Chase types!

Finally, FINALLY, Mama let me get on the computer so that I can blog. ALAH!

Life has been pretty good for me lately. Did you know I have two more teeth now? One in front on the bottom, so that makes three there. And one in the back on top. Mama says it's a molar and it will help me chew tough things like chicken and carrots. I hope it finishes coming in soon, 'cause I don't like it when Mama doesn't share ALL her food with me.

Speaking of food, I found a new favorite. At my buddy Kiran's birthday party, my buddy Liam and I shared beans that his mama made. They were easy to pick up, and easy to chew, and TASTY. My mama made some yesterday and we ate them today with leftover steel-cut oatmeal and chopped tomatoes. It was yummy :-D

Ooo, my favoritist new game is so much fun! maybe you do this too? I love to take things out of drawers and boxes. And I like to put them in, too! Only sometimes I think it's funner to put them in something else, like the black cylinder with the cool lid in my room [Mama says: it's the garbage pail for disposable diapers, and mostly what he likes to put in there are his shoes or Duplo blocks].

Doggy is getting friendlier. She almost lets me pet her twice in a row now, although sometimes I forget I'm only supposed to pat and I end up with her hair in my hand. When that happens, I always show Mama. Oh, and doggie ate out of my hand the other day! It was so cool I didn't even mind that I had meant to eat that Cheerio myself.

I've discovered all these cool things in my room called "books". I love to take them off the shelf and put them on the floor, or hand them one at a time to Mama or Daddy. There are a couple that I even ask Mama or Daddy to read to me...it's so much fun to hear the same one 10 times in a row! Some of them have flaps and things I can touch and turn myself, and some have pictures of other babies. My favorite is a picture of a laughing baby. I make Mama go to that page over and over again and it never fails to make me smile.

Uh oh! mama says it is time for a nap. She might be right, because my eyes keep needing rubbing, but I really don't wanna. Oo, but naptime means I get milkies and to snuggle with Mama! All right, Mama, let's go!

Eats

I had a post all written earlier, in my head. When I was unable to get anywhere near the computer. Maybe it was in the wee hours of the morning, when Chase was nursing, and I couldn't sleep? I don't remember now, just a few hours later, and that should give you some idea of what happens to a mama's brain in the first year of parenting!

I do remember the post was going to be about food, and eating, and Chase. Always about Chase ;-)

I've been baking lately. It started at Christmas time, when I made some cookies for a "craft" swap. I promised 3 dozen cookies, and I didn't feel right giving the person 3 dozen of the SAME cookies, so I made three different kinds. Well, four kinds, actually, but one didn't turn out. I've been trying my hand at bread, too, but not very successfuly. And yesterday I made scones.

I realized I approach baking and knitting in much the same way - I make little changes here and there to better suit my tastes and my talents. I guess I've been doing this with cooking for so long that it seemed a natural approach with knitting, but it sure freaking my knitting friend out when I talked aobut making changes to a pattern - my first real garment, and the changes weren't simple ones like substituting the yarn, either. Though I did that, too! Wait, this isn't supposed to be a post about knitting! Back on track.

Chase gnawing on an apple core.

We started Chase on solid food back in the summer by letting him lick and suck on the pears and apples I was eating. A month or two later, we introduced him to bits of banana, sweet potato, white potato, avocado (not a success), steamed carrots, grean beans and red bell pepper. Yes, all things he could pick up on his own and eat as he wished. No purees here - we are following a trend the Brits call "Baby Led Weaning", although it doesn't have to do with weaning the way Americans think of it. It has to do with letting the baby be in charge of his food, and with letting them explore the natural tastes and textures of food, something that doesn't really happen so much with the "baby food" you can buy at the grocery store.

Extra bonuses - (a) It costs less. He just gets bits from our plates most meals. (b) We get to eat! At the same time! All three of us! No one is stuck "feeding the baby" while the other parent eats, and we aren't feeding Chase at his own mealtime. We get to have meals as a family, all eating basically the same thing. And Chase is getting better and better at actually getting the food in his mouth, although he still gets the majority of his nutrition and calories from breastmilk, and he loves his "nursies."

Oh, right! That is how I'm writing this post today. See, I knew it started somewhere...I am going to a mama-baby blessing this afternoon, and leaving the boy home with Dada. So I am pumping, something I don't do oftehm. I can't do much else when I pump, as I'm stuck in the chair. But I can type! I can also knit.

Which is what I think I'm going to do now. 'Cause this entry is SO adrift, I have no idea how to wind it up except by saying, "The End."