Nan and Gramps Visit & Starting Solid Foods!

For two and half weeks my parents, aka Nan & Gramps, came to stay with us here in London.  It was awesome!  Ceci loved the extra company and attention, Cali loved hanging with her Gramps and going on walks with Nan, and I LOVED having the extra sets of hands with laundry, cooking, and the girls.  And of course, I loved the company too.

Here's a few pictures of some of the highlights of their visit:

Helping Nan make dinner

Playing with Gramps and his hats.

Grocery shopping in typical British weather

Lots of time spent in the garden when the weather allowed

More classic hat time!

Cali loved cuddles with Gramps

Dinner in the yard

4th of July!

During Nan & Gramps visit, Cali also turned 6 months!  A few days before we started her on some solid food.  And she LOVED it.  She took to it like a fish to water, just like her big sister did.  We're doing baby lead weaning again so we started out with raw carrot sticks.  Since Cali is teething up a storm (nothing yet though!), she was a big fan. After that we tried some steamed sweet potato and butternut squash strips.  She loved them.

From there we pretty much just dove in.  It's only been a few weeks and already she's had nectarine, pear, steamed apple, toast, hummus, rice cakes, plum, bell pepper, corn puffs, corn on the cob, rice husks, avocado, banana, teething bars, pizza crust (stolen out of my hand), melon, mango, oatmeal, many different kinds of fruit/veg pouches (with the choo-me spout she does it herself and is a HUGE fan - I think the teething aspects of the soft spout are the big draw and the yummy puree that comes along with it is just a bonus), yogurt, cream cheese, grilled cheese, kiwi, green beans, broccoli, rice, and salmon.  And she's loved it all.  Salmon, toast, hummus and rice cakes were particularly big hits. As was any really ripe fruit - mango, plum and nectarine especially.

She also loves drinking water out of her straw cup - she figured out straw drinking within a day, it was crazy!  Also, much like her sister, she loves to do everything herself.  Though at first she was content for us to hold something out to her that she was having trouble grasping (pouches, slippery food, etc), in the last few days she grabs at them until we let her do it on her own!

I love food!

MMMMM Mango!

Chowing squash

Typical lunch time now

Al fresco dining in the back yard

Family dinner!

Lazy pouch-ing

Drinking water like a big girl

Stealing my pizza crust

I never got it back

Big sister loves helping Cali eat

Mmmm...broccoli

LOVING hummus and plums

Being able to all eat together is a great new experience that we're all really enjoying.  Definitely looking forward to continuing this fun and exciting adventure with my little Cali!