The last weekend

I start back to work officially tomorrow, but we enjoyed some nice family time on this last weekend of the summer.

At Sophie and Michael's four-month well visit, their pediatrician gave us the green light on starting solids.  She said to start with rice cereal.  A friend sent us a copy of Super Baby Foods , and we do intend to make some of our own baby food, but since babies less than six months old aren't ready for homemade rice "porridge" as the author calls it, we chose a boxed whole grain brown rice cereal for the time being.  Gerber's was on sale at Kroger, so we went with that one.  After three to five days we'll introduce some orange or yellow veggies, probably some sweet potato on Friday.  Our pediatrician and the book both encourage waiting that time to watch for food allergies.

Here's their first meal that we gave them on Saturday morning:

Mike fed Michael, and I fed Sophie.

They did really well.  Starting solids usually occurs between four and six months, and I feel confident that Michael is ready for this step (he's waking often at night after previously sleeping through, has doubled his birth weight, and ate very well).  However, I'm not certain we would be starting Sophie this early if she was our only baby.  She has just about doubled her birth weight but not quite, she still sleeps soundly at night, and she got a little fussy during her first feedings.  She doesn't seem to like waiting for the spoon, preferring the steady stream of milk she's used to.  I had to stop feeding her each time, concerned she's literally going to inhale the cereal while crying.  One concern with starting solids too early is respiratory problems, possibly caused by this kind of issue.  So we're taking it slow with her, just feeding her until she fusses.  Solids right now are just snacks between meals to get the babies used to the taste and texture, and a little trial and error is to be expected.  By six months the pediatrician expects Sophie and Michael to eat two solids a day, and I feel we're on track for that. 

Mike took the babies to his parents' house for a few hours on Saturday, and I stayed home to get some cleaning and organizing done around the house.  Michael and Sophie got some good Grammie, Grandpa and even Great Grandma and Grandpa time!

Mike and I enjoyed some good feedings of our own this weekend with the babies watching from their stroller.  We went for another pizza on the patio at The Pizza Cutter in Northville on Friday night followed by ice cream from Kilwins in downtown Plymouth (thought we'd change it up from our usual Rebecca's in Northville).  On Sunday we took the babies to Ann Arbor for the first time, eating on the patio of Grizzly Peak and walking around downtown. 

I can't resist dessert these days so we finished our A2 visit with some iced coffees and dark chocolate covered pretzels from Shokolad (we got some dark chocolate peanut butter cups and clusters to go!).