Solid Foods

Eli turned 8 months old today! And what a beautiful day it was. We took total advantage of the 70-degree-weather and were out and about walking for most of the day. He went to his first ball game this evening, and I think he quite enjoyed himself other than the buzzers. He really enjoyed flirting with Baby Presley, a high school friend's 9-month-old daughter. I think it was love at first sight. You should have seen them standing next to each other! Presley was about a head taller than Eli! Unfortunately, the electric went out during the junior varsity game and we didn't get to watch cousin Erika play! High winds had taken the power out in numerous towns throughout the valley, so we had to play by candlelight for a few hours.

Eli is turning into quite the little character. He's constantly making everyone laugh. Once the power came back on, Eli's Grandma Jody and I played Skip-Bo. Of course, Eli had to have what I had--cards. We got out an old deck for him to play with, and he picked up two cards and started to study them. He threw one down as if he were playing that card, and then began to scream when he realized he no longer had that card. Seconds later, he realized he still had one in the other hand and immediately stopped crying and began to study the second card, and then crinkle and slobber it. When he later dropped that one, he carried on and "demanded" that I put it back into his mouth and hold it there. I tell ya... he's ornery.

We decided to try solid foods last Friday. I baked a sweet potato, peeled the skin and mashed it up. I portioned most of the mash into an ice cube try for later use, and left several spoonfulls in a bowl. At dinner, Eli ate with the rest of us.

He was curious at first.
"Hey what is this stuff, anyway?"

"Ok, I'm done. Just get me out of here."

I think he ended up spitting out the majority of what I spooned in. We skipped solids on Saturday. On Sunday, Nana pureed steamed and pureed some peas and gave those to Eli while they were still warm (I have since found out that it's best to wait 3-4 days before introducing new foods to be sure there is no reaction) and he loved them! He had peas the next day, and then we tried sweet potatoes again, but warm this time. He seemed to enjoy them a little more. Tomorrow, we are going to prepare some carrots and squash to freeze. After he's had the chance to try several veggies, we will move to fruits, maybe banana, mango and avocado, first.