My lil' Pumpkin

The past few weeks Noah has grown increasingly curious... of ANYTHING that we put in our mouths! We used to set him in his rocker/bouncy chair while we ate dinner and he would be completely content watching us and playing with a toy.  Recently, he has decided this is no long acceptable to him.  I think he realized there was something pretty amazing taking place that he wasn't getting to take part in!  So, we would just hold him as we ate.  And then it began... I took a sip of water, he reached for the cup.  I took a bite of chicken, he tried to grab the fork from my hand.  I set a plate of food near him, he lunged for it with both hands.  Poor kid was SO deprived... can't you tell?

I was pretty set on waiting until Noah was 6 months to give him any solid foods.  First, it was out of selfishness... I didn't want to have to "deal" with introducing solids.  I am going to make all of Noah's food, so I knew that would just be one more thing to do, one more thing to pack when we leave the house, etc.  Selfish, I know.  Also, our pediatrician encouraged this, as it is important for breast milk to continue to be the main source of nutrition until 6 months.  However, she also said to watch him, and if we saw the "signs" that we could start earlier.  Noah started with these "signs" a little after he was 4 months old.  I ignored them for a while, but as the weeks passed by, he seemed more and more eager to get to experience the awesomeness of real food.... and I started to feel bad!  Everything I read encouraged the 6 month age, but immediately after that encouraged parents to watch the child, not the calendar.  So... we did just that.  Noah got an early 5 month birthday present (1 day early..) on Easter Sunday... Pumpkin!!

He took to it like a champ.  He was SOO excited!  He ate pumpkin for 4 days, and this morning I introduced sweet potato.  He loved both!  I can't believe this little dude is already eating real people food.  Poor kid is going to be graduating high school before I know it.

xoxo,
~The Grant Gang