Solids!

As someone who loves food and eating as much as I do, this month brought exciting developments for the Butler family.

Dahlia turned 6 months on May 25th, and since just before Peter's birthday on the 19th, we've been feeding her a couple meals a day of solid food. We started with avocado and it continues to be one of her favorites. She's also eating banana, peach, sweet potato, rice cereal, and we're currently working on peas.





Dahlia eating her first meal of banana on May 16th

At first Dahlia seemed like she'd eat anything, but when we tried steamed and mashed apples and carrots, she gagged on the tiny chunks and puked into her conveniently located bib pocket. So we're sticking with soft foods for now; relying mostly on avocado for dinner, and rice cereal with peach for breakfast, and banana for a midday snack with our nanny, Noeleen. Our pediatrician, Dr. Julia Getzelman, recommended feeding her mostly savory vegetables before moving ahead with any more sweet fruit, so she's sure to keep eating her veggies. So I tried peas, and next up are spinach and summer squash.

When Dahlia gets a spoonful of peas, she makes a disgusted face, gags and coughs but manages to move it around in her mouth and eventually swallows it. I've read that the way to get your baby to eat veggies is to give it to her as the first bite of a meal for 10 days straight. If she doesn't like it, don't force it, just give her the one bite, then finish the meal with food she likes. After 10 days, or sooner, she will love the new food.

Except for the rice cereal, I've been making all her food myself. With the farmer's market located so close to our "summer home" at the Embarcadero, I have access to fresh, gorgeous organic produce every week. I'm steaming or baking her food, pureeing it and freezing it into 1 tbsp cubes in rubber ice cube trays. It's inspiring having the market so close, but I'm also finding guidance and inspiration from a cookbook my friend gave me called The Petit Appetit Cookbook, and a blog run by a high school friend of Peter's called weelicious.com.

On the eve of her 6 month birthday, Dahlia cut her first baby tooth. I know it was that night because she had a particularly tough time going to sleep; she fussed and cried for an hour, even with Daddy singing to her and soothing her. She usually goes to sleep with only a little help so this was very unusual behavior. Poor girl! That night she woke up several times and we finally gave her some baby Tylenol which helped her sleep the rest of the night. A day or so later, I heard a "tink" sound against the spoon during a feeding and on Friday her doctor showed me the tip of the bottom right front tooth just poking through the gums.

Speaking of the 6-month check-up, Dahlia is doing great, the doctor says. She weighed 18 lbs, 8 oz, and measured 27.5 inches, putting her in the 90th percentile for height, weight, and head size. She is sitting up confidently, having been stable in this position for about 3 weeks now. She doesn't show much interest in rolling, so for now she still isn't mobile, which is nice.

The doctor also recommended cutting out the nighttime feeding, which usually happens between 2:30 and 4:30am. This could be tough, because we all sleep in the same room and don't have the option of moving her to her own room until we move back to our apartment in the Mission. So for now I have to try to soothe her when she wakes up at night using just her pacifier and my hand on her chest -- without resorting to picking her up and bringing her to bed for a nursing. If she's particularly upset, I cave pretty easily. Unfortunately, her teeth have been keeping her up, and nights have been somewhat eventful for the past couple weeks. But we'll get there -- she has a couple times gone all night without needing the comfort of mommy's milk, and we hope to improve on that in the weeks to come.

Lastly, her new favorite toy is "the pond," an Exersaucer on loan from my friend Mimi. Dahlia loves the variety of toys to explore, the sounds and music, and the chance to stand up and jump around a little. In all, it's quite a play-time adventure! And it has the added bonus of keeping her safe and occupied while I start dinner or whatever.


Dahlia playing at the Pond

And finally, an update on us in general. We've settled into a good routine at our condo downtown and I'm actually enjoying the change since it's such a great location. And since Dahlia is back at our house in the Mission for share-care, I can bike to work and save about 30 minutes on my commute each way.

Peter is improving every day, and is now helping out so much more, doing things like: reading to Dahlia on his lap, feeding her solids, and even assisting with dinner preparations while I get little D off to bed. His days are long and a little boring, as he's home alone most of the time, except when friends and sisters can stop by for lunch. He's also started working from home for 2 hours a day, mainly checking email and communicating with people again.

We get out for family walks on the weekends, with me carrying Dahlia in the Moby wrap and pushing Peter in his wheelchair. Our location is perfect for long, flat walks, so we can't complain. Now if the fog would just lift and we could have a taste of summer... for now we'll have to rely on the delicious summer produce to remind us that it's hot and sunny somewhere out there in this great, bankrupt state of ours.

Bye for now!