In celebration of her fifth month under the sun, and in defence of our own food and beverages, all of which have become fair game in her eyes, today at lunch I gave Owlet a taste of organic rice cereal. The verdict? MOAR RIZE SEREUL PLZ. We started with a heaping teaspoon, which she polished off pretty quickly, and she then started to get worked up when there wasn’t any more, so I made the same amount again for a total of one tablespoon. She ate twice that at supper and got annoyed when it was gone, too.

I was a bit taken aback at how dexterously her lips and tongue pulled the cereal off the spoon and worked it further back into her mouth to be swallowed. She didn’t push it out at all; in fact, she ate so neatly that I am almost suspicious that we’re being set up for something. She did a decent job of grabbing my hand and guiding it and the spoon toward her mouth, too. Six months is the recommended age these days for serious eating of solids, in order to supply the additional nutrition required at that point beyond what is obtained from breastmilk, but a mum has to watch for her baby’s readiness in other ways as well, and I think I hit this one right on the money. Food isn’t going to replace milk, and it’s probably not going to add a heck of a lot nutritionally just yet, but she’s exploring flavours and textures and the social act of eating, and that seems to be what she’s wanting and what she’s ready for. Next up: avocado in a few days.

In other milestone news, Owlet still doesn’t roll (though she’s come close while on her back, craning her head around to see something), her babbling isn’t super defined (it’s mostly murmured N/M, B, and V sounds with lots of vowels), and has only today started to experiment with vague raspberry sounds. But she has crazy good trunk and head control, will always choose to stand in someone’s lap rather than sit, calmly turns pages in her cloth and board books, and will “walk” across the floor to someone with deliberate steps forward while someone steadies her lightly under her arms. She can sort of tripod sit before listing too far one way or another, but does decently in a corner of the chesterfield and really well in her high chair and exersaucer. She does awesome baby crunches when on her back or semi-reclined. Four hours seems to be the max stretch of sleep at night, but it’s still closer to waking every two hours. It’s been hard to judge recently, since her sleep schedule both at night and daytime naps went right out the window while she’s been sick these past couple of weeks.