Baby Ryan's first meal

As hard as I tried to hold out til the 6 month mark (for food allergy reasons, it's highly recommended to keep your baby exclusively on breastmilk for the first 6 months), I gave in this weekend and gave Ryan his first bit of rice cereal. (and Andrew was right in there to help!) I knew he was ready, he showed all the signs, not to mention the way he stared at every single thing I put in my mouth and more importantly, the way he began nursing at a rate of (what felt like) a thousand times throughout the day and night. To date, we have tried the cereal and mashed bananas. Both with success. (if you can't tell by the photo, he's actually smiling while eating his first solids!) Unlike with Andrew, where admittedly, I fed him almost exclusively on store bought purees for the early stages (largely due to the extensive travelling we were doing at the time he began solids), I am making all of Ryan's food myself. I bought a REALLY cool gadget secondhand from one of my friends, that does all the steaming, blending and heating in one unit. So far, I have made apples, pears and carrots, froze them in ice cube trays and have placed the cubes in freezer bags. Already, I have enough food to last about a month, but will make more soon, to expand the variety (sweet potato, zuchini, peas, etc. etc.). Unfortunately, we'll have to rely on the store-bought jars for our trip, so I'll have to give him a bit of those in the interim to assure he doesn't develop an aversion to the non-homemade stuff.
I have already observed the change in poops and it is a very welcome one, after spending months of soaking countless clothing articles covered in mustard-coloured poop stains that seemed to occur in nearly every poop he took and went all the way up his back, sometimes approaching his neck! This little guy sure had his share of explosive poops and I remember this occurring with Andrew from time to time but nothing like Ryan. I tried different brands of diapers, consulted the internet and even asked the experts at Ryan's creche. And they all just informed me that some babies have more explosive poops than others. I think Ryan took the first prize on his!