Forest Firsts

Forest has reached such a fun age. His eyes are constantly sparkly and a smile is usually plastered on his face. 

He hams it up for the camera and is super willing to smile on cue which makes him a momma-photographer’s dream. I’m sorry if you’re one of the lucky ones who get inundated with text message pictures day in and day out. Ditto to my instagram followers.

I just can’t get enough of him sometimes. Unless it’s 3 am; then I quickly get my fill of parenthood and reminisce about the long gone days of uninterrupted sleep. And naps. OMG do y’all remember naps? Pure bliss. It’s my lot in life to be tired for the foreseeable future but at least he brightens my day with his sweet smiles and curiosity. 

This weekend we started feeding him ‘real food’. Our pediatrican recommended we start him off with a sweet veggie. We decided to begin with carrots since they strike a perfect balance between sweet and bitter. 

He LOVED them. 

He’s still wishy washy about rice cereal but I think he really enjoyed having something with a bit of flavor for a change. It’s recommended that you try one food at a time and wait a few days before introducing something new, that way if they have a reaction you know which food was the culprit. Since he handled the carrots just fine, we decided to expand his diet to include sweet potatoes. 

Another hit with the Forest-man! Jonathan and I would really love to escape the pitfalls of picky eating so I’m hopeful he continues to enjoy whatever is on the spoon. Next on the menu is green beans so we will see how he reacts to something with a bit more bitterness. 

I also slipped him a bit of white potato during another first this weekend: Brunch! 

We passed a waffle restaurant the other weekend and Jonathan had been craving them ever since. We decided to get the need for a big American breakfast out of our system so on Saturday we loaded Forest up after his morning nap and headed to Country Waffles in Danville.

Jonathan got waffles while I went for the Cinnamon Roll French Toast. 

I mean, Cinnamon Roll French Toast is on the menu, you gotta order it, am I right? It was yummy. 

We are sort of experimenting with Baby-led feeding where they can feed themselves safe foods as a way of exploring options not in a pureed form. I had some hashbrowns and let Forest try a nibble. 

He wasn’t too impressed so for now we will stick with pureed foods until I can do a bit more research on how baby-led feeding is supposed to work exactly.  Any one have experience with this? 

Another first from this weekend was his first mountain summit. We drove up to the top of Mt. Diablo to check out the view. I’ll write a separate post later but here is a sneak peak: 

Can you believe I forgot my fancy-pants camera???? Speaking of my forgetfulness, I almost forgot to tell y'all about the biggest first yet. Over the past 2 weeks, Forest got his first (and second) tooth! 

One day he was acting possessed and I was about to call a priest to perform an exorcism when my friend Tracy asked if maybe he was teething. I popped my finger in his mouth and sure enough there was a jagged edge sticking through his bottom gums. Shortly after, the second tooth started making the migration which meant about a week and a half of wondering if he’d ever sleep through the night again. 

Once he was all better we cracked back down on the sleep training and this morning he made it all the way to 6:15 am. Hallelujah! I’m praying that he gets back on track because y’all I am a total monster if I don’t get a good night’s sleep. And ever since birthing Forest I have been plagued with the worst insomnia of my life. If he makes the slightest peep in the night, I am done for and cannot get back to sleep. 

The other night he woke up at 1:30 am and once I got him back down I was up until nearly 4:30 just counting sheep! I swear I counted all the sheep in Scotland AND California and it didn’t do one lick of good. I finally dozed off just in time for Jon’s alarm to wake me up. Womp womp.   

Anyway, let’s end on a high note: How cute is this baby boy?

My other baby boy (Samson) will arrive at SFO tonight and Bailey will follow the following evening. More on that process later…