More 'fun' with food

Caden has started to enjoy the solid food a little more. Well, he doesn't spit it out anymore and he actually swallows most of it. He's using his tongue differently to get it to the back of his mouth, rather than out the front. He's had Avocado (yes the 2nd time went much better), sweet potato, carrots and pears.

I have to say that I'm not really thrilled about solid food. I'm digging the breastfeeding; simple, portable, readily available, cheap, and creates such a wonderful closeness. Solid food feeding is in one word, messy. messy, Messy, MESSY!!! Which is fine, I know it's a learning curve for him, skill building. But frankly, it's kind of a pain in the ass. No, it is a pain in the ass. Gotta get the food, gotta get it mixed/out of the jar, gotta get the spoon, gotta get the spoon for him to work with, gotta get two bibs (one that's snug around his neck and one that's vinyl and non-absorbent and doesn't close snug enough around his neck, hence the 2nd bib), gotta get the sippy cup, it seems endless. He constantly grabs the spoon, or shoves his spoon in his mouth so I can't get the food in there (yes, I know 'don't let him have his own spoon', but I want him to get good at getting it in his mouth himself). Once we're done, he's messy, he's wet, his clothes are messy/wet, his seat is messy/wet, and usually I'm messy and/or wet.

But.... he's still so darned cute.

[oh, and you can't see it in the photos, because he had it tucked in, Mark's Father's Day present, I gave it to him early since it was too precious not to.]

And he turned 7 months old Thursday:

Jumping MADNESS

[I've been trying to get this posted for over a week. Technical difficulties. argh.]
Well, the story goes that Mark was a big fan of the Jolly Jumper. He says he remembers being in it, and that he really liked it. I was a HUGE fan of the Jolly Jumper. So much so, that my parents installed it in the back of their van when we'd go on trips. Dad said he'd be driving down the road and in the rearview mirror would be this baby, bouncing up into view, disappearing, up into view, disappear. For miles!

So, we figured we should get a Jolly Jumper for Caden. I did some research on them but could really only find the original Jolly Jumper in Canada for $80 + $40 shipping. OUCH! So, I did more research, and found the Baby Bungee Bouncer. So, I ordered it, it came, and we drilled the first hole into our wall (OK, the ceiling) and set Caden up with it. Initially, not a whole lot of action, he kinda just spun around and hung there. Until yesterday. He got it. He got it big time. He loves it, I think we could put him in it all day long.

Check it out for yourself: