Weaning a baby is a big deal: several books say so. Accordingly, we bought several books in preparation a month or so ago.

What they mostly agree on are just two points:

• don't force your baby to eat if they're not interested; let weaning be gradual
• introduce one new food every week so you can tell if there are any sensitivities or allergies

That all sounded plausible, so we made a big plan and lots of puree. Then, we began executing the plan:

On the first week we fed Olive pumpkin puree.

On the second week we fed her this puree, and puffed rice sticks that she could grab to feed herself, and also some fruit.

On the third week we fed her all of the above, plus fried beef puree, and some pureed fruit, and also some little dabs of cheese and cake and so forth, because that's what we were having and it seemed like fun.

On the fourth week, we fed her some jambalaya, and only considered the meal plan after the fact. After we finished feeling silly about that, things started to get a bit more freeform: today, for example, she was a bit dubious about the pan-fried potatoes, but she really liked the shredded chicken in cream cheese and ranch dressing. (Her signal of culinary joy is currently to open her eyes wide, bounce up and down in her seat, and hum. It is adorable.)

Generally speaking, Olive enjoys just about everything she tries: she very often makes strange faces when tasting something new, but then demands more. She's still having a bit of trouble feeding herself the sloppier foods¹, but she'll munch a rice puff right down to the nub where she holds it, and then mash the remaining bit into her tray as her signal that she's ready for another.

Apparently she's supposed to figure out a pincer grip fairly soon, and this will really help her get a greater portion of her food into her mouth. As things stand right now, she grasps food with her fist and eats with more enthusiasm than competence; her post-meal ritual is to be carried over to the kitchen sink to wash her hands and face.

This is all exciting and fun, but there's a reason we're really hoping she weans herself now: Christina's maternal leave will end in a few months, after which Olive will need to attend day care. The prescription for the pump² ran out last week, and healthcare providers are reluctant to re-prescribe one for a kid who's already almost seven months old. That leaves us with three options: we either get her onto daytime solids in the next eight weeks, or buy our own pump, or start her on formula. We've had medical advice not to push the solids on her too hard, and both pumps and formula are expensive. Getting her used to eating solids around lunchtime reduces the formula cost or the pumping time requirement later on.

Happily, it doesn't look like it's going to be much of an issue. The sheer adaptability of this baby just keeps blowing my mind, even though I'm aware intellectually that she's probably not that far from the middle of the bell curve when compared to kids her age. At any rate, she's always happy to try whatever solids we present to her, and she's started to give us pointed glances whenever we eat or drink something of which she hasn't had a taste.

When will she really transition her primary nutrition to solid foods? Your guess is as good as mine. All I can say for sure right now is that smearing new foods on her face is one of the joys of her life, and she is quite the happy omnivore.