Nine months

During the last week we've seen some wonderful weather, and we have enjoyed much of it outside. We began our week celebrating our friend Brittany at her baby shower. Avonlea Jane was content to play the entire day on the ground in the shade. However, she had plenty of opportunities to interact with people, because Brittany's friends and family members all wanted to take a turn holding the baby.

The mama-to-be holding one of our gifts to her for her Beatrix Potter-themed nursery (Note: For those who are friends with Brittany, even though there is an "It's a Boy!" balloon behind her, she does not know the sex of the baby. There is an "It's a Girl!" balloon on the other side of her that is not shown.)

(Below: Avonlea Jane making the rounds)

What good is warm weather if you're not spending it at the beach? We spent most of days at the beginning of the week at the beaches in Beverly and Marblehead. On Monday night, the water was warm enough to get all of the way in and actually swim (not just the standard New England get-in-up-to-your-ankles going to the beach trip, but treading water swimming). It was Avonlea Jane's first time being all the way in the ocean and she had a blast. She wasn't thrilled with the taste of salt water, but she thought the waves were quite funny. This week was also her first time in a pool. When the temperatures reached the mid-nineties this week, I was grateful for Avi's new YMCA membership so that we could cool off while swimming. She thought swimming in a pool was even more fun than in the ocean, and she particularly liked to float on her belly and kick her feet while holding onto Mommy's arms. I was taken aback at how comfortable, graceful, and able-bodied she was in the pool on her first visit. This has made us very excited for her to start swim lessons next month.

At Dane Beach on Sunday night

When we got home from the beach, Avonlea Jane decided to lick Daddy's sour apple.

On Monday, Avonlea Jane turned nine months old. We had originally planned on waiting until she was a year old before introducing anything outside of breastmilk, but she's been expressing her readiness for food the past few weeks. She sits up unattended and has a great pincher grasp, but she's also tracking our food and reaching for it. She even tries to put her hands in our mouths after we swallow to see where the food went. So, on Tuesday we decided to let her try some banana. Banana was not the best choice for a first food, because she chased the chunks around the plate for minutes without being able to pick one up. Even when we tried to hand her a chunk, we found them to nearly be too slippery for us as well. Every time she would get a bite up to her lips, the piece would slip out of her grasp as well. We finally put a bit in her mouth and you can see her reaction.

She wasn't that excited about it. This is similar to the reaction she has to drinking water. The sips of water that she has taken have been met with delight for the novelty and cold temperature, but disgust at the actual taste of it.

Sunday night we were having pears with dinner and let her explore some pieces. The eating of pear strips went much better, because they're a lot easier for her to hold and feed herself. We're not sure how much pear she actually ingested during dinner, but she did a fine job of gumming the strips. She certainly doesn't need food at her age, but watching her first reactions to the tastes has been entertaining. We'll see over the next few weeks how much actual eating of the food she does. Hopefully we'll get some wonderful things for her to try at the Salem farmers' market this summer and fall. Avonlea Jane loved her first trip to the market this week, mainly because she knew nearly one in every ten people we saw. It was clearly the place to be for hip babies in the know, as we saw so many of her baby friends there. We also saw some of our adult friends as well, who happily brought their produce finds to our house that night for an impromptu dinner party. So, those of you who are Salemites, you definitely need to check out the farmers' market, and your next trip may bring you to a place at our dinner table.