Fruit, wonderful fruit!

One of the things I like about BLW is the variety - there is no need to give baby the food for 3 days at a time before moving onto the next, as with spoon feeding. Unless of course there is a family history of allergies - none of which we have! So it has given us free reign to be able to give Ethan whatever is suitable from our meals.

Last night we were a bit naughty and had take away - it was just one of those days where the cooking was not going to happen at the end of the day. Of course, Ethan couldn't really partake in that meal, so I took the opportunity to let him try a some watermelon. I cut it up into thick sticks, thankfully it was a seedless variety so i didn't need to look for pips, and away he went! Well, what a hit that was! I think it was the combination of the coldness on his teething gums, and the ease with which he was able to get some of the delicious juicy fruit down the hatch that was the drawcard. He gripped onto the watermelon and stuck the end in his mouth and sucked on it, his eyes getting wider and wider, and sucking more furiously as he got the taste of it. The juice dribbled down his chin and all down his bib. When he dropped it occasionally, he would scream as if we had taken away his favourite toy! As soon as he got the watermelon back he was happy, until he dropped it.This went on for about 10 minutes, and I think he managed to get a fair bit into him.

This morning I decided that since the watermelon went so well, I would let him try some apple for morning tea. It wasn't a particularly soft apple, but i thought he might gum it for a while and get at least a little juice out of it. He seemed to be getting a bit frustrated and bored with it after about 30 seconds, so I cut him a couple of sticks of watermelon. Ahhhhh, that's better!!!

After a shopping trip later in the morning we went to do a bit of shopping, arriving back home just in time for lunch. I made us all some fruit salad and yogurt, and cut up a nice wedge of pear for Ethan, leaving the skin on, and of course a bit of the old favourite, watermelon! For the sake of variety, he had the pear first. He seemed to love it! He held it with both hands while the end of it was in his mouth and sucked at it for a while. Then a little bit broke of, and he did exactly what it says in Gill Rapley's book - he sucked on it for a while, then spat out what was left - just the skin! How amazing is that for a 5.5 month old! What a clever little man.