We’ve officially worked through all the fruits and veggies Gerber provides, at least in Stage 1. Nathan has liked almost everything. He was a little iffy on the bananas, but has been enjoying them at daycare this week without a problem. And he wasn’t too fond of green beans, but he’s been digging peas. His favorites have probably been sweet potatos, pears and applesauce.

Here he is after the first time he ate green beans. Don’t you want to kiss that face??

Tomorrow we start meat. At the recommendation of our pediatrician we are skipping to Stage 2 meats that include veggies and sometimes other flavors. The idea of baby food meat in general has no appeal to me, but hopefully it won’t be too bad with other things thrown in. I’m guessing Nathan will like it after a couple tries since he gets pretty excited about eating.

Nathan enjoyed his first Thanksgiving. We spent it in Baltimore with Gary’s family. Nathan’s not quite ready for real food, but he did enjoy some green beans and squash of the Gerber variety that day.

Not only did he get to meet new family, but he got to play Peek-a-Boo with his cousins, which had him cracking up. Nathan also had fun telling secrets with Oma.

Nathan is getting really good at pulling up. If we hold his hands, he can go from sitting to standing all by himself, without us pulling him up at all. And he loves doing that.

We often put him in the pack-n-play while we eat dinner, and he’s started trying to pull up on the side. He’s going to be trouble! Both Gary and I are wondering if he’s going to skip crawling since he loves standing and pulling up, but is not as fond of being on his belly.

Here he is trying to pull himself up last night. He didn’t get one of his legs in front this time, so he wasn’t able to get too far.

Nathan had “school” pictures today. The photographer was really good at getting the kids to smile and Nathan’s teacher said he was “smiling all over himself.” I thought the expression was too cute not to share. He really was all smiles, so hopefully the pictures turn out nicely!

Actually, just rockin’, since Nathan still doesn’t want to roll. But he’s started rocking forward from a sitting position (daycare calls it his “butt bounce”), which occasionally leads to dive bombing the ground head first. If he manages to get all the way onto his tummy, he’ll sometimes try to scoot forward (or fuss since he doesn’t like to roll.)

This is Nathan rocking forward. He spreads his arms out and lifts his butt up. He has also done it when he’s sitting in front of one of us if he wants us to pick him up or help him stand. It’s really adorable, especially the first time I realized he was doing it to tell me he wanted me to pick him up.

Bittersweet is the best word I can think of to describe watching Nathan grow right now.

On one hand its hard to see my little baby getting so big and so independent and to know that there is no going back. And with the addition of fruits and veggies to his diet, Nathan has started nursing a little less, which has been a hard adjustment for me.

On the other hand, its amazing to watch this little boy learn so many new things. I swear every day he’s doing something new…grabbing at fabric to feel the textures, learning that pushing buttons on his toys means sound comes out. One of the biggest things is that he’s getting better at expressing himself. He has different noises he makes when he wants more veggies or when he sees the dog. And when I try to put him in his carseat now, he often throws his head back and yells, and stiffens up so I can’t sit him down. Also, when he’s reaching now, its more purposeful, like he really wants to tug Gary’s beard or my hair or touch some object that fascinates him, its not just random hand waving anymore. It’s all very amazing to watch and I know its just going to get better and better.

Oh, and have we mentioned that he’s finally sleeping better? Up until a few weeks ago Nathan was waking up several times a night and we were exhausted. We decided it was time to try the cry-it-out method, which was REALLY hard at first. The first time we did it I sat in the bathroom and cried with him. But then it started working, and knowing that even though he would cry at first, he’d be able to calm himself down, it became a little easier to bear. Not EASY, but easIER. Now he generally only wakes up once, or not at all! Its very nice to get more than 5 consecutive hours of sleep again and hopefully Nathan will continue this new sleeping trend.

We’ve started reading a book at bedtime that involves lots of animals noises and Nathan has become very amused by some of these sounds, like RUFFS and MEOWS and OINKS. But only if they are loud and high pitched of course!

Here he is laughing at me making dog noises.

There are more of him laughing at me in the November photo album.

Well Nathan has had his first taste of “real” food this week. We started with squash. It was a tough decision figuring out what will be his first step on a life-long relationship with food, but at the end of the day we really only had three choices (according to the experts and our doctor): squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots. We felt squash was the most seasonally appropriate so that’s what we did.

He seemed to be hesitant with his first encounter but he ate it. The second time we tried he made a face that said “What the heck are you putting into my mouth?” but after a couple of spoonfulls he was eating it like an old pro.