Six months!

Elisabeth at 6 months....



...weighs 15 lbs. exactly, which is more than double her birth weight (her brother at this age was a pound short of doubling his birth weight).


...has two teeth in the bottom-front


...is quite mobile with her scooting, and can rock in a hands-and-knees position, but no crawling yet.


...nowhere close to sitting yet! Won't even bend at the hips :)


...is licking fruit and veggie slices


...is down to 2 1/2 naps per day (1/2 nap means soon after awakening, to continue night sleep)


...bedtime 6 or 6:30 pm


...very social, wants to be in on the action, busy body!


...still nursing strong (and will be for a long time!)


...no hair growth ye

Unattended Births

...from the midwife's perspective. Here's a great post and list of resources.
http://www.pamamidwife.com/2009/02/20/unattended-birth-resources/

Starting solids

For a couple weeks, Elisabeth has been "interested in food," but I was hesitant to start solids early, so I tested her -- and as it turns out, she just loves to grab whatever is in my hand--and she just loves to put whatever she is holding in her mouth. But it does seem that she is interested in bright foods like carrots and apples, and certainly likes to participate in mealtimes. So I have started sharing food with her - if I am eating a carrot stick, I give her one to suck on. Or, I let her play with a whole apple like a ball--chasing it, mouthing it, etc. -- a great toy with no paint or plastics!! :-)  Also when I am eating apples I will give her licks in between my bites. So she is tasting it, but hasn't actually swallowed any food yet. I think this is fun for her and is a great first step to getting excited about fruits and veggies!

Raw fellowship

I met a raw family in a homeschool group here, how exciting! It makes such a difference to have fellowship - support, and just somebody living similarly to yourself. Also fun to get a personal glimpse into another raw life, raw kitchen, etc. I got some great ideas from her, and I think I will get back into raw recipes using sprouts, dehydrated snacks, etc. and serving some raw dinners to my family.

 

Green treats

We disguise the bitter taste of greens in fruit smoothies, why not do it to other blends as well? I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. We like making date/nut blends sometimes, or even a carob shake with tahini and honey. Well, why not add greens to these too? What we did today for lunch was this: tahini, raisins, carob, coconut, and LOTS of spinach blended up. It is rather rich, so we used it as a dip for celery and tomatoes. And by the way, there is a trick to getting the spinach blended. Start with about 1 cup of water in the blender and put in 2 handfuls of spinach. Let it puree, and then add a couple more handfuls. Then you will have a "spinach smoothie" mixture, and you stir this into the dry ingredients (we make our own tahini too, by grinding sesame seeds in a dry blender).