Food is for fun

My baby girl will be six months old next week. I look at her and find it hard to believe that she’s the same little baby I brought home from hospital weighing under 7lbs. A couple of weeks ago, I had to box up all her 3-6 month clothes and put her in the 6-9 month clothes instead. She is thriving, as they say, and I’m so happy to have gotten this far exclusively breastfeeding. I wasn’t sure if it would be possible in those early weeks. But now those difficulties seem a million years ago and all I really remember about our breastfeeding journey is how easy it has been, the time it has saved me, and the freedom it has given us. I wish it was like this for everyone. In fact, I wish it had been like this for me last time.

But why am I waxing lyrical like this? Well it’s because it’s become quite obvious that this baby girl is hungry for something with a bit more bite! Remembering that it took a week or two before her big brother learned to get food to his mouth, chew and swallow it, Charlie and I thought we might as well let her start playing with food because she’ll be six months next week. So last night she mushed up a couple of carrots in her hands and threw them on the floor. To my surprise she didn’t make any attempt to put them in her mouth (weird because normally she shoves everything in her mouth).

She was far more interested in her sippy cup. I had expressed about an ounce and a half into it, and she happily drank some. Fantastic! She may not drink from a bottle for us but apparently she’s a big fan of the cup.

Today I gave her a few baby rice cakes and another cup of milk. She demolished the rice cakes – literally! There were pieces everywhere and one or two even made it to her mouth. She looked delighted with herself.

Looks like we’re going to be doing quite a bit of baby-led weaning this time around as well.