More fun with Solids

It's been 2 full weeks that Sophia has been eating solids and all in all, it's been a good experience. We've tackled Sweet Potatoes (possibly her favorite), Carrots (yum), Advocado (weird consistency - difficult to get mashed/pureed thinly enough) and Bananas (wow - a story in itself). I've been making the food myself, which is wonderfully easy, and freezing them in ice cube trays in the freezer. There are some great recipes on Wholesome Baby Foods. They really encourage adding flavor to what your making the baby, as babies are used to the flavor of whatever you eat coming through in the breast milk.
Clearly, though, she is enjoying the experience:



Our next investment are ice cube trays with covers on them - helps to prevent freezer burn, as I always mean to get them into baggies the same day I freeze them, but it doesn't always happen.

We tried Green Beans yesterday - our first green veggie. It was interesting - a completely different texture than the carrots or sweet potatoes, and not sweet like the bananas. I think she enjoyed them, but she had a full milk feeding before, so she was a bit disinterested after a short time. But here she is still engaged:



Yesterday was also a banana day. We had tried bananas earlier in the week (I'm trying to be good about waiting 3 days before introducing new foods, but sometimes I just give her a quick taste of what I'm eating as she is super-interested in it). I cut off a little bit of the banana and mashed it well with a fork and then added a bit of breast milk to it for consistency. She wolfed it down. So I cut her a little more. And a little more. Before I knew it, she had eaten half of a medium sized banana, and probably would have eaten more had I given it to her (but I figured nothing good would come of that. See next post...)

It's fun to feed her solids, but I have to say, it adds a whole other dimension to the feeding process. Just when I had gotten very comfortable with the breast feeding process and Sophia had become more efficient in her eating (we could be done in less than 25 minutes), we've now stretched the feeding process back out to an hour (sometimes more depending on the cleanup involved, which, with the carrots, can be quite lengthy!)



That leaves us about an hour to get out and back to run whatever errands we need to before the next nap. I don't mind it, it's just the newest challenge in time management. All part of the fun adventure of raising a child.

Party time with Grandma & Grandpa Carletti

This weekend, my parents came up to watch Sophia. Dave & I had a wedding to go to, and while we could have brought Sophia, it was the perfect opportunity for us to have some time together and for my parents to bond with Sophia. They hadn't seen her live (we try to Skype as often as we can) in almost 6 weeks and were excited to come up.

We had left her before when she was little with our neighbors for a few hours, but not yet during the day when she's been on a napping/sleeping schedule. So this was something new for all of us!

Being the type-A personality I am, I typed up a document (it was less than 2 pages) with Sophia's daily routine, as well as her pediatrician info, etc. It wasn't so much for more parents, but rather to get it down on paper. Boy, was I the focus of a good roast all day from my mom and dad - well deserved, of course! It is so true that we often forget that our parents did manage to successfully raise us and keep us alive, even without all these newfangled gadgets that we swear by (Hello - baby monitor? We had a dog who would bark if I started to cry or woke up from a nap which would bring my parents up to the top floor of the house from the basement!)

It was a great day and now that we're over the hump, I look forward to doing it much more often.

Here are some pictures of the day (Mom was kidding that Sophia threw a party for her friends Eleanor, Frances, Andrew and Charlie, but they managed to hide all the bottles before we got home!) :)

I think the best part of the day was my mom getting to feed Sophia her sweet potatoes. She managed to get her to eat all of it without nary a mess (clearly a trait I didn't inherit!!)
Go mom -


Dad getting some quality granddaughter time:




Grandpa giving Sophia her bottle:

The Giggle Session

One of the real treats for us are the days Dave gets to work from home.
We've set up the enclosed porch to be his office, so he can be separate from all the daily noise, but it has a sliding glass door, so he can still see us and interact when he's not on the phone.

For him, the best thing is being able to play with Sophia during lunch. Today, she had a serious case of the giggles (which is entertaining to me, being her lack of sleep - and mine too - over the past few nights. I think she's going through a growth spurt, teething and her 6 month shots, all at once!!)

Here's a video of the shenanigans. Enjoy!

Sophia Turns 6 months old

The past few days have been exciting for us. Sophia turned 6 months old on Friday. I know it is such a small milestone in the grand scheme of her life, but it is hard to believe that was born 6 months ago. She has gotten so big.
In the beginning she was gaining weight slowly, but growing long quickly. It seems like, after 6 months, she is finally evening out. We go for our 6 month check up on Monday, but looking back at pictures and seeing the pudgy cheeks she now sports, it's hard to believe I was ever worried about her. I think a lot of it has to do with people's perception of what a healthy baby "should" look like. That is one (of many, many things) I love about Sophia's doctor - she is very grounded in reality and doesn't get swept up in charts, percentiles or paranoia.

Here's the 6 month old "big girl" before heading off to bed Friday:




Yesterday, we changed over all her clothes to the 6-9 month clothes. She had been growing out of most of the 3-6 month stuff for a few weeks now, but it's awesome to have all new fun clothes to dress her in. We were so fortunate to get most all of her wardrobe as either gifts from friends and family or hand me downs. So many fun outfits, but this was her most comfortable look for the day:

I'm growing - can't you see??

As Sophia nears her 6 month birthday (this Friday - how time flies!) it is clear that she is undergoing a whole host of developmental milestones. You can almost see all the little synapses in her brain connecting, going "wow - look at that. That is so cool!"

Her newest trick is being able to pull her feet all the way up and into her mouth. It is hysterical to watch. She mostly does it when she's on her changing table (which makes getting the diaper on pretty entertaining.) but she can sit there for 5-10 minutes just playing with, examining and then tasting her feet like a rare wine vintage.

Here's a shot of her getting into position:


And on the initial taste test:


And a short video of the whole thing in action:



It is all a very exciting time. She has woken up very early the past few mornings, not crying, just talking and squawking to herself until we come in and check on her. She is on her side (so close to rolling over!!) snuggled with her giraffe lovey, and is so excited to show us her new tricks. Luckily, after a quick snack, she's gone back to sleep. Here's a shot of her, post nap, in all of her happiness:

A day in the park

We're totally taking advantage of the nice weather to get out and walk as much as we can. Friday was a gorgeous day, so Sophia and I met up with our good friends Frances and Morgan for a long walk around Cambridge.

Morgan and I met in our pre-baby yoga class this summer and were due about a month apart. But lo and behold, Miss Frances decided she was ready to come early and she was born the same day as Sophia, Nov 7, also at Mt. Auburn. So she is officially Sophia's oldest friend!!

Here are some shots of the girls at the park. It is really nice as they are (slowly) starting to become more aware of each other. We still have a way to go, but it is the beginning of what will hopefully be a life-long friendship!

Reaching out:




Gotcha:




Just makes me smile.

Sophia's First Trip to the Cape

This weekend, we were kindly invited to the Cape (North Falmouth) by our friends Katie and Ferris. They have a 5 week old daughter, Clare, who is just adorable. It is hard to believe that stage is so far behind us already.

We had a very relaxing (well, as relaxing as life is with a 5 week old and almost 6 month old) weekend. The bonus was it felt like early summer, with temps in the 70s and gorgeous sunshine. The boys went kayaking and then we all took some nice walks, exploring the area and just enjoying the sunshine.

Ferris was way more adventurous than the rest of us, venturing into the 49 degree water - ekk!


Sophia got into the spirit for the Kentucky Derby wearing her seersucker!



She also got into the spirit of summer living - hmm, does it taste better than her normal bottle??



(no worries, no beer was actually ingested by Sophia)

A great weekend and a special thanks to Ferris and Katie, who are becoming awesome parents.