Skips and Steps: Banana!

Luciana turned six months yesterday. The past month has been an explosion of growth and development... well, not so much of physical growth with no weight gain in the month, but she has been moving and shaking so much it's not too big a surprise. I'll write more about that later so I don't forget it all.

For the past week or two we've been sort of playing around with offering her some bits of food. She's been crazy for water, and has protested frequently when I did not immediately give in to her desire, and once even grabbed my glass full of ice cold water and dumped it all over me. Thank you for the bath, little Luz! She does best drinking out of my glass, but is also figuring out my water bottle, and does ok with her sippy cup.

As for food, it seems like a big hassle to switch from nursing exclusively to adding in solids, so in that way I was in no hurry to start. On the other hand, with both asthma or food allergies running in my family, I didn't want to wait too long, especially with the conflicting research lately about whether it is best to introduce early or delay.

She's been staring intently at us eating whenever she is near us during mealtime, staring at the food, then at us, then at the food. So, we took her cue, and sat her in her high chair, propped her up with blankets and a supportive hand, and laid out some yummy-looking pieces of banana. Within moments they were way too slippery for her to handle, and she was definitely much more interested in gnawing on the yummy wooden tray. We tried again a few times with banana, or pieces of avocado. She was interested, but only mildly and wasn't too keen on putting them in her mouth. Not wanting to push her, we sort of sat near her eating our bananas and trying to help her by keeping the food from scooting away from her grip (flail?). No big deal, we thought, she can make a mess and maybe get a few accidental tastes in the meantime to acclimate herself.

Today we ate lunch at church following our morning of VBS. We had packed our usual sandwich and fruit for lunch. As I was finishing up my sandwich with her on my lap, she became very intent on it. She grabbed my hand and pulled the sandwich to her mouth. I let her sort of feel the textures on her lips before eating it myself. Then I started peeling a banana and she got really excited. She grabbed for it and when I took it to the side to keep her from making a mess while I unpeeled it, she expressed her displeasure. I broke it in half and she grabbed my hands and brought it to her mouth, and proceeded to suck on it like a bottle.

She liked it!