Ready, Set, Go!!!

Man- it has been a long while since I last posted. I had so many different blog posts in my head that I never found time to come write. Part of that has been from the amount of travel we have done in the past month, but mostly it is from trying to keep up with Alchemy!! She is now 6.5 months old, and getting far more energetic.

Let's see if I can recap some important things from the past month:

I have started making baby food for her since we started eating "solids". It has been a fun adventure of chopping, steaming, smushing, pureeing & freezing into cubes.

Sweet potato (white originally, look green when roasted) cubes

I have made pears, sweet potatoes and avocado (although we decided that is best eaten fresh) and a friend recently gifted us with her peas, mangoes, peaches, apricots, pears and blueberries. I have squash in the fridge right now that needs pureeing.

Alchemy's first sweet potato meal

She really loves the sweet potato, seems to like the pears, but is iffy about the avocado at the moment. Next up we will try more veggies- I think maybe peas.

It has been great feeding her- certainly fun and messy at the same time. She eats more than I expected her to for just starting. I need to make a regular schedule of eating so I make sure I get at least an oz. of food into her each day, trying new foods every 4 days so I can begin mixing them and stepping up the amount once she is older and starts taking food in as an actual nutrition element, rather than just for taste as she is now. Breast feeding has been going really well, although I think teeth are coming soon, so that may be more of an adventure than I am ready for.





She also has recently learned how to roll over onto her stomach and push up on her arms. She is trying to get the hang of getting her legs under her- I am betting within a few weeks, she will start to crawl. This is both extremely exciting and terrifying for me. I want her to have fun crawling, but I have so much to do in order to get our house more mobile baby ready. She is also starting to get the hang of sitting up without support- I hope she will be able to sit up on her own soon.

While we were in Ohio visiting Grant's parents, she had a lot of time to practice her rolling, pushing up and sitting. We spent some time in the back yard playing in the grass together, which she loved. Living in an apartment, she rarely gets to just sit and play in soft grass. I am going to try to give her lots of play time at our garden or local parks so she can commune with the land (literally) a little more often. The earthworms came up from the soil to greet her. Thankfully, she didn't put one in her mouth.









Last week we spent a lot of time gardening in our plot, getting the beds ready and planted for our summer crop. Alchemy spent time for a while in the Pack n' Play with her toys, but eventually cried until I decided to wear her- this time on my back for the first time while gardening for 3 hours!

It was hard work but very worth it- the garden looks much better now. We had a lot of rain this past week while we were away in Houston- I suspect if I go see it today, some of my seeds may have germinated. I need to spend some more time there this week or weekend to finish getting in our last batch of seeds for the radishes and beans.

At the moment, the garden has been taken over by poppies, but they are so gorgeous we don't mind at all.

Alchemy likes the Menil Park swing.

This past week we went to Houston so that Grant could attend a conference at Rice he was giving a paper at. Unfortunately, this means he missed out on a lot of the fun Alchemy and I had, but we did get a chance to spend a lot of time with my best friend Lesley. Much of our time on the first day was spent just Alchemy & I- roaming around my old neighborhood soaking it all in. We went to the Menil museum together and spent some good time in the Cy Twombley gallery, hanging out on my favorite bench outside it while enjoying the weather and squirrels, then on to the Menil park where we played on the rope swing there before our trip to the Menil bookstore. She slept through some of it, but enjoyed the swing. We had lunch with my parents, then spent the evening hanging out with Lesley, Brent and some of their friends before a full day on Saturday with just Lesley, Alchemy & I.







On Saturday, Lesley and I set off for tasty Baby Barnaby's breakfast before a Houston Zoo adventure! We saw lots of really cool animals- my new favorite being the Okapi- an ancestor of the giraffe that looks like a cross between a giraffe, antelope & zebra.

The Okapi- sorry about the fence. He has the horns on his head, a longish neck, but zebra striped legs and butt.

I carried Alchemy for half the trip then passed her over to Lesley for the second half. We had snow cones, rode the carousel & bought cotton candy before finally calling it a day and heading back to the neighborhood to meet up with Grant briefly during his break and then moving on to a new local pub called The Hay Merchant.

 Lesley and Alchemy check out the giraffes

We very much enjoyed some tasty beer and food, while hanging out on the porch with Alchemy and various folks who shared our table. Alchemy has become a bit of a "what are you drinking, I want it" pest, trying to steal my beer when she can, although I am greedy and keep it all for myself. She gets to stick with water.

Attempted theivery

 We didn't give her any, I swear!

Sunday, Grant and I went to our friends house for a Bengali ceremony called Annaprashon- loosely translated into "Rice eating ceremony" where they were celebrating/blessing their baby as she reached the age to start eating solids. Since she and Alchemy are only 12 days apart in age, they asked us to come be a part of it too. Feeling blessed and very excited, we dressed her up and took her to join in. She was decorated with a pretty lei and sandalwood powder designs made with a clove on her face.

They both were happily grabbing each others face and hair- they were mesmerized

.

She and Asmi played together, happy to see each other again after so long- they last saw each other when they were only a month old.

All dressed up and ready to go!

Once the ceremony began, Asmi went first- being blessed and offered some "solid" food ceremonially, then little bits of real solid food were touched- a grain of rice last- smushed and offered ceremonially for her to eat. While Asmi took it like a champ, Alchemy ate it but cried- hahahahhaha. I think all the camera flashes, people crowding around her excitedly & conch shell noise scared her a little, or maybe she just wasn't sure about the new tastes and excitement after not having a nap. Either way, it was adorable and she got the same blessings.

The offerings spread

Baba feeds Asmi the sweets...

... and a pinch of rice

Baba feeds Alchemy the sweets...

... which she wasn't so happy about :)

the pinch of rice

and her pinch of rice, which she also seems a bit skeptical of.

The second part is much like a game- the babies are offered a tray of items that each are symbolic of something in life- i.e. a pen means a desire to study or gain knowledge, etc...

Asmi went first and grabbed the gold bracelet first- not sure what it means, but we suspect she will either love jewelry or be rich one day. ;) I think it has an unfair advantage of looking like a teething ring.

Alchemy grabbed the soil first, then the bracelet- both of which she happily put in her mouth. Last, she grabbed the money. Baba said that the soil means she will own land or be sovereign, and the bracelet beauty & abundance, the money wealth.... all this sounds very familiar to Grant and I- from our wedding vows! So mote it be!

mmmm, gold bracelet, NOM!

Hmmm... so many choices.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip full of fun. I think we may take it easy on the travel, at least for a little while. Although, we have camping plans, possible festival outings, a trip to Boston in the works.... this is going to be our year of travel for sure.