As Maddi moves ever closer to that six-month mark, she is more and more excited about eating food. She’s gone from watching me drink juice to trying to grab it from me. (Not only that; if I pour myself a glass far enough away to keep my beverage safe, our hungry daughter can be heard emitting a series of frantic “eh-eh-eh”s and waving her hands angrily in the direction of my cup.) And once, when I was eating ice cream at Nana’s with Maddi in my lap, I jokingly brought the spoon toward Maddi’s face. With at least eight inches to go, Maddi opened wide in anticipation. Despite the fact that she has never eaten anything, let alone junk food, she looked so disappointed when she figured out she wasn’t getting any of my treat.
For now, however, she seems to be doing just fine on Mommy’s milk. A few days back, I was writing down her five-month statistics in her baby book. As I reminisced on months past, I noticed a trend. While Maddi’s height has varied from the 50th percentile to the 90th, each month, her weight remains in the 90th percentile or higher (usually higher). Clearly, this is not a starving baby.
Be that as it may, we are beginning to work on transitioning her into the dining room. For the last week, we have taken our meals in the breakfast nook, accompanied by Maddi in her high chair. Today, we brought out her big sister Kaija’s old sippy cups and put them through the dishwasher. In the coming days, we will give her a small cup of pumped milk so she can participate in “dinner” at the table with Mommy and Daddy rather than sitting in the high chair growing increasingly frustrated at the fact that everyone is eating except for her. And in a few short weeks, our not-so-tiny-anymore daughter will eat her very first spoonful of rice cereal.
But for now, even though she’s incredibly curious, she doesn’t really know what she’s missing. Otherwise, we could not have eaten Chris’ amazing turkey dinner tonight, on Canadian Thanksgiving, while Maddi was content to nurse just 18 inches away from the tastiest stuffing, sweet potatoes and most juicy turkey imaginable. It’s Maddi’s first and last “food holiday” during which she won’t be sampling the delights of the season.
Just because she didn’t enjoy the bountiful Thanksgiving feast doesn’t mean she didn’t play an important part in the festivities, though. Not only did she help provide the entertainment, she also served as our only Thanksgiving decoration.
Here’s our little turkey showing her true colors.