Mangoes Redux

Because we're too excited to wait the extra two weeks until he hits six months, the minions have decided to start letting Julian nom on some sliced mangoes.  Mostly, at the moment, we're working on his motor skills and getting a feel for food in his mouth.  Don't worry, he's still getting all of his nutrition from my breastmilk and we're not going to be weaning any time soon.

We sliced the mango into several different sized slices.  The bigger ones like this seem to work better because he can get a good grasp on them.

Also, you'll notice that his bib is on the chair and not on him.  That's okay for mangoes, but when we get to messier fare I'll have to be more diligent. XD

As an aside: look at all that hair coming in! I think he's going to have my coloring.  It's very, very light brown or almost blonde.  Plus his skin tone is much closer to mine than to his dad's.

So far, Julian manages to get the bits into his mouth pretty consistently.  Now, of course, there are side trips to the eye and ear occasionally, but he's a trooper and keeps working at it until he gets some mango in his mouth.  Usually he misses because he focuses on his fingers and they end up in his mouth instead.  Still, there's inevitably a point at which it's 'mangoes away!' and he always sucks on it first.

 He has, however, started chomping on the mango strips.  See those little cheeks all pooched out?  That's a big strong bite. :) Sometimes he gets a piece off the strip and rolls it around in his mouth chewing away.  It's adorable.  His little lips pucker up like he's waiting for a smooch.  Thus far none of the bits have made it down the hatch (and a couple have caused the minions some alarm as he gagged on them) but I know it's just a matter of time before he's worked that out too.

I have to tell you -- the small gags are not a big deal because he just makes a *pleh* face and spits the bit out.  The big gags are scary and I've fished a piece or two out of his mouth because we didn't know what else to do. O_o

There has been one other side effect of his introduction to mangoes.  And, I have to be honest, I didn't anticipate it.  Can you guess what it is?  Well, what goes in must come out.  He has mango scented poops!  Both my sister and Ms. Gloria have reported his fragrant diapers and it kind of cracks me up.

So, to sum up, I think this should give you an idea of what King Julian thinks of mangoes.