A Much Needed Update!

My apologies for not posting sooner! Our mutual work schedules have us tied up and after the holidays, we embarked on a kitchen remodel. During the past week, we’ve had new Corian countertops and a sink installed, picked out tile for a backsplash, purchased a new table and chairs and met with a possible tile installation dude/electrician. Though I very much enjoyed our faded, scratched and stained goldenrod yellow laminate, removing it has made a huge difference. Now Frankie will have a much more pleasant environment in which to fling his food! Here are some pictures of our first experiences with mashed fruits. Though Frankie has not taken to eating solid foods, he doesn’t seem to hate them either. Generally, he pushes it around and right back out of his mouth. But he has been observing Dave and I eat and seems to understand the concept. I was worried that he wasn’t taking to it much, but our pediatrician assured us that he still gets all the nutrition he needs from his liquid diet for the time being. Adventures with rice cereal have left him feeling constipated, so we haven’t been using that much either. Dr. Sears advises against overfeeding before bedtime with rice cereal. Apparently, there have been studies that this type of feeding can lead to obesity and diabetes later on (and yes, we are all aware now that for every “study” there is an equal and opposite “study”). Any feeding tips from other moms, dads or kid feeders of all varieties are appreciated.

Frankie is now grabbing with conviction and greater accuracy. He can amuse himself for longer periods of time and he can almost fit his entire hand into his mouth. We’ve seen him sucking his thumb on a few occasions, but he doesn’t seem to immediately go for it in times of distress; he rarely wants a pacifier anymore. He makes frequent and prolonged eye contact, squeals and talks quite a bit and recognizes people he sees often. He can turn over on his side and is this close to being able to roll over on his stomach. We bought him a really neat little seat that supports his legs and back (it’s sort of like a bucket) so he can sit up (see picture). His favorite toys right now are blankets, rags and small, soft animals and toys that he can grab hold of. We’ve overcome our bath time fears and now, while Frankie doesn’t love the activity, he doesn’t scream and cry the entire time either. He just turned six months old and developmentally, I would say he’s just a bit ahead of his gestational age (4 months).