Well, it’s official. The nugget just ate her first non-liquid diet food: oat cereal. She looked absolutely perplexed for a few bites, then started shrieking when we didn’t get it in her mouth quickly enough. Dave thinks its funny that the world’s slowest bottle eater is such a monster for spoon items. Screams baby? First solids will throw baby off their game, restoring the illusion of parental control. Go for it!

We feel like we just crossed another hurdle. Tess is right on schedule for her adjusted age, raring to grow up! We look at this rosy-cheeked squawker and wonder where the delicate little nicu bird went! This kid talks all day, expresses her emotions in a wild array of sounds, and tries to eat cereal by lapping it up “like a goat eats peanut butter”, per Dave.

I know kids grow up quickly, and I know Tess has stayed a baby longer than most; but in the last few weeks she’s taken on the look of a Gerber baby – a big kid! She talks and grins and laughs. She demands food or a turn in the swing. Seeing her covered in cereal, trying to cram it in with her fingers, made us laugh but also made me marvel at how far she’s come. I know all parents feel that, but when your daughter’s first meal was through a tube and that was an upgrade from a nutritious iv, cereal takes on a whole new level of significance.

There’s a great book about preemie parenthood by Dennis Leary’s wife: An Innocent, a Broad. At the end, her athletic, strapping teenager runs into the kitchen and demands she recount just how small he was to his disbelieving buddies. That image crosses my mind at least once a week. We have ages until that day, but our story will totally look like that. 🙂 Sweet.

We had our first family day in ages – paying bills, bottomless cups of coffee, digging through the mail, catching up on email and such. Tess sat with us, played on her mat, and pretty much set the rhythm for our Saturday. Per her need for swinging, we just set up in the kitchen even though we were watching tv upstairs. I know she’s still young enough that she doesn’t truly dictate our life, but she certainly influences it. Lucky us! As for the less happy, shrieky moments? Please see new and fabulous baby straight jacket (aka swaddle) that puts Tess to sleep in an instant and keeps her that way. Love it!