Food and Fun

January has been full of eating and playing (and for me, working). Our friends, Amy and Byron, had a little boy, Wyatt, on January 6th, so we cooked them a meal of vegetarian tortilla soup, salad, and Mexican chocolate cupcakes. Mexican chocolate is one of my favorite things on Earth. The chocolate has a little spice from cinnamon and sometimes chilies. As a new mom, I didn't have time to make cupcakes and frosting from scratch. So I added cinnamon to a box of chocolate cake mix and chocolate frosting. I also bought some vanilla frosting and mixed in cinnamon and nutmeg to give it a little spice. Since Amy was a brand new mom, I held off on the chilies. They were amazing!

In lieu of sprinkles, I tossed some toasted almonds and hazelnuts on the top of the cupcakes.

With all the good food around, Arlo started showing an interest in grown-up food. Ryan and I hold him in our laps during dinner, and Arlo started opening his mouth and leaning toward our plates. Our pediatrician told us he is old enough to try some mashed food if he's showing enough interest. At this point, giving him any food is really to see how he reacts more than feed him. We decided Arlo was ready to try his first bite of real food!

Mmmm... avocado!

I don't think Arlo knew what to make of it. He's not ready to actually eat food, but he seemed to like the avocado. A few days later, we mashed up some butternut squash and dabbed some on his gums. He will be a big boy before we know it!

Arlo also got a new toy this month. Over the holidays, Arlo got to play in his first exersaucer, and he loved it. Ryan and I were a little freaked about about the amount of stuff on the exersaucer. Personally, I'm not sure a baby needs that much to stimulate them. I got a headache just looking at the thing.

Our neighbors had a very cool exersaucer/jumper toy that had four "stations" with different activities, which seemed a little more, well, healthy. I'm not crazy about most of the baby stuff in the world, but this was a good purchase. Arlo loves it!

Arlo focusing on a spinning cat and dog station on the new exersaucer.

And now for Arlo and his exersaucer in action!

Finally, Arlo is starting to find his toes, which is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. Funny how my perspective on such simple things has changed!