Time to put some “Dad” here into Benalish Dad. I’ve been dividing Baby Raptor’s first year into two-month chunks, roughly corresponding to when she makes various leaps. Our epochs so far:

0-60 Days: Survival. Seriously, the first two months are objectively terrible and anyone who says otherwise doesn’t really remember them. Kinda like the 60s, so I’m told.

61-120: Sleep & Travel. At two months we started structuring our sleep interventions a little more. Also, we did an overseas trip. It seemed crazy and overwhelming at the time but it’s honestly easier than trying to travel with an older baby that needs food, movement etc. If you’re going to have a baby strapped to you, might as well have it strapped to you in France!

121-180: Daycare & sleep training. We did serious sleep training as well as transitioned into day care as Momma Raptor (mental note: come up with better nickname) went back to work. This brings us to…

Day 180-240: Food!

I freely admit that we were a little slow to start introducing solid foods. Again, it felt like we just hit a smooth plateau where we figured out how to *do* things. And now we have to create a brand new set of challenges! Fortunately we asked for some tips from our primary daycare teacher (another plus to daycare: the teachers there have literally seen everything 100 times before and give great advice. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel). She recommends a gradual procession of interacting near food, interacting with food, and gradually mucking around with it in her mouth.

So we stocked up on surprisingly delicious purees (I admire the parents that make their own but–honestly–fuck that.) and start jamming food into Baby Raptor.

We rapidly figured out that it’s not really possible to feed her and ourselves at the same time, so when we would eat “as a family” we would just give her something to gnaw on, like a chunk of carrot, apple, or nori (dried seaweed, like a sushi roll)! The nori is a big hit as it’s half-edible, half-entertaining, all-awesome!

The other big level-up is using a “bait sack” pacifier. Just like a crab pot, you stuff food into a tiny mesh sack, seal it shut, and then jam it into their mouth a la pacifier. It works *shockingly* well with her. It’s a great way to introduce new flavors, easy to clean.

So far the Baby Raptor has been doing great with all kinds of different food. Apparently there is a window before food averseness kicks in where you can jam all sorts of stuff into them. It’s pretty entertaining watching them grab a tart blackberry, eat it with a horrified expression, then repeat the cycle three seconds later. Different textures are also a great joy as I ambush them with stickier items to help them learn to chew.

Purchases

It’s been a while since we’ve had to buy new stuff, but food demanded that we purchase some new infrastructure as well as making room for baby food storage.

Infrastructure

High Chair: Oxo Spring Sprout. Not the cheapest high chair out there, but it is pretty much the only one we could find that didn’t look like a plastic piece of crap. Also it transforms into three different modes, like a Veritech, for different ages and hand-eye coordination. It’s held up well, cleanable, and I would recommend it.

Munchkin Fresh Food Pacifier. As mentioned above, easily one of the best ways to expose to multiple different foodstuffs.

Bibs/spoons/whatever. I think these are pretty interchangeable.

Consumables

Food Jars/Pouches. We’ve been doing a mixture of “Peter Rabbit” pouches and the Earth’s Organic Jar of food. There’s an elaborate ‘stage 1’ and ‘stage 2’ levels that mix different flavors and fruits/veggies/whatever together. Whatever.