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!