It's the Small Things

After about a week of rice cereal, we have moved on to real food as of yesterday! Eli's first official food was avocado (nicely mushed). I guess a lot of people start with things like sweet potato or squash (those will probably be next), but avocado is INCREDIBLY nutritious, and filled with lots of good fats that are important for baby's brain development! And it's a perfect consistency for mashing without having to worry about cooking/steaming. So, fresh avocado it was! He did really well, and was even trying to pull the spoon into his mouth...though we did end up with a bit of it on his bib/mouth/face!




Also, yesterday was the FIRST TIME we actually witnessed Eli transferring an object from one hand to the other - an important developmental milestone. I'm sure he's done it before, but we finally saw it. While this milestone would generally suggest that the baby has good enough control to *let go* of an object in order to transfer it to the other hand, Eli figured out that all he has to do it YANK on it really hard, thus tearing it out of one firmly gripped fist in order to re-locate it to the other one. Whatever. As long as it's getting there somehow...

He can also officially hold his own bottle for an entire feeding (with supervision), which really frees my hands up if I have something pressing and little time to juggle everything. We are still doing breastmilk (nursing, or pumped) about 90 percent of the time, but with all these growth spurts, we've been supplementing with formula here and there to make sure he has enough, and good iron content.

To conclude, I can't remember how or when it occurred to me, but all I know is that one day, I realized that I am utterly enamored by my child.

...To the extent that things like mushed up avocado and 1-syllable sounds are suddenly incredibly exciting
...To the extent that I get a deep feeling of accomplishment following something as simple as little fingers finding little toes (and the ensuing playtime)
...To the extent that I could watch him smile or sleep for HOURS (literally) and never get tired of it
...To the extent that I can't fathom why anyone else WOULDN'T be equally excited to observe his cute little face for all those said hours
...To the extent that my pre-baby self would probably be slightly annoyed with my goo-gooing, face-making, motherese-speaking, totally lovesick present self, were we ever to meet

Man. I'm one of THOSE moms. REALLY!?!? I've never been incredibly weepy or sappy, yet this little person has reduced me to a blubbering pile of joyful mush. Sometimes I wonder if the love that parents have for their children is the closest thing on earth to the love that our God has for us. I mean, when God created us, He saw all He had made, and said it was "very good." (Genesis 1:31) He didn't just make us and move on; He ENJOYED us!! He loves watching us grow, even when our "milestones" are relatively small and simple. He is utterly enamored by us, and for the first time in my life, I'm **beginning** to truly understand the extent of this love. It blows me away!

Leaven ≠ Gluten. Wait. What??

I am officially the worst blogger there ever was. I'm well aware of the time lapse between posts, but I promise that I think about it every day...that has to count for something, right? Eli is doing well - he's almost 6 months old now, and is REALLY interactive (even says "MA!!" without knowing it's meaning, of course), and loves to laugh and giggle at weird sounds (i.e. paper ripping, or Velcro). He's also sitting up for short periods of time on his own, and is fascinated with kicking absolutely everything, including my now slightly bruised legs/thighs, and our rather simple-minded dog. We started him on rice cereal about a week ago, and much to our amazement (not really) he takes after his daddy when it comes to eating. The only thing that has been a little frustrating has been getting him to use his arms to push himself up into a mini-pushup, and because he's so reluctant about this, he still can't completely roll over by himself. So, we've been doing some PT with him to encourage him to use his arms more. My guess is that he's just too stubborn and has no interest in all of the typical motivators, like toys.

Me: C'mon Eli, use those arms!! Push up!!
Eli: *upset*
Me: Ooohh!! Look at this toy! Don't you want to turn your head toward it??? Look UP! Look UPPP!!!!
Eli: *MAD*
Me: OH! How about THIS?!? A funny face?? A pacifier???? If you just push up on your arms and turn your head up toward me, we can get you rolling over! Just give it a try?
Eli: *Angrily burrows his red little face farther into the floor*

Anyway, hopefully this will resolve itself soon! On another note, we celebrated Passover this week, which is awesome because (unlike Easter...which is based on multiple Pagan traditions...when you have a minute, go look up where the word "Easter" comes from...sorry, all you egg-hunting, candy-eating, bunny-loving people out there), Passover is something Jesus actually celebrated, AND God commanded us to teach to each generation. So, we thought our first year with Eli would be the perfect time to not only host a Seder, but lead it for the first time at our house. We had about 10 people come, including 2 baby boys (Eli and his cousin Jack), and we had an ABSOLUTELY AWESOME time of learning about the traditions, God's deliverance, and the connections with Christ's first and second comings. Pretty cool stuff, if you ask me. Way better than chocolate bunnies.

After the initial Seder on the first night, we are commanded to not eat leaven (yeast..or anything else that would cause bread to rise) for 8 days, as leaven is compared to sin in the Bible (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). So, Jake and I are in the middle of this fast, and it's teaching us a lot...

...and providing good entertainment. SO! Funny story. We were on our way to Bible study on Wednesday night, but had to rush since it was right after Jake got out of work. To save time, we decided to place an order for take-out at Red Robin and pick it up on the way. I knew it would be pretty hard to explain that we couldn't eat anything that had "leaven" in it, so I just figured I'd tell them we were gluten intolerant, just to be safe. I ordered the chicken bruschetta burger without the bun, and Jake got the turkey burger without the bun, and a side of melon (he's also on a diet). We're all proud of ourselves, and everything. When I go in to pick up the food, the girl had written "ALLERGY ALERT" all over EVERYTHING, and quickly assured me that they hadn't put any salt on my french fries (pretty much the best thing about Red Robin). I tried to play it off like I OBVIOUSLY understood that salt would be a no-no for me and my poor gluten-intolerant husband, and thanked her. When I got back to the car, we hungrily took out our food in eager anticipation. What we found was less than climactic. My "burger" comprised of a piece of chicken with some cheese on it. Instead of the plethora of sauces that usually come on this sandwich, they had provided me with about 4 containers of ranch dressing. The french fries were cold and lacked any flavor whatsoever. Jake was even more fortunate.. He uncovered a turkey burger patty surrounded by lettuce that was missing both the chipotle mayo sauce, AND the side of melon! Apparently protecting the gluten-intolerant person means avoiding all methods of flavor at all costs, as well as potentially death-causing melon. Apparently silverware has gluten in it, too, as there was none to be found, despite their clear effort in giving us sandwiches without buns.

It totally serves me right for lying to the take-out lady. I will never do it again - especially not when the whole purpose of my lie was to avoid a food that is supposed to represent sin, which would include things like lying...........God has a sense of humor when he teaches us things, sometimes.

P.S. BEST RECIPE EVER for Passover OR those poor, gluten-intolerant souls!! This cake tastes like chocolate Heavenly fudge melting in your mouth! I just substituted about half the bittersweet chocolate with semi-sweet chocolate. Try it out! :)