Vamos a comer!

It's so nice to have a second child. Although I was skeptical of the rules the first time around, this time I'm really quite convinced that so many rules and norms are so not required.  Case in point: food! Gideon showed interest in food around five months or so. We always had him at the table with us, and he started to catch on that the rest of us were eating and he was just sitting and watching. I wasn't a huge stickler with waiting until six months to introduce Evelyn to solids, but we did wait nearly that long. Gideon had some tastes of things he could gnaw on, like crackers, but we hadn't really made an effort to give him food. It's just so much easier to deal with breastfed baby diapers. SO much easier. But those days are quickly passing...

After reading a little bit about Baby-Led Weaning, I discovered that it's not some kind of weird new-age weirdness after all. It's just letting the child feed him or herself. It's not about weaning away from breast milk, because the primary source of nutrition for the first 12 months should be breast milk (or formula). It's just such an easy, natural way of introducing foods. No rice cereal, no purees. Just pretty much giving the baby what the rest of the family is having for dinner, embracing the ensuing mess (he's learning and developing coordination) and having fun!

Those blueberry pancakes were delicious!

Gideon is a fan. He's had spaghetti with homemade marinara sauce, peas, blueberry pancakes, rice, beans, and tortillas, pizza, watermelon, bananas, plums, corn... and a bunch of stuff I'm sure I'm not remembering. Pretty much whatever we've had, with the exception of meat. We just make sure it's cooked so that it's soft enough for him to eat, we cut things into sticks or make sure they're a good size, and go for it! He does have bananas in his mesh feeder sometimes, just to help him get every last bit of banana without smearing it all over everything. One day he was so exhausted from eating almost an entire banana that we looked over to see him passed out with the feeder in his mouth, sucking on his banana in his sleep.

Our pediatrician told us that the only thing really off-limits is honey, and of course no cow's milk until he's 12 months old. So with those two rules in mind, we're enjoying the adventures in eating with little GOB. 

Evelyn (who now only refers to herself as "Big Sister") didn't want to be left out of the photo opportunities at the dinner table, so she showed us how she can also eat her spaghetti with her hands. Get it, Mouse!