Eating Real Food

Although EH still loves his purees, we've been venturing into giving him more real food, and letting him feed himself.  He's getting better at chewing and gumming his food, and doesn't seem to choke as much these days, so we feel more comfortable letting him try new foods.

Among the list of his new favorite foods:
Spaghetti.  Or rather, elbow macaroni with a little bit of spaghetti sauce.

He's thinking, "Hmm... where else can I smear sauce??"

He eats yogurt on a regular basis now, likes scrambled eggs (although he has a hard time picking up eggs without smushing them), spaghetti or any other type of pasta, steamed pieces of potato, cheerios, cooked tomatoes, chili beans, and steamed carrots.  He loves picking up the food and putting in his mouth, although he's still not great at that.  Mid way through our meal, when EH appears to be out of food, we pull out his tray, scoop up all of the food that is on his lap, and he has half of his meal back.

I have these silicone bibs with pockets on them that we used to use back when he wasn't good at swallowing his food, and half of it would drip out of his mouth.  Once he got better at eating we stopped using those, but I need to remember them these days, otherwise all of his clothes are going to be stained red from spaghetti sauce.

I can't believe how old he looks.  Sometimes I'll look at him and I swear I can tell what he's going to look like in 7 years.  I was away from him for 5 days while DH went to visit his family and I went to San Diego for a conference and I swear he seemed bigger and more mature and more verbal and with more hair.  It was crazy!  When I tickled him on the drive home he laughed like a toddler, not like a baby.  It was maybe the cutest thing he's ever done. I felt like I barely recognized him, but my god, was it cute.

He's gearing up to spend another few days with his nana and papa and I have a feeling that by the time we see him next he's going to be walking, reciting Shakespeare and doing long division.