Ground down...

Please monkey, stop grinding your teeth! Please! Your front teeth started to come in with a bang about a month ago. Four of them, the two front ones and those directly to the side. However, since then, you have taking a liking to grinding the center left (the right hasn't come in all the way yet) and the bottom teeth. It's a horrible sound, like a vile squeaking! Your father jokes around about how you must have gotten the bad habit from me, because you know, I grind my teeth at night sometimes when I am incredibly stressed. I'm sure it's just a phase that you're passing through since you've discovered that you've got chompers on top and bottom now, but even so the sound paralyzes me.

 Above: That's you and Beowulf. The cats each express their love for you in their own way. Draco tries to teach you how to be gentle, and Beowulf adores sleeping right against you. (January 2012)

That said, you are such a happy baby in general. We finally let go of trying to spoon feed you a couple months ago. It just didn't seem right, but since I get lots of free baby food from WIC, I decided to at least put some of it to good use. The meat baby food we mix with the dry cat food once a day. They have beautiful coats and have a nice weight going on. Certainly I hope no one takes offense to this, as I'm sure many people would abhor the idea of feeding cats unused baby food. They way I look at it, the cats are part of this family too, and if I can give them something that will help them be healthy, why not? It's certainly not going to waste and family members I love enjoy it. Anyway, the fruit baby food I mix up with a bit of yogurt and give to you in a straw sippy cup for breakfast. You seem to like it, even if you don't always eat the whole thing. The point is you get to drink your smoothie at your own pace, and there's no one trying to force feed you from a spoon. You get lots of snacks throughout the day, such as Organic Puffs, which are little sweet puffs. You don't quite have the hang of grabbing them so well with just two fingers, in fact you like to grab a handful (I call you piggy) and try to stick one some in your mouth while the rest scatter to the floor (which you then try to consume later, you squirrel). Baby Mum Mums is another favorite, they are rice cookies that I started giving you as soon as I discovered them at around six or seven months. Your Tia Val says they are Styrofoam, but I keep telling her that your taste buds are still sensitive, so they aren't bland to you, but full of flavor. Anyhow, they are rice snacks that you can break off in your mouth in huge chunks and dissolve easily. You also eat Crunchies, which remind me  of Cheetos for babies. I end up consuming quite a bit more of your puffs and crunchies than you do! haha.

As for the rest of it, I pretty much gave up on  silverware and decided you can have our food. A friend of mine really opened me up to Baby Led Weaning, which in short, is just allowing your child to try and eat a variety of foods as an adult would, rather than smashing it up and feeding it. It makes life easier. Now don't misunderstand, you aren't eating pizza or anything like that. On nights when we binge out, I have toddler ravioli for you to eat that you seem to enjoy. Tonight, you ate some of my carrots and beef that had been cooked up in the crock pot, and earlier you ate some smoked salmon with me. You don't consume very much at all, but it's much better for you to take your time learning how to eat a variety of textures rather than just focusing on flavors alone. I hope you enjoy. I know I do!