Homemade baby food

When making your own baby food, I've learned that it first helps if you actually know your vegetables. This sounds simple enough, right? Aha! I bet you would be as surprised to learn as I was (or maybe not, maybe you're well cultured in horticulture) that a sweet potato is in fact, not a sweet potato--it is a yam!!! Yes, those yummy orange potatoes that we use to make "sweet potato" caserole, mashed "sweet potatoes," "sweet potato" fries, and the "sweet potatoes" that are in those baby food jars, are really YAMS. A sweet potato is really a paler imposter, that when peeled is yellow, and not nearly as "sweet" as a yam. Who knew?! Obviously I didn't. And since the grocery store didn't have any yams that I was used to buying, I bought a "sweet potato." It's all mashed up and ready for Lyla to taste tonight...we'll see if she actually likes it. My guess is she probably would have prefered the yam, but it might be a nice change from rice cereal.

Lyla News

Not a whole lot is new since the beginning of the month. Lyla continues to be adorable as always but the motor milestones are slowing down. She's rolling from tummy to back but not the other way around yet (although she often gets to her side from her back, then loses energy). She's more content on her belly and will play for longer (especially if the dogs are nearby and she can watch them--I think she particularly enjoys this because they are at her level). She's started grabbing the dog's fur which concerns me a bit. Oakley and Milo have been great with her, but if I were them I'd be annoyed if a little person started grabbing me and wouldn't let go! So we have to watch them extra closely now.

Lyla's verbal skills are developing. She's learned how to shriek--really! It's pretty cute, probably because she's four months old. Probably won't be so cute if she continues until she's four YEARS old! She's started saying some consanant sounds like "d" and "h." I thought she said "hi" the other day, but it was probably my wishful thinking.

She wakes up happy most mornings and she babbles to herself in her crib for a while which is also pretty cute. Something not so cute though is that she's decided that sleeping through the night is way over-rated. For the past couple weeks she's woken up EVERY night at 4:30. Occasionally at 1:00 or 2:00 as well. Great. Nothing lasts forever I suppose.

She got her first cold a couple weeks ago and I was sick too (not sure who gave it to who--with her being in daycare and me working with sick kidos, it's really a toss-up). She only had a stuffy nose but it broke my heart listening to her sniffle and snort. I see sick kids all the time, most a lot sicker than this, but it's different with your own kids.

I finally finished my residency applications and got four interviews within the first week! The first one is halloween weekend in Richmond, Virigina so we're all (well, not the dogs!) taking a road trip and we'll stay with my friends Shannon and Kevin for a few days while we're down there. It should be lots of fun! This fall and winter we're going to be doing a lot of traveling with my interviews, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. We're going to England for Christmas so that should be an interesting flight!

Photos are coming soon! We stopped taking them daily like we were the first couple months! Lyla pretty much looks the same as she did a few weeks ago, although more photos are a good excuse to show off her adorable and extensive wardrobe!

Four Months Old!

Lyla is four months old today! I can't believe it. For some reason four months seems like a big milestone for me. She's getting so big so fast. When I see the newborns at work I think how scrawny and boring they are--Lyla can do so much more cute stuff than she could four months ago! As a special four month birthday treat we decided to try giving her a bit of cereal. The official recommendation for starting "solids" is 4-6 months, but I always thought four months seemed too young, and that I'd wait until five or six. Well, as we all know, Lyla has always been very advanced (I'm sure every mom thinks this, but I'm actually right :) She is constantly watching us eat, since she was two months old. She studies the food on the plate, then watches as we bring it to our mouth, then watches the fork go back to the plate, all the while smacking her lips. She also DEVOURS her vitamins in the morning. She gets so excited when she sees the bottle, then grabs my arm with both her hands and pulls the dropper to her mouth--so cute! She definitely seemed very ready to eat and I had a feeling she would be good at it, and of course I was right! We got her first meal on video and I'll try to upload it to flickr soon. It is adorable. She ate more than an ounce and made very little mess. She was using more of a sucking motion, but hey, that's all she knows. She even got upset when I had to stop for a minute to thicken it up. She really seemed to like it so I think we'll continue with once a day meals for a little while.

The other newest trick is that she can now get her feet in her mouth, and she has them there constantly! If she's wearing socks they get soaked. Tomorrow is her four-month check up (and shots :( I'll update with her weight and length tomorrow.

Lyla had her doctor's appointment and she was pleased with Lyla's progress. she weighs 12lbs 4oz (20%), is 24 inches long (40%) and her head is 16 1/4 inches (60%)--so she'll be tall and thin with a big brain!