Day 221: Exciting Developments

Gianna’s going to be starting “Stage 1 purees” this weekend and I’m so excited! What are “Stage 1 purees” you ask? They’re just single food purees, usually a fruit or vegetable. When you teach a baby to eat solid food, you essentially do it in stages…or you should do it in stages. First, you start with cereals (rice, barley, oatmeal) that will get them used to the texture without any likely allergic or digestive reactions. Once the baby has gotten used to that, you move onto single-ingredient purees, such as carrot puree or apple puree and you can also mix that with cereal. Once you know your baby isn’t allergic to certain things and you’ve learned what they like, you can start to mix things up and then you’re moving onto the next stages. Blah blah blah, haha.

ANYWAY, we started Gia a little late, in my opinion. A baby may be ready for solids starting at four months of age and while Gianna was physically ready, we just never had the chance to start. I happened to get sick every weekend and didn’t want to miss the big event and, otherwise, we’d be extremely busy with other responsibilities. You’d think it shouldn’t take very long to just feed a baby a couple tablespoons of food for the first time, but that’s not the case at all! You may be sitting there for half an hour trying to get the baby to accept the food...and trying to keep her hands out of the bowl or at least keep them off the furniture once they’ve been in the bowl. It’s a fun event. So, we never made the proper time until she was somewhere in the five to six month range. Then we started cereal, which is hilarious to watch, but I’m ready for more!

I’m just excited to actually cook for my baby and watch her decide what tastes good and what doesn’t. I’ll be even more excited getting the chance to mix up the flavors for more interesting items and to watch her start trying to feed herself even more. She already tries to take the spoon from us and direct it into her mouth, which always gets me cracking up.

We also recently starting giving her a sippy cup to experiment with, just filled with a little water, and it’s the cutest thing in the world to watch her hold onto the handles and suck on the sippy spout, trying to get the water out like it’s a bottle! All I had to do was demonstrate once and she immediately was adamant about drinking out of it. I could put that cup in front of her with a mixture of toys and she’ll go for the cup so she can feed herself. I love it! Silly baby.

I’m also really excited for some stainless steel sippy cups I recently purchased online. I know, I’m crazy. But these have a spout that isn’t supposed to leak, unlike our current cup, and I just can’t wait to put some milk in it and let her really try to drink for herself without worrying that she’s going to spill it everywhere. And I won’t have to worry about plastics or any of that bull. I know, “BPA free!” but too bad. I just hate plastic anyway. Durable glass and metals for the win!

Another thing I’m really looking forward to is our purchase of a convertible car seat. I recently got a Jeep Patriot, my very first mom car after my beautiful, single-girl Mustang that I had since I was fifteen,

16 years old and loving it!

My last hurrah. I threw on an outfit I'd have worn in high school (including a leather jacket from high school) and sped through 
the streets listening to Linkin Park as loud as my stereo would go! And then I said goodbye.

This baby got to ride in that car twice...at a very slow pace...in a very cramped back seat (the passenger seat had to be 
moved all the way forward to fit the car seat!). Glad to have my Patriot now. But I miss you, Tes!

and I’m excited to outfit it into a true family vehicle, haha! It seems crazy to me to think like that, but I love it. I’m even looking for some really cute window decals, you know the ones depicting each family member, including the dog.

The last thing I’m excited for is a diaper bag I can’t yet own……so sad! But it’s really amazing. A photographer named Kelly Moore has been designing camera bags that look like purses, but have removable, Velcro-attached dividers to keep camera equipment organized. The bags are strong and durable for the equipment and yet super stylish. What gets me are the dividers. I haven’t been able to find a single diaper bag that doesn’t have silly pockets sewn into the sides inside the purse—pockets are pointless! Once I fill a pocket, it expands into the bag, taking up space in the center that I can no longer use. And because they don’t extend all the way to the bottom of the bag, that space is now useless as well. So, I actually get less storage because of the pockets, which are supposed to help to organize. Kelly’s dividers, however, are affixed to the bottom of the bag and are made of a strong material that stands up very well, not something flimsy that falls over and gets in the way. She even has bags with “Posey pockets” on the outside, which are zipper compartments that fold open to reveal tons of credit card slots and two pockets for cash, checkbook, keys, whatever! So exciting. She has one bag that’s the perfect size, but I just can’t afford it right now. One day, though…one day.