9 Months Old-First Solid Foods

Slugger:
Real Age: 9 months
Adj. Age: 6 months
Weight: 16 lb.
Height: 26 inches

Milestones:
-can sit unassisted for short periods of time
-on tummy, she can push herself up to hands and knees for a few seconds
-she will even push up to her hands and feet before her feet slip out from underneath her
-super ticklish
-can eat baby food pretty without any problems
-rotates and scoots backwards
-holds toys with both hands
-says syllabic run-on sentences "babababababa" (usually when tired and grouchy)

First, as a follow-up to the March For Babies event. Slugger even had a team in New York walking in her honor. My good friend from college, Yong, has been walking in the March of Dimes Walk for years now but now it has meaning. He called me one morning and asked if he and his group could walk for Slugger. We feel so loved. He sent me some pictures from the big walk in New York.

Here's Yong and his beautiful wife, Katie. We flew to New York for their wedding and Scott was their officiant. Now they're expecting and it is just a few more months before their baby arrives.

They carried that sign the entire walk. Yong said people were admiring the sign and cheering encouragment.

Easter was last month but here's some pictures of Slugger in her first Easter dress. She could not sit on her own yet so I had to do some photoshopping magic. If you're interested in seeing the process, I explained how I achieved the following photo on my photography blog here.

Slugger doesn't have stranger anxiety. So far, she's happy to see everyone. I love that about her but sometimes I do wish she was a little more excited to see me. She's thrilled when I walk in, but she's thrilled when anyone walks in. I'm compiling pictures of her with friends but this one is one of my faves. This is at church on a Sunday morning and Bob got to meet her for the first time. Oh, she just loved Bob. It was so cute. She just buried her head in his shoulder and smiled sweetly up at him the whole time.

The big event of turning 9 months and hitting those 6 month milestones was that we introduced her to solid food. I don't know why they call it "solid." It's more mushy gelatinous liquid.

We started off with rice cereal and have introduced a different food every 4 days to a week (to check to make sure there's no allergic reaction). Because Slugger has had dysphasia with swallowing, we had an Easter Seals therapist present the first time she had solids.

And here we go with the very first sample. Scott fed her while I held my camera in one hand and a video camera in the other hand. She wasn't real thrilled with it.

As first-time parents, we are so lucky. How many people get to have a therapist giving guidance on how to feed your baby?

Yum yum!

She did great with the food the first day but after that, she had no interest in it. Would not open her mouth at all. Her peds told me to give her something else to chew on and sneak in a spoonful of food whenever she happened to have her mouth open. It makes meal-time a long exhausting process just to get in 7-10 spoonfuls. But she's getting used to it and has started to open her mouth on her own.

So far, we're making our own baby food. It's pretty easy and she doesn't eat enough to warrant opening a whole jar of baby food. We got a magic bullet for our wedding. That thing is PERFECT for pureeing baby food.

Carrots-Likes

Bananas-Surprising not a fan

Avocado-Likes

Sweet Potato-hmm, jury is out. She eats it but spits it out (that might be her new thing though)

Lastly, here are some pics from our quick trip to Hoomaluhia Gardens. We took her there with her bff, LW, but the bugs were eating them alive so we had to run for the car.

I keep forgetting that she's really 9 months, not 6. Oops! I always think of her by her adjusted age.