As soon as Lily was 4 months old, I was ready to start feeding her solid foods. I don't want a picky eater, and I've read that you need to introduce as many foods as you can in the first year so your kid doesn't end up picky. Probably not always true, but it sounded like a good plan to me. Except that Lily hated eating! I started by making my own baby food -
rice "cereal" by grinding my own brown rice, veggies that I cooked and pureed, all mixed with pumped breast milk. The first time we tried to feed her was a disaster! Rice everywhere except her mouth! I didn't recognize it at first, but she just wasn't ready. She'd push the food out with her tongue instead of swallowing it. I even tried putting it in her bottle. I know, I'm a bad mom. I thought we'd already established that. Anywho, after trying rice, acorn squash, avocado, sweet potatoes (not yams!) and green beans, we were done. I decided 6 months is when we'd try again.
Meanwhile, Mike was getting finished with school, getting ready for finals and we were all preparing for our summer in Anchorage. Mike was going to drive up, through Canada, over 5 days. It's something like 2600 miles and 44 hours. Blech. I decided Lily and I would fly. Since Mike would have to drive over his birthday, I wanted to do something special for him. I bought 24 dollar store items (ranging from a CD of the Ghettysburg Address, to a condom he could blow up and throw out the window, to a stress ball shaped like a fly and filled with jelly). It was so fun finding them and then wrapping them each up so he'd get to open one every few hours. I also spent time trying to find an apartment; a near impossibility when you're looking for a corporately furnished apartment under $1300 a month. (Corporate furnishing is when all dishes, linens and cleaning supplies are included as well as furniture) I finally found our apartment through
Weidner Properties.
(Now that we're here, I'm so dissappointed with the apartment. In NM, we paid less and got better furnishings than here.)
Then I got to packing. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to pack everything you'll need for three months for two adults and an infant (who will be in both 3-6 and 6-9 months clothing) that will fit into a
Mitsubishi Lancer. And I guess into my carry-on luggage. (I'm against checking luggage ever since a vacation to Florida ended in Mike's
lost luggage and me screaming at the "Lost Baggage" clerk.) We had to leave a lot of things behind, but I think that'll just make our return to Butte even sweeter!
