Procrastinator

Saya just turned nine months last week and here I am, finally writing something about her developments since god knows when. As always, there's much to talk about. I've been busy indulging all my free time making amigurumi, so I left none to write any recent blogs. Hmmm...where should I start?

Did I mention I wanted to try the Baby Led Weaning method? I thought I really failed with this method since the last post when I started her on cereals and pureed solids at five months. Initially, I bought a bunch of fresh organic vegetables (peas, broccoli, squashes, potatoes, and etc.), cooked and pureed them, and stored them in ice cube increments inside the freezer. It's been almost 3 months since I did that and I don't know if it's a sad thing to mention, but a few days ago, I had to dump a bunch of them into the garbage? Why, you might wonder? No, they didn't go bad. It's just that Saya CANNOT STAND eating baby food. She enjoyed the cereals and the purees for the first 2 months or so, but afterwards, she started feeding herself. I tried a combination of traditional solid spoon feeding (when there are things like soups and yogurt that I want to feed her) and BLW. Eventually, I encouraged her to feed herself more by placing her with some edibles at the dinnertable with BF and I. (I guess the whole pureeing and spoonfeeding was "fun" at first, but then it started to become cumbersome as Saya became more physically active and distracted.)

Things really took off since Saya has grasped the pincer grasp! I had a small stash of commercial jarred baby foods to use when I go out and didn't have proper food storage devices and there are still a few jars sitting in our pantry since Saya wouldn't even touch those. She has grown so fond of feeding herself that today, she wouldn't even eat the rice soup (w/catfish, no bones of course) from a sppon. We had to literally spread the thing across her high chair table for her to take a bite. It was a bit comical to watch the poor thing scoup up tiny bits of fish and rice with her hands. It was also an absolute mess. But I've been accustomed to cleaning up after Saya's meals, so the mess didn't seem too bad.

Saya's current repetoire of edibles include:
-Gerber puffs
-broccoli, which she can't get enough of (hooray for me)
-not too fond of the potatoes, but will try the first few chips
-white fish fillets
-chicken/turkey breast, shredded or in the form of nuggets
-rice bits
-hummus
-pita bread/nan/bread
-cheeses
-pasta and noodles
-fresh fruits: bananas (not too fond of), avocado (getting the hang of), grapes, papaya, oranges, apples, berries (I introduced these a little earlier as there's no history of allergies in my family. Luckily, she's not allergice to any of the berries, even strawberries. Lucky for her because she absolutely loves eating berries.)
-baby yogurt (Yo-Baby by StoneyFarms, the only ones that I'll eat now! I wish they had more flavors in this line)

Might I add? Saya has no teeth! Not even a single one. She loves ravaging her food with her gums. You wouldn't think she can eat eat a strawberry cut up, but no, give her that strawberry whole and she'll gnaw at it with her gums until the thing is reduced to strings of fruit. When we give her a slice of something she can't really grind with her gums, she'll just bite off a piece with her gums and suck the living crap out of the bits before she spits it out again. Just yesterday, I fed her some fish soup. I mean, I really tried to watch out for the fish bones (with every spoon I gave her), but somehow I missed this one. Saya ended up spitting the bone back out. One side of of me hung in shame for having missed the bone, but another side was super relieved that Saya can be so smart to spit it out!

I have to say, maybe I was lucky in some ways. BLW kind of came naturally to Saya. I was a bit skeptical that it migt not work at all. I've learned that this really is a laidback approach (you have to be considering the mess! However, the little time you spend in preparation makes up for time you spend in cleaning, plus baby learns to be an independent feeder and takes in highly textured foods! (i'm starting to feel like a BLW advocate now).

That concludes this chapter on BLW. Since I'm rarely on this blog, might as well just discuss other new developments with Saya. She just seems to be a cornucopia of new sounds. Lately, she's been babbling "dah, dah, dee, dah" and occasionally "mama." We try to get a "daddy" or "mommy" out of her, but she doesn't seem to get the message yet. (keep trying they say). I don't really see it in other babies, but Saya has different types of laughs. She has the genuine baby giggles that you get when you tickle her, but then she also has this weird laugh where she practically cuts off her air supply. I dont know how to describe it, but it sounds like you're breathing in too hard or too high in your trachea, like you're making the sound of a creaking door. Saya also laughs "aha" (literally that) or screams at the top of her lungs when she's ecstatic about something. In fact, she screams so damn loud that I can hear the vibrations in my ears during her screams. I only hope that she can keep that up when she gets older in the event that she wants to pursue a singing career. Saya also makes another weird characteristic noise. When she wants somethings, she'll clear her throat very hoarsely, as if she's desperate to remove phlegm from there. It sounds painful. Funny thing though, BF makes the same noise when he wants something.

Saya has become quite a clapper. She claps when she's excited or happy. To our amusement, she consoles herself by clapping when she's upset. Can you imagine a crying baby who happens to be clapping at the same time? It makes sense, of course, for her to amuse herself when she's upset. But for us, it's just hilarious. I'm really disappointed that I've missed videotaping those sessions.

And last but not least, Saya also makes those "mmmmmmmmmmHhh" sounds when she eats something she absolutely loves. I swear, it's as if these babies are born with the instinct to smell out a delicious slice of cake, ice cream, or brownie. Yesterday, Saya eyed a plain doughnut I was eating. I know it was bad, but I couldn't resist letting her explore the doughnut, and I let her have a bite of the nonglazed interior filling. Then another bite, and another bite, and another......because everytime I did, she just kept on going "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm." It's such a shame she can't drink a glass of milk with that because, guess what, she still will NOT take milk from a bottle.