i've decided i hate food as much as D does

Because it's such an issue in our house constantly lol. A month ago she was eating 42 oz in a day (Perhaps a growth spurt? Prior to that she was around 34), and these days she's dropped down to maybe 26ish since Thursday or so. i'm starting to think that she's not just "off" for a few days, but is truly regulating down in intake, which i think happens, it just seems sudden.

Anyway, today i decided to try 5 oz bottles at daycare in hopes she would eat all of them. Alas. She ate 4.5 oz for breakfast, then finished 2 bottles at daycare but only ate 1 oz of the third. At home she ate 2 more. Needless to say, when it was time for her solids dinner, she was READY. To the point of melting into tears when i put her on the high chair (also not unusual these days). i quickly spread some carrots and pears on a piece of toast, tore it into bits, and handed it over.

The toast? Well, not as popular as the pancakes with sweet potatoes yesterday, but she ate some and seemed happy enough to be feeding herself. Just not enough to fill herself up enough to last another hour plus before her last bottle before bedtime (and i learned last weekend NOT to feed that last bottle early or it will be super hard to get her to sleep).

Sooooo... i broke the rules and fed her yogurt a wee bit early (pedi said start around 7 months). We didn't have a lot of options i thought she might eat, and i had some i was about ready to toss, so i figured why not. i mixed some plain greek yogurt with what was left of the sweet potatoes dipped a spoon in it, and handed it over to her. Her coordination with a spoon is quite impressive, and these days she's been so fussy in the evenings that she doesn't want me to feed her, and she was about to have a bath. The result:

Oh, my gosh! If you could see a full-face picture, you'd see some over her eye, a little on her brow, but really she did quite well feeding herself. She couldn't dip the spoon in the bowl to get more (just wanted to use her hands lol), but all i did is put the spoon in the food and let her feed herself. And she did, over and over and over again. i have never seen that kid eat that much solid food in one sitting EVER!

Can you tell i'm super proud of my girl? i can't believe she's only 6 1/2 months and already cruising and feeding herself. i think i'm going to have to get creative with finger foods that she can eat since she doesn't like to eat chunky food yet (she'll chew on a banana or soft-cooked carrot but she'll spit the chunks out so that does no good yet). About all i've been able to do so far is the yogurt, pancakes spread with puree, and toast spread with puree. Age-appropriate suggestions are welcome!

Hopefully we'll both be enjoying dinner time more soon!