Solids.

Feeding Ellie is an exercise in hilarity most days. She has a pretty adventurous palate for a baby, and will generally eat anything you spoon into her mouth - fruits, vegetables, chicken, beans, olives. She'll go through phases where she loves a food, and then all of a sudden it's no good to her anymore - this was inconvenient when she decided she didn't want to eat bananas, because I don't particularly care for bananas, and I suddenly had a bunch that had to get eaten by someone in this house. Oh well, the potassium is good for me I guess.

She's pretty good at feeding herself, however, if she sees everyone else eating with a fork, she'll refuse to feed herself and demand to be fed by fork. Hey, if it gets the food into her belly.

Last night Sara took us all out for dinner at El Maguey. Elizabeth had taken a horrible afternoon nap and I was on my last shreds of patience, and then she insisted that I hold her during our wait for dinner. We gave her a tortilla chip, which she happily clutched in her sweaty little fist, occasionally offering it to me for a bite or two, and she was so cute that I couldn't stay mad at her. When our food came, we stuck her in the high chair at the end of the table, between Tim and Auntie Sara, so I could shovel some carnitas into my hungry, cranky mouth. Hilarity ensued, as Ellie refused to eat the delicious tortilla and tomato we put in front of her, and instead turned alternately to her daddy and her favorite aunt, with her mouth open like a hungry baby bird. She seemed to focus mainly on Sara, as Sara was quicker on the ball with forkfuls of rice and beans.

This morning I made strawberry pancakes for breakfast, and it was so funny to watch Miss El tear into her baby sized pancake. I offered her a small, plastic fork of her own, and even speared some food for her, but she was happier just to wave the fork around like a scepter. She still got about half of the pancake down into her pie hole, though I could see she was envious of us having syrup. Sorry kid - that's just too messy at this point in time. She also drank a couple big sips of 2% milk and didn't look horrified when she realized it wasn't her regular brew.

That kid, she cracks me up. It's so funny to see her sitting there like a little person, having real food with her folks. Won't be long now until she'll be able to sleep over at her Grandma and Grandpa's, and demand Grandpa make her waffles in the morning!