Halloween is still a couple weeks away, but we dressed Mio up in a pumpkin outfit when we visited Dan’s parents on Sunday. Dan’s mom just happened to have an adult size pumpkin costume that she had handmade years ago, and so we took some photos of them together as matching Jack-o-Lanterns! The cuteness is overwhelming:
Some pictures of Mio solo…
Trying on the hat from Grandma’s costume….
Dan’s mom let me try on the costume too, so I could get a couple Mommy-and-Me pictures as matching pumpkins, too! Grandma looks much cuter in it, but here are a couple of Mio and I together, for memory’s sake. 🙂
Look at that belly!
We always have fun at the grandparents’ house! Mio is so lucky to have Grandpa and Grandma nearby…
We have so many pictures from this weekend that I need to catch up on uploading and posting. Stay tuned for more! 😀
This week, Mio has started to be able to sit up on her own unsupported for longer periods of time! After a while, she’ll sometimes lean forward or to either side, but for the most part, she’s learned how to balance her upper body while sitting. We’re so proud of you, sweetheart!
She won’t stay sitting for long, though! She eventually plants her hands against the floor and moves into commando crawl mode to move around everywhere!
Mio is 27 weeks old as of Saturday, and her growth and development is making our heads spin these days. She’s able to do so much now! We introduced her to the sippy cup a couple weeks ago, around the same time we started her on solids, and she has now mastered holding and drinking from it!
Before, she used to make a face every time she’d take a sip and discover it was water and not breast milk, but it seems like she’s finally gotten used to it. Look how relaxed she looks while drinking! 😛
Mio has also started to “commando crawl,” also known as “army crawl” — it’s not quite a true crawl, but she’s been moving around using her arms and dragging her feet behind her. We definitely need to get a foam playmat for her and babyproof the place now that she’s on the move!
While rice cereal is often the first food of choice when starting babies on solids here in America, it is 10å€ç²¥ (rice porridge) in Japan. It’s a very liquidy congee, and while rice is normally cooked with water at a roughly 1:1.2 ratio, you use a 1:10 ratio at first for your baby, incorporating water at 10 times the amount of rice you are using, to get a very loose consistency. As the baby gets older and more used to solids, you can start lessening the ratio, to make it 1:7, 1:5, 1:4, 1:3 — and the porridge is called 7å€ç²¥, 5å€ç²¥, 4å€ç²¥, 軟飯, respectively, according to whatever the ratio is. It makes sense that rice porridge is a common first food for Japanese babies, since rice is such a staple in the Japanese diet. I grew up eating rice every day, and I’m sure it will become a big part of Mio’s diet as she grows up, too. So this past weekend, we introduced her to her first taste of rice, making 10å€ç²¥.
I started out by washing a half cup of Japanese rice and putting it in a pot, and then added 5 cups of filtered water. I brought the pot to a boil, and then reduced the temperature and simmered it for 30 minutes, covered. Afterwards, I turned off the heat but kept the lid on for 10 minutes, to let the rice continue to cook with the residual heat inside the pot. What resulted was a very mushy rice, but the kernels of rice were still somewhat retained, forming little clumps within the porridge. Traditionally, one usually has to grate the mixture through a very fine metal mesh strainer by pressing it through with the back of a spoon (or using a mortar and pestle to grind it up by hand), to obtain the desired fine consistency, but it seems like an awful lot of work, so I decided to try blending it in the Babycook to see if I could get a more consistent liquid that way.
Sure enough, after pulsating the mixture a couple times, all the clumps were gone and what was left was a very fine, loose rice porridge! Perfect!!!
After reserving a portion to feed Mio, I poured the rest out into daily portions to freeze for future feedings. Easy! 🙂
Mio liked her first taste of rice — she heartily gobbled it all up! (So far, she has liked every food we have introduced to her.)
So for all the Asian mamas out there who want to feed their babies rice porridge, I definitely recommend the Babycook! It makes the process super easy and relatively mess-free!
Mio is 26 weeks as of last weekend! Here are some recent photos and video of what she’s been up to.
Trying on Mama's sunglasses.
Spending some quality time with Mama at the grandparents' house in San Lorenzo.
Mio tried potatoes for the first time today!
Nom nom nom... She's going to be a potato lover like her Mama!
Mio has been blowing raspberries a lot lately. It seems like she often does it when she’s either bored or frustrated, as is the case in the video below.
