Tonight, Patrick got Joe all bathed and jammified and then handed him off to me for a bottle and story.

We didn’t quite make it to story time — for the first time in months, Joe fell asleep in my arms!

What a sweet boy.

Joe continues to be a good little eater, and he’s trying new things all the time.

I have been making a lot of his food. It’s not only cheaper, but it lets me know exactly what he’s getting. I puree a fruit or vegetable, pour it into ice cube trays, and freeze it overnight. Each cube is about an ounce, so it’s easy to make him a portion of food. Just throw a few cubes into a bowl, nuke it for a few seconds, and voila.

His favorites:
bananas
sweet potatoes
squash
mangoes

His not-so-favorites:
peas
carrots
green beans
kiwis

His don’t-even-bothers:
yogurt (!!)
hard-boiled egg yolk

Unfortunately, he does seem to prefer the packaged baby food. This is his absolute favorite:

Patrick and I have been eating pretty well lately, too! Last week I made spinach and chicken pie with a lovely phyllo crust:

And last night, in perfect weather, we had a light soup-and-salad dinner on the back porch:

Tonight, I’m going to try making cashew chicken. Wish me luck!

I predicted that I’d be asleep by 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, but I bought some champagne to toast with before bed. I didn’t remember I had it until about 9:45, so we sat down to have a glass and talk about our resolutions for the year.

One glass led to a second, and before we knew it, the clock said 11:45!

Right about that time, Joe woke up crying with some teething pain. So we all ended up in the living room, watching Dick Clark as the ball dropped.

Here are some of the resolutions we came up with:

1. Read more.
2. Watch less TV.
3. Travel more, even if it’s just a day trip to another town and back.
4. Have more fun with Joe.
5. Get more exercise.

We also spent some time talking about how different Joe will be this time next year. On the one hand, I’m eager to see the little boy he will become. On the other hand, I want him to stay as little and sweet as he is now!

We hadn’t planned to start giving Joe solids until he was 6 months old, but this morning I had him weighed with me at Weight Watchers (I’m down 0.8 pounds, the week after Thanksgiving, thankyouverymuch) and he was just 14.8 pounds. According to this calculator, that’s between the 5th and 10th percentiles.

It’s not an alarming number (he doesn’t look like this kid!) but at his last checkup he was in the 25th percentile — so he might need to fatten up a bit for winter.

And anyway, he turns 6 months old next week!

So tonight Patrick and I gave him his very first taste of solid food. I use the term “solid” loosely here — the rice cereal (which looks like fish food, or instant mashed potatoes) is mixed in a 1 to 4 ratio with milk, so it’s more like egg nog than food.

He seemed a little perplexed by the whole thing, but he got most of it down before completely losing interest.

Tomorrow, he gets pizza!

6:30 a.m.

Wakes us up with his baby-talk version of “Hello? You guys up yet?”

Patrick gets up to give him the bottle I pumped the night before. I sit up to pump the next feeding.

7 a.m.

Morning PT – I help Joe with:

• Tummy time. This helps him learn to push up on his elbows. (He hates it, but if he’s ever going to crawl he has to do it!)
• Rolling over. He can get onto his side, but then he gets stuck. He’s such a calm kid that he would probably stay like that for days if you didn’t help him follow through.
• Sit-ups. I pull him by his hands up to a sitting position and make sure he’s holding his head steady instead of flopping it back. (He’s already the world champion of this, so we don’t really need to do it anymore. But it makes him smile!)
• Sitting without support. He’s getting less wobbly all the time! If you balance him just right, he can sit like a champ for a few seconds. Then he starts to topple over sideways, backward or forward. (Forward is the funniest because, again, he would stay like that for days – with his face down between his feet – if you didn’t come get him.)

8 – 10 a.m.

Nap time! (Lately he has not been using this time to sleep, but he will stay in the crib and enjoy talking to himself for a while.) This is when I get some work done, tidy up the house a bit, or just goof off.

10 a.m.

Another bottle for Joe, another pumping for me.

Then we might do any of the following:

• A play date. We have a regular group of moms and babies that we get together with. Sometimes it’s at someone’s house, or it might be at one of the local mom hangouts like Cartwheels & Coffee or Chat & Play Café.
• A walk. Joe loves it outside. If he’s fussy, all you have to do is step onto the porch and he goes all quiet and serene. Even if we don’t have time for a walk, we do go out and say hello to the trees. And there’s a big yellow “children at play” sign at the end of our driveway that makes him smile every time he sees it.
• Some shopping. I usually try to do groceries on a weekend or evening, so I’m not distracted from my complicated coupon system, but Joe is a lot of fun in the store. He loves the bright lights, and I like to show him things from the produce department and say their names.
• Lunch. We might go out to meet a friend (we had lunch with Patrick one day last week!) or we might stay in. While I eat a sandwich, Joe sits in his exersaucer or kicks around in his baby gym.
• Weight Watchers. I still go once a week, and Joe is a big hit with the ladies there. He stays perfectly quiet for the meetings and patiently tolerates a lot of cooing and cheek-pinching afterward.

2 – 4 p.m.

Nap time! This might be earlier and longer, if he blew off his morning nap or got worn out with whatever we did around lunch time. I get a little work done, maybe pump another feeding, whatever.

4 p.m.

Another feeding for Joe, and pumping for me if I haven’t already.

A little play time, maybe a swing on the porch if it’s nice out.

5 p.m.

I start dinner while Joe plays or swings. Sometimes I put him in his Bumbo seat on the counter so he can watch me make dinner.

6 p.m.

Daddy’s home! He plays with Joe while I get dinner ready. We eat while Joe swings or watches us from his perch on the table.

7 p.m.

Bath time! Patrick bathes Joe while I hover and coo at him (he’s just so CUTE in the tub!)

Once he’s dry and PJ’ed, I feed Joe while we listen to music in his room. Then we read a book. Smooches from both of us and he’s down for the night.

He rarely falls asleep right away, but within an hour or so he’s usually conked out. Patrick makes fun of me because I check the video monitor every 10 minutes just to look at him sleeping.

What an easy, sweet baby!