packing for him that it was packing for myself! We only made it to Tennessee the first night (we usually make it to Alabama) but I guess stopping for about an hour every three hours to feed and change Jack and walk him around to keep him from going stir crazy does that. He slept a good part of the trip that first night.

The second day felt a lot longer because Jack was awake for a good portion of it. It was fine at first but the last hour of the trip, Jack decided he had had enough and no amount of singing or goofy faces was going to change that. We finally arrived at Nonny and Poppy's around 4:00 pm and all of us were exhausted. But Jack got all Jacked up around dinner time when he couldn't stop laughing and squealing at everyone playing with him.

Monday, Nonny and I took Jack to Target and then to the mall. Afterwards, we visited friends (Jack and Barbara) who adored him and who he easily won over by being super smiley and squealy. He especially found Barbara to be hilarious. She kept calling him "Sugar Cakes" which would make him scream with delight. She tried "Banana Cakes" and "Apple Cakes" but neither of them got quite the response of "Sugar Cakes".

Later we got Jack ready for his first dip in the pool. We changed him into swim diapers and were slightly nervous because he hadn't gone number two at that point and we didn't want to turn Nonny and Poppy's pool into a POOl. Jack obliged by pooping just as I started to walk down the steps of the pool.

Once we finally rechanged him, I walked him slowly into the pool. He got wiggly and had an interested look on his face as he was deciding whether or not he liked the pool. It didn't take too long until he was laughing, smiling and splashing (and licking the pool water from his Floaty).

He's such a ridiculously happy kid and I'm not sure what we did to get this lucky. He loves doing new things and meeting new people. He's so much fun and so easy to bring places. We truly are the luckiest parents alive and can't wait to see him experience even more firsts!

Tomorrow: Rice cereal!!!