hungry mungry

We thought we were going to wait the widely-recommended 6 months before we gave her anything besides breastmilk, but Ruby was showing so many signs of being ready earlier (speck of a tooth coming in, lunging for our food with her mouth wide open, and insatiable appetite) that the pediatrician told us to go ahead and give her some rice cereal. So, at 5 1/2 months, Ruby has officially ended her liquid-only diet.

First thing we needed: a high chair. We couldn't fathom adding yet another stand-alone object to our little apartment, so this Fisher-Price space saver was a great find! It fits securely onto most standard chairs and Ruby seemed comfortable and happy in it from the first time she sat in it.

Next order of business: a bib. Because we don't have a washer and dryer in our apartment, we need to conserve throwing stuff into the laundry as much as possible. The Bumkin waterproof superbibs are actually exactly what they are called: superbibs. They are cute and functional and can be wiped down between feedings rather than laundered.

Next, we can't actually feed her if we don't have any food. Jude--a chef--has for months now been making all her fruit and veggie foods that she's going to start eating in January. He wants her to eat local and organic foods, so he thought to start making (and freezing) the foods this fall so that she can have more variety than what's available at the farmer's markets in the dead of winter! For starting to eat, though, we chose rice cereal (the most common starter food) because it can be mixed with breastmilk and it's very unlikely to cause an allergic reaction. We chose HappyBellies brand brown rice cereal (below link is for 6 canisters, which will last a long time).

We have a couple of beautiful silver and/or stainless steel spoons that Ruby was given as baby gifts, but those will be used later. For now, we needed to find a spoon with a soft tip so that--as she learns to chew and eat--she doesn't damage her tender little gums. My other criteria, of course, was that it had to be BPA-free. These inexpensive spoons from Munchkin did the trick.

And lastly, we got these matching bowls--also BPA-free--for her cereal. Pretty cute, and so much cheaper than most of the other dishware out there that is advertised as BPA-free.