As I mentioned in my previous post, we visited my brother in Baltimore for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time (despite the fact that I had to bring work with me) and I'm really glad we went. One of the benefits to this visit is that my brother's house has very high ceilings (unlike our house, which has 8 foot ceilings throughout). We took full advantage of these high ceilings to throw the baby around. As you can see for yourself, he loved it.
Baby Ian got thrown around a lot before we were finally able to capture the above, in-focus, photo. (I have lots of pictures of my brother's ceiling too...)
Ian is eating real food like a champ. This is a big step for him (and me). As a first-time mother, I never know when it is appropriate to introduce a food. So I sort of just bit the bullet and started giving him new foods to try. We started with avocado a couple of months ago. He didn't like it and to let me know this, he decided to puke it up. But I didn't let that stop me and I'm glad it didn't because he eats everything else I've given to him. At 8.5 months of age, he now eats cheerios, Gerber puffs, organic puffs, turkey and various cheeses (mozzarella, Gouda, muenster, Cheddar jack and American). It is so cute to watch him "chew."
Ian likes to feed himself these days. It's pretty funny to watch. He will grab a fistful of whatever food is in front of him and try to shove it all in his mouth. Roughly 50% ends up back on his tray, 30% ends up on the floor, 10% gets stuck on his grubby hands, 5% gets stuck to his face and 5% makes it into his mouth. And he is SO very proud of himself for doing this that he smiles and laughs and the 5% that made it into his mouth promptly falls out. Luckily, mommy is there to help. :-)
I've learned that there is a trick to giving him food. The pieces have to be small enough that he won't choke on them, yet still big enough for him to pick up himself. I'm glad I went to law school to train my brain so that it has the capability to figure this out. Last night, I fed him pieces of banana and he loved that too. Except he couldn't pick up the slimy pieces of banana. So I smartly mashed the banana onto cheerios and whammo, we had the incredible self-feeding baby again. And he didn't want me to feed him last night. He wanted to take the food item out of my hand so that he could feed himself. He is one determined little boy.
What else. Oh right. While in Baltimore for Thanksgiving, Ian decided to walk behind a kichen chair while pushing it in front of him. So while not walking on his own, he is taking steps other than just furniture cruising. And he can stand on his own without holding onto anything for 3-5 seconds at a time. I'm very pleased that he is growing and learning so well.
He is also ALL boy. I call him Dr. Destructo. He crawls around the floor like a madman, pulls himself up on everything and promptly knocks whatever he can to the floor. And once said item is on the floor, he uses it as a hammer. Perhaps a girl would be no different, but Ian just seems so much like a boy. When he doesn't want to breastfeed anymore, he smacks me. He SMACKS me! I get mad at him and yell a little. He looks at me with a bewildered face and then grins. I'm in trouble with this one.
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