Don't feed babies cinnamon. I had heard from someone that they used to put just a little cinnamon in their baby's oatmeal cereal to give it a little taste. I tried this a few days ago without incident. We've been doing rice cereal and avocado since Sunday. Tonight I fed Josh some oatmeal with a little cinnamon added. He took it just fine and things seemed all fine and normal until right before bed time. While playing in front of the mirror with him, he all of a sudden vomited. Not like the typical baby spit up, no this was a lot coming out quickly. I cleaned up the carpet and didn't think too much of it. I figured it was pressure from not burping enough or just a really bad bout of spit up. I got him a bottle for the night and he fell asleep in my arms half way through the bottle. As I laid him down in his crib, he began spitting up so I picked him to get a good burp. But again he barfed up probably his whole bottle (about 2.5 ounces) and some more cinnamon oatmeal. I'm guessing the cinnamon was too hard on his immature digestive system although it seems harmless enough. I feel terrible now if that was what caused him to be sick. He's sleeping now (and still breathing last I checked) but when he wakes up I'm sure he'll be hungry.

In other news, he's learned how to stick out his tongue and blow air at the same time. So for the last two days he's been practicing this new trick when he's in a good mood. I've been doing it back to him, which usually cracks him up.

Other than our bad cinnamon incident, avocado has been going well. He doesn't really like it so much but we usually get through half an avocado. The last couple of times he fussed and screamed during the avocado feeding so I picked him up and had to soothe him before we try again. I've found I can feed him while holding him on my hip. It worked great this morning when he was cranky. He finished the last four spoonfuls like a pro. The other problem I'm having is his hands. He wants to put his hand(s) in his mouth after the spoon comes out. This of course prevents me from scraping the stuff that comes out off of his chin (which gets stirred with the remaining food for refeeding), and it makes an awful mess, and most importantly, it gets on his hands which he uses to rub his eyes. When food, like avocado oil, gets in his eyes, he gets fussy. I haven't found a solution yet because I don't have a third hand to use to hold his arms down. If I do restrain him, he yells at me which effectively ceases all feeding until he gets a grip. All of these complaints are exactly what I feared starting solid foods. It's super messy, takes more time to set up and clean up, there's no guarantee he'll like it or cooperate, and there's a chance he'll get it in his eyes. nose, ears, hair, etc.

One last update, I'm taking him off the breast except for morning feedings. His little tooth is sharp as a nail. He hasn't full on bitten me (yet) but I know my days are numbered. I figure early mornings he's hungry enough and sleepy enough that there's a lower chance for playing around. So far we've been adjusting ok. I pump an hour or thirty minutes before I think he'll be hungry then offer him a bottle. Unfortunately, I have one pump. Which means it gets washed about 4-5 times a day. I'll keep this up as long as I have patience for it. At some point we'll transition him to formula and solids, but I'm trying to use breast milk as long as possible because it's so good for him.