Solids!

We started solids at a little over 5 months because Mara was attacking every plate in front of her and begging for every morsel.

Cuteness won, we gave in.

But before she was even officially doing solids Mara had frantically sucked on a tortilla, a boiled broccoli, a slice of apple that had been left over night and was not easily breakable, a bagel with cream cheese and plenty others.

The first official food was sweet potato, boiled and mashed till you could probably distinguish the atoms. Well, not really, but you get the point.

A few weeks passed with us keeping feedings safe as per the doctor's order: every new food given alone for 4 days at first to see whether there are any reactions, everything mashed properly and spoon fed on the [bib, nostrils, nose, ear lobe, hair, elbow, mouth, chin, eye lashes, eye brows, forehead, hands, diaper cover, hardwood floor].

Soon Mara picked up on the fact that every plate around her contains the pieces of ambrosia that she had been so slowly introduced to. She became a vicious chtulhu with around 14 arms each armed with magical suction cups. If she got hold on something three adults could not get it out of her grasp before it made it into Mara's mouth.

So the rules went more lax, if not just from a philosophy shift (we lived thousands of years without perfect blenders to mash our babies' food) but from a need to not stress out every time our little chtulhu was successful.

Mara eats lots of things, mostly food, mostly in tiny morsels. The rest, she sucks on and chews for a while, then diligently discards the now-wilted leaves of spinach or warm and flavorless slice of bell pepper.

Mommy is quite happy with her near-optimal success at explaining that grass is not tasty and the outside branches are for playing with our hands. Some of then still get a ride in the two-toothed roller coaster. But we're mostly fine just wriggling and banging them with our hands.

Last week we decided to let Mara play with her own food for a change (instead of paying with ours, which she already does all the time). Here's her avocado shots. Her hand is moving so frantically in some of them that it caused a blur :-)