We’ve looked forward to feeding Ian as much as we had to feeding Maya two years ago, though this time there are fewer photos. Around four months old, we started. He had already been sitting at the table with us for a while and watched us intently as we ate. We were told we could wait till six months, but like Maya before him, Ian seemed interested enough that we started earlier.

Eating is FUN!

Again, I am making his food. My approach to his purees is not complex. I make a big batch of some pureed fruit or vegetable, and then freeze it in one-ounce servings. I store these one-ounce chunks in labeled zip-top bags and load up our freezer with them. I pull out whatever chunks I want for a given meal and microwave them. If they’re runnier than I want, I thicken them a bit with store-bought (iron-fortified) oatmeal cereal.

I tried giving him plain oatmeal cereal in breast milk exactly once before feeding him pureed apples. The cereal was a non-starter. The apples he loved. Ian is thus far not a big fan of green vegetables. He’s happy to eat sweet potatoes and butternut squash, but he’s ambivalent about green beans and zucchini and downright disgusted by peas.
One of Maya’s favorite things is to help get Ian’s meals together. She chooses whatever bowl he’s going to use and often selects which foods he will eat. Then she pulls the frozen servings out of the zip top bags and loads them into the bowl. I lift her up so she can push the buttons on the microwave to thaw the food. While it’s running, she fetches me the oatmeal cereal in case anything needs thickening. Once I get the heated food from the microwave and thicken as needed, she puts the oatmeal cereal back in the cabinet and takes the food in to Ian. She would really *like* to feed him. The compromise we’ve settled on is to let her feed him one bite with our help. Then she climbs into her chair and has her own dinner. So far, this arrangement is making everyone happy. This includes Ian; he is really fascinated by his big sister.

Thanks to the demands of two children, Ian’s food offerings have rolled out a little more slowly than Maya’s. Right now, in the freezer, we have apples, strawberries, peaches, blueberries, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, peas, zucchini, butternut squash, and green beans. I have some corn to puree for him. We tried him on some canned refried beans and he was unimpressed. Today I cooked him some lentils and mixed them with butternut squash and apricots to sweeten them (they were a hit).
Since Maya was a baby, the new advice is to introduce babies to allergens more quickly. We can already knock berries off the list. We’re about to take care of corn as well. On my to-do list for the next few months is wheat, citrus, dairy, egg, peanut, and fish.

We’ve tried to give Ian a few finger foods to mess with, but he doesn’t really care too much. He’s pretty happy to gum celery sticks. We bought some little rice cracker things that are designed to give them some practice eating something that doesn’t really demand any chewing of them. He’s happy to gnaw on it till a piece of it breaks off in his mouth. Then he makes faces and gags.
From some of the past photos we’ve posted, you can see that Ian has plumped up. Our six-weeks premature baby who weighed 5 lb 7 oz at birth weighed a whopping 19 lb at his six-month well check. The resources we’ve read warn not to progress to solids too quickly because babies should be getting most of their calories from breast milk or formula. In Ian’s case, I think we have some wiggle room on that.

Like most 2.5 year olds, Maya has developed an ornery streak. She’s defiant and stubborn and likes pointing it out when we deviate even one iota from what she knows to be the one correct way. She often doesn’t listen well and can try the patience of even the calmest person (which I’m not).

Maya – ~2.5 years old

Except often she does listen well. One day, she’ll just randomly pick up her toys when asked. Or before she wants a new toy, she’ll put the old one away without being asked. It’s amazing. Also, she balances her defiance with sweetness (and there’s part of me admires her defiance even as it’s driving me crazy). She’s so smart and has a silly sense of humor. I think having a little brother in the house is already paying dividends for her. At least with other babies, she’s very nice about bringing them toys and playing with them.

Maya – ~2.5 years old

Maya is really blossoming at her music class. She’s definitely a shy kid. If the crowd is too big, she folds in on herself. Her eyes sort of glaze over and while she allows you to shuffle her from one activity to the next, she shows very little self-motivation. In her music class lately, she’s been playing the instruments by herself, following along with some of the movements and gestures that accompany the songs, and has been more assertive about what she wants to do.

At home, the change is even more profound. She has a box of musical instruments – little drums and shakers and xylophones and whistles – that she’s becoming more proficient at using. But beyond that, for the past couple weeks she’s been singing most of her songs. We no longer get to sing to her at bedtime. Now we sit there and urge her along while she sings the songs.

One of the parents in the music class had really cute pants on her kid. We found out where they got them and in looking around that particular Etsy shop, we found some of the cutest kimono dresses. Maya has two of them now: the one in these photos and a red one with skulls on it that will show up in this year’s mother’s day photos once we get around to posting them.

Maya is still on her anti-photo streak. She doesn’t stand still for Sean at all anymore and even actively runs away from him when he has a camera in hand. It’s too bad really; she’s a lovely little subject to photograph.

I think the adjustment from one kid to two kids has been easier on us than the adjustment from zero to one. That said, because there are two, it’s clear that Ian is not getting quite the same degree of single-minded attention that Maya received. This is all too evident in the amount and types of photos we take of him. Maya had special outfits, nicely lit photo shoots, and a variety of ideas and themes. Poor Ian has, “Shit, he’s a week past five months old; we should really take five-month photos.”

Ian – 5 months old

At any rate, we’ve been attempting to at least get a few quick photos once a month so we can (theoretically) see how he develops throughout his first year. Below are some photos of Ian at 2, 4, and 5 months (we figured 3 months was covered by the bluebonnet photos).

In case it isn’t clear from these, Ian has filled out nicely. He goes to the doctor in a couple weeks for his 6-month appointment, and we’re very curious to see what his weight is.

Ian – 4 months old

Ian is generally a happy little guy. He can putter around on the floor and play on his activity mat for sometimes an hour at a time with very little interaction from us. If he’s feeling attention-starved though, he makes it known. His yelling is immense enough to fill the house with baby noise. He can easily out-holler Maya, no question. The kid is loud. A friend of ours kindly commented on his bright, clear voice, but we knew what she meant :-)

Ian – 2 months old

Like his sister as a baby, Ian is kind of lazy. He’s rolled over from his back to his belly a few times, but most of the time he seems to decide he’s just content wherever he is. Even now, he’s really not crazy about being on his stomach. The innocuously named “tummy time” is still not something he really enjoys. I’m all for letting him do what he wants for now, but the time may soon come for us to push him a little more. For that, we might need ear plugs.