6 months old...starting solids...

Beni turned 6 months old on the day we came back from Cape Town. That day we had to get up before 3am to get ready to leave for the airport by 3:30am. Beni woke at 3:30. She was awake for almost the whole ride to the airport, and for a large part of the rest of the day. She only napped here and there, so needless to say, by the time we got home she and I both were ready for a substantial nap. I woke from said nap before she did and took the opportunity to snap a few pictures of my little sleeping beauty. Six months old! That's half a year!!!

Don't you just want to give her smooches???
I do- all the time!

She did wake up a few minutes later...

Ah, here we go back to Cape Town though... we stayed in a very nice self-catering rental house. The only problem was, it was cold! It was a big old house with very high ceilings and fairly poor insulation. There were lots of drafts. Often, it was colder inside the house than it was outside. That is how we came by these cute pics of Beni and Joel both with their hoods up inside the house. Why Beni is eating Joel's nose... well... I guess she was hungry. :)

Now speaking of being hungry... Beni is often hungry and for now, and what seems the foreseeable future, she will continue to get her nourishment from me. While in Cape Town, just a day or two before her 6 mos birthday, she had her first try at solid food. We decided to start with avocado. For her first try she seriously had two, maybe three tries. She was very excited for the first bite. It was new and all that. But basically, as soon as she had one bite, she pulled a major face and only took one more bite willingly. I have no intention of forcing food on her, so as soon as she showed she didn't want anymore, we quit. She had some more the next day, and ate 5 or 6 bites that day. Here are some pictures of that first try...







Since trying avocado, she has had more avocado and carrots. She seemed to like the carrots better than the avocado based on the initial reaction, but then, she hasn't ever wanted more than a bite or two of those either. I think we'll do some kind of squash next, or maybe peas. I'm not too worried. I am fully subscribing to the school of thought that all of her nutrition is coming from breast milk until she is at least a year old. Food is for fun and exploring and having new experiences. I am, however, looking forward to being in Oz for Christmas and being able to feed her a few more foods that we can't get here... including sweet potatoes.

A very sad story I can tell you is about sweet potatoes. I love sweet potatoes. My mom loves sweet potatoes. Often, while I was pregnant we would make a meal of sweet potatoes- just steam them, top with some butter, salt and pepper and eat up a huge bowl. YUM. Well, I found out last Thanksgiving that you can buy sweet potato in Angola, but, it is NOT the sweet potato that I know and love. It is white on the inside and dry and crumbly and frankly, not at all with a pleasant taste. Not the sweet, mushy, wonderful orange stuff I love. Well, sweet potatoes are recommended as a first food for babies in the States often (maybe elsewhere?). So when we were in Cape Town I picked up a kilo bag of sweet potatoes and packed them up in my luggage and brought them back to Angola. As soon as we got back I was going to make them for Beni. Well...do you see where this is going?

As I was going to steam the potato for her, I started to peel it... and there, to my shock and horror was that stupid, nasty white flesh of the fake sweet potato! It never crossed my mind that they would have the same stupid sweet potato in South Africa that they do here. I seriously almost cried. In fact I might have. My lovely orange sweet potatoes must be grown more in northern Africa. Sigh. So now I have this whole kilo of potatoes that nobody wants to eat. I did steam a bit of that one for Beni and even mixed it with some breast milk. She was having none of it! So, technically, she has also had a bite of nasty potato. Avocado and carrots I will continue to give her so she can learn to love them. I am NOT going to be giving her any more nasty fake sweet potato. Urgh.

OK, ending on a cute note... we made full use of the bathtub in the house. Even though we have 4 bathrooms in our apartment here in Luanda, we don't have any bathtubs (stupid). So Beni took more baths in her one week in Cape Town than she usually does in two weeks here in Luanda. :) I took one with her, and I think she had two on her own. Clearly, she enjoys the water. Daddy is so happy. :)