Lots of big steps going on around here

D had his 6 month check-up yesterday. Everything went great, our pediatrician's thrilled and we're still on the boob, and he gave us the ok to start solids. He gave me a chart to follow as to what to introduce when, and suggested starting off with a couple meals a day right off the bat. It's a bit different of a plan than what I've been reading about online. His suggestion was to give him potatoes mixed with a veggie for lunch, then cereal either alone or with the same veggies in the evening, then after several days of that introducing a fruit in the mid-afternoon to end up with 3 "meals" a day (by meals, of course, meaning whatever small bits D wants to eat, not replacing any breastmilk yet) and introducing one new food every 2-4 days. I think I might take it a bit slower, going with just cereal for at least a day or 2 before introducing other things with it.

I'm both excited and a bit... nostalgic? Not sure that's the right word. On our way home from the appointment I stopped by a grocery store to buy the type of cereal he recommended, and as I walked towards the checkout counter I felt this sense of this imminent, Big Step that we are taking and how this will be it, there will be no going back to the easy days of just breastfeeding, of not needing to worry about bringing other food for him or preparing anything. And, of course, that whole OMG MY BABY'S GROWING UP thing.

But I'm also excited, because I think D is totally ready for this. I think it's been the right thing to wait till he's 6 months to take this step, and now as we get here I'm getting the sense from him that he is ready in a way that he wouldn't have been just a few weeks ago. And I think he's gonna really like it, and it will be so fun to share some of my favorite fruits and veggies with him and see how he reacts to them.

I've been cautious to get to this milestone, quite willing to put it off as something that I didn't want to have to think about or deal with yet. But as we got ready for yesterday's appointment I realized how excited I am now to get started, how disappointed I would've been if our pediatrician had for some reason suggested waiting instead of giving us the green light. Zach will still be out of town for another week and I know I should wait for him to come home before starting so he can share in this event in D's life, but to be completely honest I'm way too impatient to want to wait a whole other week (I also asked him about this and he was ok with me not waiting for him, obviously f it were very important to him I would wait).

So, I will start him with some cereal today, probably about mid-day. Depending on how it goes I may also give him some in the evening, for the "2nd meal." And I'll probably have multiple cameras going so we can properly document, through photo and video, this Big Step in D's life. Updates to come soon. ; )