Inching our way toward solids...

The truth is, I'm in no hurry to start Beni on solids. I love nursing so, so, so much. We're not anywhere near that relationship coming to an end, but, just the thought of it makes me sad. So that is reason number one. Reason number two though, is that nursing is just so darn easy! Requires no supplies, no packing, no cooking, no nothing...Beni's food is always at hand, always available, always ready to go! So yeah, that's another big reason to not rush the intro to solids. But alas, this baby keeps growing regardless of how many times I tell her to slow down or just pause for a minute, and like it or not, she's going to be starting solids sooner or later.

So, as we get closer to six months of age day by day, we are slowly introducing and supporting little things that all lead to solids. Beni has already had her first exposure to her own spoon, as can be seen to the right here. Of course, the truth is, we gave it to her, because it was the best and safest thing we could think of that would be a satisfactory chew toy for her. She was having trouble with all the teething rings she had because none of them really fit into her mouth nicely. So, something long like this was perfect. As you can see, she's got a way to go on using the spoon, but obviously, we're not worried about that anytime soon! She does like that
spoon though so hopefully she'll take to it once it has food on it too. :)

Next, Beni has shown us over and over again in the last few days that she can sit up on her own. And I'm not talking about the old gorilla arms look, I'm talking sitting up with a straight back, arms-busy-doing-something kind of sitting. Yes, she still fell over once or twice when she got overly excited, but, she was definitely sitting. So we decided that she should be able to sit in her table chair. We don't have a high chair, as it wasn't a practical buy for here in Angola, but we did bring in this table seat from South Africa. So, now she can sit AT the table, instead of ON the table.

She sat in the seat for the first time this evening, and seemed to like it ok. I feel better with her in there as she can't wiggle out of there- whereas she was getting pretty close to being able to flip herself out of the Bumbo chair. I also like this seat because it rotates 360 degrees, so if I'm cooking I can face her out to be able to watch me. When the time comes to feed her I can turn her to the side to face me sitting next to her. And finally, when she's eating on her own, I can turn her to face the table and she can go to it!

Beni loves to watch us eat- in fact, if one of us is eating, she just sits and stares. She moves her mouth along as if she's eating, and doesn't take her eyes off until we finish. So, she's definitely showing interest as well.

Now, we're just waiting for Beni to show us a "pincer" grasp- using thumb and index finger to grasp something- rather than a palmer grasp- using the whole hand to grab at stuff. Right now, she is definitely still full hand grabbing at stuff.

We are going on vacation to Cape Town in a few weeks- I think we leave on the 15th. Beni will turn 6 mos on the 24th of Oct, which is the day we return to Luanda. So, at some point after that we'll probably have a try and see if she has any tongue thrust reflex left (the natural reflex to push things (besides a nipple) out of the mouth). If she does, we'll wait another week and try again then. Like I said, I'm in no hurry, so, if she doesn't start on solids until 7 mos or more, I'm ok with that! We'll just see how it goes!

It'll be interesting to see what is in season when we do decide to try the solids. I've seen a lot of people mention avocado and banana as good first foods. Bananas will definitely be available here, not sure about the avocados. I have been buying them recently, but, the last one I got never ripened- it went from hard to harder. So not sure what that means. Anyway... things are going to get exciting soon enough!

I have to say too, that this is hard because, even without the food, just the sitting up makes Beni seem so old! She's no longer a baby that just lays there or even just scoots around. She can sit! It opens up a whole new world to her of being able to see things, and use her hands freely and interact more easily. I was thinking the other day as I watched her play around on her hands and knees how out loud I was cheering her on and giving her encouragement, but on the inside I was screaming out for her to STOP! Lay back down and be my tiny little baby!!! I feel like this is one of my first big lessons learned as a parent... I'm always going to be her biggest cheerleader, even if she'd doing things I'm not ready for her to do...I can't stop her growing up!!! Sigh. Ok, I gotta wrap this up and go snuggle my baby while she's still a baby!

Aw, baby feet!