Fast Food Nation

Baby F. has started eating solids.
...well, i say solids, but really it's just a bunch of mush. 
As it should be, considering she has, count'em, zero teeth. So we've started what her pediatrician recommended - we gave her the same veggie/fruit for 3 days in a row to find out if she's allergic to anything. 

And what wondrous thing have we discovered so far?
Only that she likes *everything*. Broccoli, spinach, apple, strawberry, the occasional fingertip's worth of ketchup ;o).
Everything.

Broccoli *and* apple? Stop it, you're spoiling me ;o)

This doesn't of course mean that it's all been smooth sailing though. Although she chomped down on her spinach like our very own baby Popeye (complete with super arm strength - really, she's crazy strong), spinach alas did not agree with her and we'll have to forgo it for now. Cue sad face.

But the most surprising thing for me has been how quickly she took to eating food. One day she's fighting us, turning her face away from the choo-choo spoon of pap, and the next she has her mouth open eons before we've even cracked open the seal on her veggie du jour. 

I started out giving her half a jar each time she fed and dutifully refrigerating the other half, to giving her the full jar and having her sometimes ask for more - the apple one *is* quite tasty :o)

I'm hoping she continues to be this open-minded about food into the future, but i know that this early enthusiasm doesn't necessarily mean anything as far as her taste-buds-to-be.

But it's nice to know that at least for now, i have a little foodie in the making.

The Afternoon at the Museum

Baby F. the art genius baby.

That's right. I said it. Genius. With a capital G.

OK, mayhaps I'm going too far. But it could happen ;o)

She has been to a museum two times now. And is only eight months old.

We took her to the Newark Museum last weekend to see Angels and Tomboys: Girlhood in 19th century American Art, which had some amazing pieces, like this hilarious one:

A Bedtime Story, 1878 - Seymour Joseph Guy

Do you see the horror in the little ones' faces? Heehee. Their sister must be telling them a scary story ;o)

There were loads more really amazing paintings as well as some striking photographs. I think some of the writing in the show left a bit to be desired, but the work speaks for itself really. If you're anywhere nearby, I'd highly recommend it...even if you were never a girl ;o)

Baby F. proved to be quite the draw while in the museum btw. As Papa-in-training and Auntie Lulu and BF were otherwise engaged using the stairs, Baby and moi had to look for various elevators. We ended up sharing one of them with a group of elderly folk. One of the gentlemen started to gush over F., although he did think she was a boy :P Such is the fate of little bald-headed baby girls whose Mamas refuse to put ribbons on their non-hair ;o)

We later encountered the same group in one of the galleries, whilst i took a photo of F. in front of a funny collage in the permanent collection. The same gentleman from before wondered whether Baby F. was going to know all about art once she grew up. I mentioned that it was her second time in the museum which delighted the kind gentlemen and his friends :o)

So like i said, Baby F., the art genius to be :o)

The Baby Sitting Club

Oof!

So much has been going on.
...which is why, if you're keeping score, we've been away for oh... eh, i forget how long. But far too long.

But such is the life of a mama-in-training.
Some weeks are busy, some weeks are...who am i kidding, they're always busy ;o)

Let's get to the nitty-gritty though, shall we?

Momentous accomplishment of the month:

Drum roll, please.

Baby F. can now sit up on her own!

Whoooooo! Hurrah! Whoop-whoop!
And much joy was had across the land.

Now, this must not seem like much to those that do not have any children, but it was huuuuuge for us.

This means she can now sit up to have her pap without me having to worry about her going for a dive sideways.

I can put her on her play mat and she can happily wile away the minutes with her blocks or stacking cups without fear of her clonking down and hitting her head...
OK, i still have to worry, because she still falls over occasionally, but i don't have to worry as much ;o)

One more weapon in my arsenal of 'many change positions, so baby doesn't get grumpy'. :o)

More of her hair can come in since she's not always having it rubbed away by laying around.

All in all, a great thing.

Of course, this also means that crawling is not too far off, as well as pulling herself up, which although super exciting, are kind of horrifying, not going to lie.

Our penthouse in the sky, a.k.a. top apartment in a 4-floor, 100+ old building in a sizable Northeast city, is not too bad as far as being baby safe. We have tall bookcases which we long ago attached to the walls so they wouldn't crush us or the cats, we don't have a lot of little tchotchkes laying around as an appetizing morsel for babies, and we don't have any interior staircases to worry about.

But...

We do have cats that shed everywhere and that no matter how often we clean, still seem to reproduce via the process of ginormous-furball-mitosis every few weeks. 
We have a couple of bookshelves that have apparently come away from the damn crappy wall.
We have super hard ceramic floors in the kitchen/living room. 
Oh, and a drum set in our library, which I'm sure will be fascinating for a crawling baby.

All of this will be fixed, dealt with, remedied, but it's still a lot (particularly stopping the kitty-mitosis thing) to deal with which I'm glad i don't have to do...yet.

So yay for big developments.
And now let's give this mama-in-training a little chance to adjust, shall we?