Lion Guy

Many people tell you to start babies on solid food as early as possible to help them sleep better through the night. Then the pediatricians and other researchers tell you that solid food introduction has NOTHING to do with sleeping through the night. Not wanting to completely flaunt the rules but knowing that the Baby Whisperer (who has been right about everything else so far) advocates starting unusually large babies on solids early because they need more sustenance to stay nourished between feeds, I decided to start Matthew on rice cereal at his 5 month birthday. Here's what he looks like waiting for his chow:


Two weeks later, we are going strong on the solid food thing. Matthew seems to like it, though he hasn't yet mastered eating off a spoon, so we both end up wearing a lot of goop. We're only up to breakfast and lunch - dinner comes next week - and we'll start other foods at six months. An interesting thing started happening a couple of days after starting eating cereal twice a day: he slept through the night! Eleven hours, to be exact. Stupid doctors. He doesn't sleep through every night, but at least I'm not in tears every night over multiple hungry wake-ups! Here's what he looks like when I go in to get him in the morning:

Another wonderful development is that Nana sent some new toys! My favorite is a little plastic crab that bobbles around. My mother even admitted that she was tempted to keep it for herself. I put in my purse so that I'll have a toy for Matthew when we're out and about - and if I'm a little bored, I can play with it, too. Here he is playing with his new blockhead lion toy:

Finally, I added two new videos to the links list for all to enjoy. One is of Matthew enjoying a rounding rendition of Isty Bitsy Spider sung by yours truly. The second one is of Matthew jumping his heart out in the kitchen doorway. He's wary of the camera - as you can tell from his many serious poses - but I finally caught him letting his guard down!