Is this normal?

Daniel absolutely loves eating paper. I just don't get it--we have all these great toys and chewy plastic devices and all he wants to do is gum paper until it turns into a mushy mess. I carry him to the mailbox every day (to get the mail, not to send him away--that came out all wrong) and he usually gets upset if I don't let him put the mail directly into his mouth, straight from the mailbox. I figure some of it might be important, so I sort everything out when we get back in the house, then I give him the junk mail to chew on for awhile. Funny buddy!

Cardboard is equally delicious:

Body by Dan

Layne and I like to pump some iron every now and then, mostly when we're watching The Biggest Loser. Something about seeing those obese people motivates me to get moving. Dan got ahold of the weights and was trying his hardest to lift them, to no avail. One day, he'll be able to throw around the 5-pound weights just as good as Mommy.

Mean Mommy

Layne and I decided to play a little trick on Daniel, so we let him have a taste of lemon. I know, I know, I'm not a very nice mommy because I thought it was hilarious to see his reaction. His whole face just scrunched up and the cutest little shudder went through his shoulders. Adorable! We won't do it again, so I'll have to be satisfied with reliving the moment on video. Ha!

(And I don't usually feed the little guy right out of the pot, but I had just whipped up a fresh batch of rice. It had cooled down, but I hadn't transferred it to a storage bowl yet. I feel I need to explain myself, in case you were really worried about my mothering skills, especially after the lemon incident.)

Peas are delicious

It only took a few days for Dan to figure out how to eat real food. Now he's the champ! I bought the Beaba baby food maker from Williams-Sonoma and have been making food for him. It's a pretty sweet machine--it steams the veggies (or fruit or meat or fish) then it purees in the same container, minimizing cleaning. Following Aunt Cass' advice, I'm going to start out with all the not-so-fun veggies before we move on to yummy, sweet fruit. Bon appetit!

Pop that collar

Daniel wanted to look preppy like his Uncle Tom, so we put him in this adorable collared shirt and white shorts. I think something is wrong with Dan's legs, because shorts that are supposed to be shorts look more like capri pants on him. Hopefully the ratio of body-to-legs will improve with time. Because, wrong or right, it's just not acceptable in the US for a man to wear capris. Ha!

Quite a pickle

I was unloading the dishwasher when I glanced over the see that the little man had gotten himself into quite a predicament. Instead of reclining in his vibrating chair, he'd managed to flip himself over. He was trying so hard to get back into position before I noticed, but his muscle movements aren't quite that refined yet. Of course, my first instinct was to grab the camera instead of to help him, but I figured he wasn't in any real danger, so we might as well get a laugh of the situation!

FOOD!

The little man has been introduced to solid food! He's not exactly a fan, as you can see in the video. I ground up some organic brown rice, heated it up into a mush, then thinned it out with breastmilk. I thought it looked like a delicious concoction, but Daniel didn't quite know what to do with the texture. I think he still has to figure out how to swallow something besides milk. Judging by the size of him, I think he's doing just fine on milk alone, but it was fun to try something new. We'll keep at it and before we know it, he'll be eating everything in sight!

Feed me, Mommy!

What, no filet mignon?



Open wide: