The Bub in the Belly

Whenever we have a meal, Ryan is usually on our laps with full access to the table and our food, as can be seen from almost all of our photos which are taken at restaurants (actually most of our photos ARE taken at restaurants).

Lately he has been more interested in what we are doing at the table and occasionally he will reach out for what is on the table. He isn’t hungry and he isn’t looking for something to eat. Rather, he’s curious about what we’re doing and what is going on.

Ryan turns 6 months and 1 week old today and so we decided that it would be safe to let him play with some food as an introduction to eating. So when it was dinnertime, we propped Ryan up in his high chair at the dining table. Richard sliced up and boiled some sticks of sweet potato and carrot and placed them on his tray. Ryan picked up the sticks and carefully put them in his mouth (like everything he comes across) but he didn’t actually chew or eat any of them. He did give them a whole lot of sucking and licking. He also smeared and swished the sticks left to right to left to right on his tray like windscreen wipers, crushed the sweet potato in his hand and tossed the bits over the side onto the floor where our dog, Max, was waiting. After about five to ten minutes of this sucking, licking, smearing, swishing, crushing and tossing, he lost all interest and started sucking and licking his tray.