When did he get so big? So independent? I watched him eat dinner on his own last night when we went out to eat. His highchair was pulled up close to the table and it looked like he was sitting with us, like really sitting with us, not just next to us in the highchair. He watched things going on around him and ate his food, like a kid, not a baby. And this kid, my kid, who would not eat any finger-food fruits or vegetables for months and months, dug into a big hunk of cantaloupe. He even chose it over a chicken finger as he contemplated what to pick up next. It was a seemingly normal moment, but I watched him for a few minutes in amazement. When did this all happen? I’ve seen it in bits and pieces, like when we realized he loved watermelon on our trip to Ithaca, or watched him suck down blueberries or enjoy a meal out with us in Ocean City, but somehow it really hit me last night. Maybe it’s that he just started in the Toddler room at daycare and now he’s napping on a cot, and eating at a little table with little chairs. Or maybe it’s that he’s so active and opinionated and understands so much of what we say now. It amazes me a little more every day.

Nathan enjoyed some fun treats this weekend.

He LOVED chewing on the bagel, even tried crawling around the house with it in his hand.

And of course the ice cream was a hit. Gary gave him a couple tastes while we were in the kitchen, then took him to the playroom, but Nathan kept crawling back to the kitchen looking for more!

Big changes here! Nathan got his first introduction to cow’s milk this weekend. He wasn’t a huge fan at first. We tried bottle and sippy cup, plain and mixed with breastmilk. He did finally take about an ounce of the mixture on Sunday, which I took as a good sign, and then he took a 4 oz bottle at daycare today with no problem! Very good news.

I think cow’s milk is typically introduced at 12 months, but up until now Ive been exclusively breastfeeding and my supply has dropped to the point that I’m not able to pump enough for daycare anymore. Our frozen milk supply finally ran out last week, so with the doctors okay, we decided to introduce cow’s milk early rather than make Nathan adjust to formula, only to change things up again in a month. I’m extremely thankful that I was able to breastfeed for so long because its not always been the easy and natural thing that I thought it would be. Im going to continue to breastfeed for the next month or so, and slowly wean Nathan during that time. I feel some sadness about this change, but I also feel ready to be done breastfeeding. Hopefully it will be a positive transition for both of us.

Here is the last bag of frozen breastmilk. I was very excited to take pictures of it and memorialize the last of its kind. And then, wouldn’t you know? The damn thing had a leak in it and we couldn’t even use the milk!

Here he is after drinking up the 1.5 oz mixture of cow’s milk and breastmilk. The first time he took it without swatting the bottle away. If you look closely, he’s got a little milk moustache

Who’d have thought that Nathan moving up from the Infant I class to the Infant II class at daycare would be a big deal? But it is! I guess it’s not a surprise that I’d get all emotional about it (I’m his mom, I’m allowed to get emotional about everything he does!), but I think even Gary sees it as a big step. On January 21, Nathan is scheduled to move to the new room. Usually this happens after the babies become mobile. Don’t get excited, Nathan isn’t crawling yet, but he is the oldest kid in his current room and spends time several days a week in the Infant II class anyway. He’s scooting on his butt, and pivoting himself, and has just started scooting backwards when he’s on his tummy. I think once he gets around the mobile kids he’ll be very motivated to get moving too.

Nathan is also officially finger feeding now. We started off giving him broken pieces of Gerber Puffs, then gave him whole pieces and then let him try to pick them up himself. At first he could grab them, but didn’t quite get that they should go into his mouth. Last Friday was the first time he figured it out. We put a few down on the table for him and he pushed them around for a bit and got them into his fist, where they’d get kind of stuck. Eventually I picked one up while he watched and put it in his mouth, and then he managed to pick one up himself and pop it right in! How cool to watch him figuring it all out. Check out the most recent video to see him eating puffs the other night.

Nathan has also started banging toys together and he’s really getting into story time before bed. He seems to have picked out some favorite books and will often let me know that he wants to hear one again (and again). He still loves the one with animal noises and anything with rhymes and fun noises makes him happy too. Baby Cakes seems to be a favorite of both of ours.

Well, Nathan has finally entered the ranks of the omnivores. Last week we fed him meat for the first time. He had Chicken and Apples and he simply loved them. There was no “getting used to it” phase. He just dove right in and went to town. In fact, the second time he had the chicken, he liked it so much he had a bigger smile than I have ever seen on his face. I don’t know if any of you have tried to eat while smiling, but apparently it is pretty hard, especially without teeth, so the food kept running out of his mouth. But he’s gotten the hang of smiling between bites now.

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.

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.

We started giving Nathan cereal last week. He seemed pretty confused by it at first and just pushed it all out with his tongue, but he seems to be starting to get the hang of it…he’s still pushing a lot of it out, but at least some of it is making it into his stomach now.

This is from the first time we fed him cereal. He looks very wary of it, doesn’t he?

This was the second time we gave him cereal, but his first time in the big highchair!

There are more pictures here