Produce Sticker Surpise

I got quite the surprise in Ayden's diaper today... I heard him doing his business and gave him a few minutes to finish the job. As always, I put him up on his changing table and opened the diaper to survey the damage. His "deposits" are pretty interesting these days since we started Baby Led Weaning (BLW). Usually there are obvious traces of blueberry or other fruit skins, avocado chunks, etc. All of which are normal with BLW because a) he's still learning about chewing and can only do so much damage with his 2 little teeth and b) his system is still getting the hang of processing solid food. But today as I surveyed the damage a produce sticker stood out amongst the usual food evidence. After doing a double take and taking a second to figure out some other possible ways the sticker could have made it into his diaper I realized that he had to have eaten it off the floor. Nice. Along with the ability to successfully pick up blueberry halves and get them to his mouth, I suppose he is also good at doing the same with produce stickers. I shall be more diligent about putting them into the trash from now on; since I've been known to peel them of and stick them to the counter while chopping ingredients for dinner. Ayden is really getting around now and is very curious and hands on. I'm sure it's not the last time he ingests a little something he's not supposed to.

Watch out, Polly!

 We are going to be putting our house on the market soon so we spent the morning doing a few things to get it ready. We did not accomplish as much as we would have liked but decided to take a break to go to a local art fair!

 We met up with our friends and walked around for a while. Ayden rode in the Ergo and was pretty interested in everything around us. Whenever he saw a dog he watched it and it was like any people around disappeared. This kid sure loves animals!

Overall Ayden had a very chill, go with the flow day. The only times he fussed were when he was tired or hungry, understandably, and when I took his toothbrush from him. We just started brushing his two little teeth and he kind of loves it. I had to pry the toothbrush from his little fingers and broke his heart in the process. I wasn't about to give t back and reinforce the behavior so I just hugged him and let him know I understood his feelings and found something equally as awesome to redirect his attention. He forgot about it as quickly as he escalated but we are definitely crossing over into "that" territory and need to be careful about how we react.

After the art fair we stopped by the grocery and then came home and had dinner with the same friends who met us at the art fair. Ayden joined right in as always and ate some pork chops, roasted brussel sprouts and applesauce. He's getting pretty good with a spoon (we load it up and set it on the tray so that he's still in charge of his eating) but did manage to wear a lot of it. He also demolished a chicken leg at lunch, caveman style.

 This kid sure loves to eat!

According to the "Wonder Weeks" App that I have, Ayden is going into the "categories" leap.  He will start inspecting things closely as he begins to sort his world into categories.  He'll also begin to show comprehension for key words. We have noticed a little bit of this already, especially with his reaction to the word, "up" and can't wait to see what other connections he makes during this leap.  Never a dull moment!

~Sarah