I haven't posted much lately because I've been busy this month with writing my NaNoWriMo novel. I reached 50,000 words on Sunday, so I have technically won, even though the story is not finished. I am really liking my story so far, so I am hoping to continue writing on it in the coming weeks and finish it up. I'm am thrilled to have won this year. I had my doubts, since I didn't know how caring for Gavin would play into me having the time to write, but I managed it -- I even finished early, so I'm double pleased.
In recent days I have been giving Gavin foods with more texture to them - ground up cooked oatmeal, mashed banana, mashed cooked sweet potatoe - and he seems to like those much more than the pureed food. That makes me think his disinterest in food was more a disinterest in pureed baby food than all food. Since he seems to want to feed himself, I have even started giving him some zwieback toast. I'm a nervous mama bear while he's eating that, hovering over him to make sure he doesn't choke. So far he has managed to get himself out of the choking episodes just fine, though it makes my heart race and I have to restrain myself from grabbing him. I know it won't help, and would actually probably do more harm than good.
Last week at Fiona's birthday party, we gave him a cheerio, which he didn't seem to care for. Today at the store I bought a box and gave him some. At first he went through about five cheerios, just playing with them and dropping them. It wasn't until I put one in his mouth that he seemed to realize it was food, which is odd since he's most definitely an everything-into-mouth baby. After that he "mmmmmbuh mmmmm mmmmbuh"-ed them to bits (mmmmmmbuh is the noise he often makes while eating solid foods). I think I am much more comfortable with cheerios for now. They dissolve easier and are much happier little first finger foods.
Gavin crawled up stairs, have I mentioned that? He now does it quite quickly and quite well. He can make it all the way up the short flight from the family room to the kitchen. He is also cruising more and more every day.
Our friends Beth and Denver were in town over the weekend and we got to spend some time with them and meet their little girl, Madeline, who was born a little less than 2 months after Gavin. She's a sweet little girl, who seemed to take Gavin's curious hands and fingers quite well.
Posted by allison at November 23, 2004 05:59 PM