FOOOOOD!!

When we went for Juliette's 4-month well child appointment, the pediatrician gave us a little hand out on introducing solid foods, and mentioned that while the guidelines had previously discouraged solids before 6 months, current practice suggests any time after 4 months is fine as long as the baby shows the proper signs of readiness.

Chris was like THIS IS AWESOME LET'S GIVE HER HUMAN FOOD TONIGHT! but I wanted to slow roll it a little more - she wasn't showing any indications that her current all-milk diet wasn't meeting her wants or needs, so I didn't think we needed to rush it. We compromised with agreeing to try solids for the first time at 5 months. I warned Chris that trying wouldn't necessarily mean SHE was ready - if her tongue thrust reflex hadn't gone away yet, for example, we would have to just wait a few weeks and try again.

Then as luck would have it, my mom and my sister were both in town (and in my house!) for the Women's March, which happened to coincide with Juliette's 5 month birthday... so Solid Food Day was a go.

And holy cow Chris could not have been more right - this baby was apparently DESPERATE to get her hands on real food. We started with sweet potato (just roasted one in the oven, then mashed up with a little breast milk to thin it) and this baby COULD NOT BELIEVE we were letting her eat this magical substance. After the first bite her eyes got huge, she started flailing all extremities in glee, and she made sure that every single morsel from the spoon my sister was using to feed her made it fully in her mouth.

(You may need to click through from a feed reader to see videos)

I... think we do not need to worry about tongue thrust with this one. How did she already know how to use a spoon??

More problematic was the fact that we can't shovel the food into her face fast enough for her.

Next up were bananas, which were met with the same level of delight and gusto:

(Yes, I still had my tree up in late January. I am both lazy and really liked it, which is not a combination that made for a timely removal.)

To be fair, she seems to enjoy literally ANYTHING she gets to put in her mouth, up to and including balloons and cats.

We were starting to think there was nothing we could give her that wouldn't be met with frantic dives toward the spoon for more (I mean, if even cat hair meets that lofty goal....?) - but then we tried avocados. 

The first several bites she mostly seemed... confused. Like, it had been made pretty clear to her at this point that Food Was Amazing, so how come bite after bite of this food was...  not? She kept valiantly trying spoonfuls, apparently giving the avocado the benefit of the doubt that it would start tasting delicious at some point soon... but eventually she had to come to terms with the reality that is avocados.

Sorry kid. Not everything is as magical as prunes (which, thankfully, she can't get enough of... since she followed up this intro to solid foods with an 8 day poop strike. MOAR PRUNES!!)

Considering how much both Chris and I enjoy eating, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Juliette is this thrilled with food - but I am definitely relieved. I know this doesn't necessarily inform her eating habits or preferences as a toddler or anything, but getting to watch her experience each new food right now sure is awesome.