First tooth (update: teeth!) and solid foods!

My goodness, just when you figure them out, they change on you!

We are now into Abigail's 2nd 6 months and I can tell it's going to be much different than the first 6 months! It feels like she is growing and changing at lightening speed: from a little tiny 8 lb helpless newborn to a fun, interactive 16+ lb almost-mobile baby!

Her bassinet is in the background, which she got too big for weeks ago!

She turned 6 mo last Monday and we have been waiting until then to start solids per the AAP recommendation of exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months. Abigail's doctor gave us the green light at her appointment on Monday and recommended starting out with orange vegetables. A book I got recommended starting with a morning or afternoon meal instead of in the evening, so Saturday morning, I cooked up a sweet potato from our CSA, mixed it with a whole lot more milk than I expected and puréed the life out of it!

We cleared the clutter off the table, brought out the camera, put her in the highchair with her new bib, and sat down, bowl and baby spoon in hand. 

It was all quite anti-climactic, however, since Abigail was clearly not as excited as we were. Whether she truly hasn't lost her tongue-thrust reflex or just plain thought we were crazy trying to put some weird orange stuff in her mouth, all she wanted was to bite the spoon - without any sweet potato on it to get in her way! Oh well! We did try a little whole grain rice cereal tonight and she proceeded to continue to stick her tongue out and scrunch up her face with each "bite" like we were trying to poison her, so we may wait another week or so before we try again.

The other big news is that on Sunday morning, we woke up and were playing with Abigail. She grabbed my finger and stuck it in her mouth as usual, but this time there was a different texture in there than normal. Trying to get her to open her mouth and not cover her gums with her tongue was nearly impossible, but we did get a peek and yes, indeed, it's a tooth!

She has been quite a trooper, and her mood or sleep hasn't been too disrupted, though she definitely has a lower tolerance for things not going her way!

And then tonight, while giving her a bath, I noticed her moving her tongue over her bottom gums a lot and chewing hard on her bath toys, and sure enough, the bottom tooth right next to the other one is halfway erupted. Poor kiddo - it's hard work growing up!