11 Months and a few days

So this month flew by faster than any other, as Holden started daycare, and I started back to school full-time. Holden is enjoying his new daytime hangout quite a bit, as pictured in this photo, in which he's eating his very first pizza. He got to make it himself, which mainly comprised of stuffing shredded cheese into his mouth, apparently.

So much is happening developmentally right now it's hard to chart it right now. He's turning into a toddler right before our eyes. He's picking up words (or what sound something like words), standing on his own, and still so very close to walking. As is always the case we have videos and pictures and thoughts galore that need to be posted. But because life is indeed speeding by, we haven't found the time to post them. Perhaps we'll do a "highlights" post at the 1-yr mark to get it all in. Hard to believe it's been one year.

Puzzle Pieces ... It's What's for Dinner!

Holden has certainly been growing and changing so quickly recently, and it's been hard to keep up with the bloggin'. So I'm going to try and catch up here in the next week or so, posting some of Holden's finest summer moments that have gone by without the proper blog attention (which every baby needs, of course).

Holden's favorite toy for quite some time now has been these animal puzzles he has (one makes animal sounds, and one doesn't). He is so good at grabbing the pieces out of the puzzle, and inspecting them in a most curious way. And, yes, sometimes they end up in his mouth -- but most often we just stares at them, perhaps trying to figure out how these zebras, elephants, lions, and tigers got so small.

He's been intentionally eating a lot of other new things as he continues to experience new foods. Recently, he's been introduced to lentils, tofu, onions, baked sweet potatoes with apple and cinnamon, and CHEERIOS! Yes, for some reason, one of the most anticipated snack foods for babies has always been Cheerios, and Holden finally added that to his menu this past week. He seems to really like them (maybe that's why parents are always so excited to add Cheerios to the diet, besides the fact that they are really convenient). He's not quite feeding them to himself, but we're working on that one.
More posts on their way...

Touch and Feel

Holden's been really into textures recently--soft, smooth, rough, you name it. Textures like brick or concrete make him especially happy. In the picture above, for instance, he's mesmerized by the outdoor concrete walls of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts building, designed by Tadeo Ando. A reaction that made us laugh, since the Foundation itself tends to treat the building as though it is a divinely inspired space. Hmm...perhaps they should use this photograph on their promotional website.

To satiate Holden's texture fetish, we've been spending a lot of time reading "touch and feel" books. He loves the two pictured below. Especially poor old "Pat the Bunny," a cheaply constructed book that has fallen apart from one-too-many "pats." It's not such a bad thing though--despite my own fondness for this classic that I too owned as a child, the book is quite traditional in its parental gender constructions.

I've also become a bit more creative, using the rice cereal we have--but rarely use--as edible play dough/wonderful squishiness. Holden loved it, but spent most of his time simply picking up pieces, looking at them intensely, and then (of course) dropping them in his lap. I love watching him in these moments taking in the sensory experiences that we all take for granted. To imagine feeling things for the first time.

Ted Drewes: A St. Louis Classic

Not yet Holden, but soon...very soon....

Happy Birthday to you, blog!

Guess what? We just passed the one-year mark on our little ole' blog. Yes, a year ago Mr. Holden was known to us as the Short Stranger, and he was about the size of an avocado. Which...is the next food after carrots that he'll be trying on his tour through solid foods!

Here's some fun facts about the blog:
-Total number of blog posts: 196
-Month with the most posts: October (no surprise there since I was due that month!)
-Months with the least entries: December,when Holden was a month year old, and April, when I had many many work projects due
-And...besides the "baby's size," and "Holden," the most popular topic has been "sleep" (or lack thereof, heh heh)

Solid Foods, Redux...or "they change so fast!"

A few weeks ago, the very curious Holden had a test-run of solids. And while he liked them very much, they didn't settle too well with his digestive system. After, er, constipation (yuck, I know!) with rice cereal, and painful cranky gas with oats, we decided to take a little break.

So now that he's officially 6 months old, we're ready to begin again. This past week Holden has started on rice cereal again, this time--thankfully--without any painful problems. We've made some tactical adjustments, like feeding him in the morning instead of the evening, so that he can work through any tummy troubles by bedtime. This seems to help, psychologically, anyway. And based on our doc's advise, we're holding off on the oats for a little while, and moving on to fruits and vegetables instead. So far this week, he's tried homemade sweet potatoes, which he royally protested. We'll keep working on that one. By the way, if your ever interested in making your own food, wholesomebabyfood.com is a great website.

All this solid food business is making me realize, as they cliche goes, "they grow up so fast!" A year ago at this time, I was telling the world that I was pregnant! Plus, I find the whole task of getting them from breast milk to adult food daunting. How do we get from point A to point C? I know we take it day by day, but it's amazing how quickly it all goes. Whenever I see an 18-month old I am in disbelief that Holden could possibly ever look or act like that. I guess that's what people mean when they tell me that once you get to the 6 month mark, time really starts to fly. In the meantime, we'll keep charting our food adventures here for the one or two of you who remain curious.

He Eats!

While this was a few weeks ago, I have been meaning to post a short update on Holden eating his first solid food (if you would call it "solid" -- it's mostly mushy, milky rice cereal stuff). We were experimenting to see how he would do with it, and he seemed to like it a lot (but his digestive system was not quite so keen, so we went on hiatus from solids for a bit).

Here is a short video of his first attempts at solid food. Messy, but cute: