First step toward becoming foodies

Over the past month or so the babies have begun showing interest in food, watching us like hawks when we eat. So for the past few weeks we've been giving them tastes of our food off our fingers.  We've also been reading up on different approaches to starting solids and have decided to primarily go with what's called baby led weaning. In baby led weaning the focus is on the babies feeding themselves right from the start.  Like with most things, we aren't going to be hard core about this and plan to do some purées as well. We have given them a few hard fruits and veggies just to taste and/or gnaw on with their gums a few times over the past couple of weeks, but today was the first time we tried something they could actually, in theory anyways, swallow.  First up banana and avocado.  Here's how it went:

Everyone was pretty interested in the prep, wondering what the naked babies in the bumbos was all about...

Oh the anticipation!

"You want me to do what with these things exactly?!"

"Um, can I start yet?"

"I don't know about this Mom!"

They started out a little bit tentative, but everyone did initiate grabbing the food and bringing it towards their mouths.  Holding the slippery pieces proved pretty darn tricky though.  I read a suggestion for that somewhere about coating the pieces with baby cereal or something...I'll have to look that up again...

Ellie going for it with the banana

Avery with a good grip on her avocado spear

My hands are pretty tasty.  Does that count?

When they seemed to be getting frustrated with not being able to pick it up/hold onto it long enough, I helped them out a bit.  It's cute how they all grabbed for my hand holding the food and brought it toward their mouths.  Isaiah was the least interested in the whole idea today.

"Okay, I'll try it...as long as you think it's okay Mom"

"Yeah, Mom, give it to me!  Just bring it right to my mouth!"

"Oooh, such a pretty green color!"

Sometimes they seemed to like it...

Mmmmmm

And sometimes they didn't...

"Eww...this feels funny in my mouth"

Avey spitting out the piece of banana she'd gummed off.

But even when they made these hilarious "yuck" faces, they kept picking up more or pulling my hand back toward them, so they must not have minded too much.  The girls were especially into it today.  And no matter what, everyone got a good messy sensory experience out of it!  We got six slimy hands, a couple of green bellies, and some sticky eyebrows out of the deal.

avocado tummy

Messy babies & bumbos

All in all, it was pretty fun and cute.  I don't know that we're quite ready to commit to this being an every day activity, but it was a nice afternoon waketime activity and we'll start building it into their days more often.  I installed their high chairs on the table today, but we thought since we wanted them to at least try to pick up the food themselves that having a little more support would be helpful, thus the bumbos.