Food going in and words coming out

So much to say, but so little time to say it.

Mela is feeling much better (still not sure if it was a bug or teething, as usual). Now I have to wean her off unlimited yogurt and TV.

It's not going to be pretty. These days she refuses to eat anything except a bit of oatmeal, fruit juice, apple (only if peeled!), peanut butter (licked off the bread) and today while my back was turned ...

chocolate Chex Mix!

Yes, the child who's not allowed to have multigrain Cheerios because of the sugar content (why did they have to add sugar?!) had her cheeks filled to bursting with chocolate-flavoured snack mix.

Hilarious.

Here's an example of the eating habits of the 22 month old toddler:

If the food is acceptable (in this case, oatmeal), it will be consumed. If the food is unacceptable (in this case, pureed peaches that she loved the day before), it will not be consumed, nor will any other food touching said food (in this case, the wall of oatmeal).
Food on The Brother's highchair tray, however, is always delicious (aka "Caught in the Act"):
The Brother doesn't mind:
Nathan, however, is enjoying the discovery of solid food like a maniac.

Over the past few days, he's gone from eating a teaspoon of puree once a day to three meals a day of purees and chunks of banana, avocado and sweet potato. He ate an entire jar of peaches yesterday! He actually gets mad if you slow down when you're feeding him.

Ahh, I remember when Mela was like that. These are the good days.

Little man with a big appetite:
He can take a bite of pear and actually chew it up! Mela wouldn't touch texture until she was over a year:

Mela has however, had some real development in the language department over the last week.

She's gone from basically "Mama" and "Dada" to over 15 words! We still can't really communicated about anything unless it involves somebody leaving ("bye"), something being over ("all done") or farm animals ("moooo!") but am glad to see we're finally making some progress.

Soon enough, I'll be wishing she would talk a little less, I know.

Mela hangin' with her bud, Sasha, who says all kinds of words ("Come sit down, Mela!) and also has the best hair in the neighbourhood):
Not much else to report, except that Nathan is getting ridiculously cute and just fills my heart with glee every time I look at him.

It's like when you first start dating someone and you're falling in love and just want to talk about it in every conversation and to every stranger on the street ("Have you seen his smile?! Sometimes it's shy but sometimes he just lights right up!").

I'm older and wiser this time though - I've caught on to the trick that is a 6 month old baby. They're so much fun (starting to babble, eating food, look at you like you're god) that it makes you love babies and want 20 of them.

Do not be fooled.

Amelia was almost exactly this age when we got pregnant with Nathan. Now, I think every parent should be forced to go through some of the toddler phase (not eating, throwing tantrums, saying "no way!" to every suggestion) before adding to the chaos.

It's funny, though; I thought I was the only one who got suckered by this. I was just reading a post by a Toronto mom about the 6 month itch.

Apparently we're not the only ones ...

Here's the cuteness

Stop checking your email, Mama, and play with me!
Make fun of my hat if you will, Aunt Mary, but it's not easy being stylish when your mother dresses you:
Mama spending some quality time with her boy:
Not enough time to write about it now (husband breathing down my neck to use the laptop) but stay tuned to find out the story behind this shot ...!