He's getting SO BIG!

Elliot has officially entered "that stage." You know, the one where he's starting to seem a whole lot less like a little baby and more like an independent little boy. He no longer likes to be cradled in my arms, which has made getting him to sleep lately quite challenging, since I used to rock him to sleep. He sits up in his walker now instead of using the back rest, and he can also sit up unassisted in my lap for a few minutes at a time. And... here's the biggest news... he's now eating rice cereal!!
It was a tough decision to make, because I really wanted to wait until he was 6 months to start solids, and that's only a short two weeks away {the blink of an eye in parenting speak}. HOWEVER, he has been eating an incredible amount lately- much more than "average" for babies his age. He is still eating every two hours... sometimes we can stretch it out to three, but not very often. And he eats 5-6 ounces at every single feeding now! That's 50-70 ounces a day! HOLY MOLY! His doctor told us we should think about starting him on cereal {but nothing else} just a couple weeks early.
At first, I was adamantly against it, but... the more I read about baby led weaning and starting solids when your baby is ready, not when "they say" your baby is ready... the more I began to waver on my stance. And you have to watch this kid like a hawk lately at mealtimes because he will steal food off your plate {or, if you're not careful, the spoon or fork OR the whole plate!!} and put it right into his mouth. He also follows the spoon to and from my mouth and chews whenever I'm chewing, even though nothing is in his mouth. He's more than a little interested in food and is literally been chomping at the bit!
So, yesterday, I thought, why not? After all, we're already breaking all kinds of rules around here anyways. {Elliot sleeps with a pillow and a blanket. This is a bad habit that started in the NICU and I haven't been able to break it.} Guess what?! HE LOVED IT! He would get all excited and reach out for the spoon in between bites, and if I couldn't get it into his mouth soon enough, he started shaking his mouth around {the way he still roots for his bottle}. He ate the whole bowl and wanted more. In fact, he was pretty mad when I said "all done" and took him out of his bouncy seat. Of course, I didn't want to push my luck so he had to wait until later that evening to get another bowl. He had another bowl this morning and he managed to snatch the spoon away from me. I held the bowl of cereal in front of him and he proceded to wave the spoon around in the cereal and then put the spoon right into his mouth. Of course, more ended up all over his face then in his mouth, but it was pretty cute!
So yes, my son is now eating organic brown rice cereal two times a day, and he's five and a half months old. It may be a couple weeks early, but I think he'll survive. I can't wait to start making him baby food! He is going to try bananas on his six month birthday. :)


Manning the spoon all by himself.


So big!!


OH HAI, MOM! {doesn't it look like he's waving?}


Sitting up in his walker... and being a ham. :)