Growing Up

Sweet little Thomas has had a big week. In addition to a new sleep schedule, he has had a few new experiences this week. He got to try semi-solid food for the first time and was extremely excited about it. He knew just what to do, opening wide at the first spoonful.

Unfortunately, the spoonful of sweet potatoes was followed immediately by a look of utter betrayal.
We started him on sweet potatoes, because apparently that's the latest thing. "They" say you don't have to start with cereal and that a fruit or vegetable is better. Then, of course, another "they" says that if you start with a fruit your child may never like vegetables. So, we picked sweet potatoes. (This may or may not have had anything to do with how easy it is to make a sweet potato into baby food and the fact that we already had a sweet potato sitting on the counter waiting to be eaten by someone.) At any rate, I would like to announce that "they" are wrong. I say start with cereal, because it doesn't have much flavor. And mostly, babies want food that tastes like what they've been eating. We gave him oatmeal a few days later, and it went much much better.
This may be because I ate oatmeal for breakfast every day that I nursed Thomas (yay galactagogues!) so it's a familiar flavor. Or it may be because oatmeal doesn't have much flavor so something that's half formula and half oatmeal mostly just tastes like formula. But he likes it and there were none of the previously abundant looks at us wondering what on earth we found so appealing in this stuff.

He does still want some of the rest of our food. I had a banana today while holding him. He lunged right toward it with his mouth wide open. These semi-solids aren't going to last long.

Today, Thomas got another first. He got to ride in a swing. That was popular from moment one. He laughed and though it was great.

To add to his excitement, his favorite person in the entire world decided to exit her swing and push him. They had a blast and I had fun taking pictures.

I'm so glad they're starting to interact and play together, even just a little bit.

Scout loves talking to Thomas, though she also loves bossing him around. Earlier this week we were all in the car and she reported to me that "Thomas isn't being obedient to me." I briefly explained that Thomas doesn't need to be obedient to her because she's not his mommy. "Yes, I am his mommy," came her reply. This relationship is going to be really fun to watch. I'm actually kind of hoping his will will be as strong as hers, just so he doesn't get pushed around. I do find some reassurance in the fact that it is unlikely any child of mine will turn out to be a shrinking violet.