Avocado

When Beia turned six months, we started experimenting with solid foods. The first was puréed carrots, and since then Beia has tried banana, apple, sweet potato, peas, avocado, papaya, and prunes. She hasn't outright rejected any foods, but has clearly expressed a preference for sweet potato as well as prune. Yesterday was an avocado day and was quite successful, meaning most of it ended up in her mouth and being swallowed. When she ate avocado the day before, most ended up on her bib. Avocado and banana are easy for us since they don't need to be cooked and puréed, but everything else we've been making fresh ourselves. It's easier than I thought it would be, and fun. And we like knowing exactly what is going into what she is eating.

Seven Months : Crawling

It's official—at seven months (as of yesterday), we now have a crawler. This morning Beia made her first successful crawl from one edge of her play mat, across the mat, over to the other side—to inspect the ever-interesting cat scratching post. We will now have to start removing the cat toys from the floor since she seems likely to put them in her mouth. Similarly, we'll have to start Swiffer-ing the floor more often—unless we want a baby as a dust mop (possibly effective but not ideal). We already have plans to lower Beia's crib mattress this weekend, since when we went into her room this morning she greeting us with a big smile—sitting up in the crib with her arm holding onto the railing. The next thing we know she'll be pulling herself up. I think we'll be baby-proofing the whole apartment soon...

We Have Liftoff (almost)

For the past few weeks Beia has been working up to a crawl. She's been practicing her plank position, downward dog, and cat pose. A lot of time has been spent rocking back and forth on all fours. She's managed to move forward by reaching her hands in front of her, going into downward dog, and then kicking both her legs in—helping to propel her forward. It seems that the downward dog component is getting in the way—almost like she'd rather skip crawling and move (literally) right to walking! We give her a few more weeks before she's mastered the crawl itself. Until then, she's quite able to rotate in circles on her belly, as well as push herself backwards. The cats better watch out—she's already expressed interest in them and now she's coming to get (er, grab) them!

Vesuvio Playground

A few weekends ago we visited Vesuvio Playground near our apartment. Named for a famed—now defunct—bakery in our neighborhood, the playground is small and not too busy. This will be ideal for Beia once she's old enough to enjoy the swings (there are no "baby" swings at this particular playground). The playground is semi-centrally located between our place and my sister's apartment. This allows us to meet up with H, C, and their little girl E, so Beia can get to know her aunt, uncle, and cousin.

On this particular day it was sunny, so Beia was appropriately dressed in her little white hat. We flip up the brim if the sun isn't in her face—so she can actually see a bit and look around. We think she looks cute in the hat, and she doesn't seem to mind it either. Good thing too, because she'll be wearing hats all summer long...

Big Girl

Beia is now 6.5 months—in ten more days she'll be seven months! We've started to feed her solids, starting with carrots and followed by avocado, sweet potato, and apple. So far her favorite (by far) is the sweet potato—whereas the carrots are almost always greeted with a grimace! Beia has also taken to feeding herself, with a little help, when she has a bottle. She needs to be reminded to tilt the bottle back to keep the milk flowing, but it's progress (and we think it's cute).

The biggest development is crawling—or at least the precursor to crawling. We see a lot of yoga poses—plank, downward dog, and a rocking cat pose. The latter of which is how Beia spends much of her time on the play mat. Unfortunately it's also what is keeping Beia up in the middle of the night. Much like when she was learning how to roll over, Beia seems to want to practice these things when she should be sleeping. We are hoping that she learns soon, because we do not love the 5am wake-ups.