Mary on the Move

I call these "grandparent videos" because only parents and grandparents could find videos of a baby doing not much of anything to be interesting.

Mary moves by spinning in circles on her tummy, which eventually causes her to travel a bit. Also, when she tries to reach forward, she goes backward, causing her no end of frustration. She really doesn't get much time on the floor because I don't think it is safe to leave her near John running, leaping, and being too rough.

The second video shows a lot of laughing. Six months is such a sweet age. Mary is all laughs and isn't old enough to be doing anything unpleasant or difficult yet. (My perspective on what is "unpleasant" has definitely changed! Waking up various times per night is just a way of life now, as I expect it to be for years, but toddler defiance is still difficult for me not to get upset about. I'm physically tired from broken sleep, but the wakings are emotionally a nonevent. It will be interesting to see if, in a few years, I am so accustomed to toddler defiance as being what toddlers do and are that, while it still requires correction from me, it becomes an emotional nonevent also.)

I have three more videos pretty similar. More laughing. More airplane flying. Some fussing in frustration. If they didn't take half an hour each to upload, I'd put them all up, grandparents!

In another update: Mary has now enjoyed eating brown rice porridge, mashed pears, mashed banana, mashed avocado (each homemade), and plain, whole yogurt. I am offering her solids once daily and she's probably consuming half a teaspoon, certainly no more than a teaspoon, before she gets bored and turns her head away. Yesterday we were at a restaurant and Mary in my lap kept lunging wildly for my plate of Mexican food. Giving her a spoon to hold didn't pacify her, although she also kept grip on the spoon. I had what I considered the crazy thought of giving her some of my guacamole. She's had plain avocado mashed and thinned to puree, but this was thick, spicy guacamole. I put some on the spoon and she promptly opened her mouth, ate it, "chewed" it thoughtfully, and opened her mouth again. Only when I was feeding her the guacamole did she sit calmly in my lap. When I would pause to eat my own food, she'd start lunging for my plate. It was fascinating to watch!