Our four month old toddler

Some days I would swear that Zach thinks he's four YEARS old instead of months. He had a bunch of new experiences this week, including trying Gerber's stage 3 baby meals, playing with a cell phone and actually figuring out how to make it call someone, and drinking from a sippy cup.

We had started to notice over the past week or two that Zach was getting more and more bored with the bland, smooth as can be baby foods we'd been feeding him, and more infatuated with the food we were eating to the point where he tried to grab either food from our plates or the forks from our hands! Wednesday night I smooshed up some of my mom's lasagna (just noodles and sauce, since I'm trying really hard to limit his dairy intake until he's one... I don't know how much longer he'll hold out, as I've let him taste shredded cheese bits and he really REALLY likes it). He gobbled it up like it would disappear into thin air if not eaten immediately, and then giggled and tried to clap. Thursday night, we were again having dinner with my mom (she owed us lol) and Zach got some mashed potatoes with some meatloaf mixed in. Again, he sucked the stuff down as fast as I could feed it to him. So, I decided to try some of the little jarred meals that Gerber makes to see if that made him happy without me having to mash up my own meals every time. Since we were having spaghetti tonight, I gave him the spaghetti with beef meal. At first he was not a fan, but I mixed in a little bit of our spaghetti sauce and he went nuts. It makes sense to me really, since that's what I ate all while pregnant and have eaten since breastfeeding him, so he's familiar with the flavors. This kid has been waiting for food his whole life it would seem!

As for the sippy cup, we had a couple little ones from the dollar store that someone gave to us, and he had tried them in the past, but the liquid just pours out of the holes. I tried it and it was surprisingly fast for even me. I got him one of those no-spill sippy cups with the handles and gave it to him with some apple juice in it. Sure enough, he was overjoyed that he could hold it himself and that when he figured out how to get the spout into his mouth that he got something sweet and tasty from it. After finishing a first serving and about half of a second, he started getting lazy with it and decided it was fun to just throw, which is reasonable considering it was his first try. I was surprised he figured it out so quickly and stuck with it for so long. I think with more practice, we may just forget bottles all together and let him have sippy cups. That way he can feel more independent, which apparently is important to our little bugger! :)

Finally, today he was playing with Sidney's cell phone for a little while. He loves how it lights up and makes sounds. Lots of times, when Sid has him on his lap he lets him watch as he sends text messages. Zach LOVES it. However, today he managed to grab the phone away and actually placed a call to a girl. It was really cute, and being the proud mommy I am I was snapping pictures like crazy. Here is my favorite one... Zach is looking like he's actually talking on the phone, and he looks over at me like "what? I'm calling my honeys. Telling them the party's at my crib." Too cute! (I promise to post pictures of him with his sippy soon!)