I'm Curvy and I Like it!

I hope you're sitting down for this one: SHE'S AN EATER! I'll allow you a moment to recover from the shock and surprise of this most recent declaration. Naturally, her rail-thin, practically wasting away parents are stunned that their offspring would take so well to solid food :) If you haven't sensed the sarcasm yet, you may not know me very well at all. 

Teagan's love affair with "food" (have YOU tasted baby "food" lately?) began with rice cereal at 5 months.I feel like I waited long enough that she wanted it. She wanted it bad. Here she is diggin' in on her very first try:

 Judging by her expression, and the burgeoning third chin, I'd say it was a success.

We've moved on to bigger and (I hesitate in saying) better things. She's faced off with:

• bananas
• applesauce
• pears
• avacado
• squash
• peas
• sweet potatoes
• prunes (more to come)

and so far, avacado is the only one that seems to have bested her.

And by "bested" I mean plugged her right up. Several days of pure agony each time she even thought about #2."Prunes, prune juice and more prunes" came the cries of sympathetic grandmas and doctors. The effects were almost instantaneous. And pungent. Here's a picture of the cuter end happy after chowing down her prunes with a side of prunes. The aftermath on the other end was the stuff of horror movies and scary stories. Sometimes I can still smell it at night.

I'll have to look it up, but I think she's setting records in the How Fast Can A Baby Down A Jar Of Baby Food category. I can't seem to shovel it in fast enough - she whines between every mouthful. At this point, it would be incredibly beneficial for me to be ambidextrous and double-fist the spoonfuls of goodness. Sometimes she'll slow down to savour the flavour. We encountered a particularly tart jar of applesauce at the cabin last week. She made this face after almost every spoonful, but always came back for more.

It's not often that the food disappears before her appetite, but just once she's sent us the message that she's finished.

Try as he might, he just can't seem to lactate, so it's been really nice for Buddy to be actively involved in feeding Teagan of late. She certainly seems to enjoy it - perhaps because she gets dinner AND a show. Nothing is boring with her Daddy...especially bum changes. The running commentary is an absolute treat listen to.

I must confess that now is the first time I've worried about Teagan's diet. I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to nurse Teagan and have it come fairly easy to us both - and I recognize that it's a rarity and I'm really grateful. After months of being told that breastmilk is the best thing I can feed my baby, it seems like all of a sudden it isn't adequate when it comes to iron and other things and I find myself worrying constantly that I'm not feeding her enough. The doctor reassures me that at 17 lbs. 12 oz. she's doing just fine and that 3 jars a day + rice cereal is probably sufficient. Buddy was a wee bit disappointed at her 6 month stats - she's fallen from the 95th to 90th to 85th percentile in weight. But one look at those healthy thighs (the rolls at the back of her knees are two of my favourites) tells me she isn't wasting away. Just like her mummy.