time for a highchair!!

Last night was one of the hubs's "late nights" at work and then he went out with friends who he hasn't seen since before Lovie was born so I was flying solo.

No biggie, to be honest. Lovie makes it pretty easy and to be blunt, I already do most things on my own anyway: I get her and myself ready in the morning, I drive her to daycare, pick her up from daycare. More than not, I clean all her bottles from the day and prepare the next days bottles. More than not, I give her her baths every other night (though this may change to every night now that she's covering herself in food). More than not, I get up with her on the weekends.

The hubs is great with Lovie, please don't misunderstand any of what I've said. He feeds her, changes her, plays with her, tends to her, bathes her, too. If I vanished tomorrow, I'm pretty sure he'd be able to handle life with her alone though it would be trickier than if the tables were turned (primarily because he doesn't know the codes to get in and out of daycare).

It was night two with solids and Lovie did fabulous again.

this pic was taken on 5/4/10 and is Lovie's first solid food experience

I popped her into her Bumbo and put her on the kitchen counter (yes I know very well that the Bumbo was recalled so that they could put a sticker on it stating that it's to be used on the floor because there were lots of injuries as a result of people putting their baby in a Bumbo on an elevated surface and the baby falling but I promise you that I'm a very attentive parent and kept her far from the edge of the counter and kept her right next to me at all times) so that she could be right next to me while I prepped her cereal and bottles. She loved sitting up so high and looked around and smiled the entire time. I kept her there when I fed her the cereal too and she did great again! I think she likes having something other than liquids in her mouth and belly. She gobbled up everything I prepared (two baby spoonfuls of rice cereal) and then cried when I stopped feeding her! Fortunately I had a bottle warmed and ready to go so she sucked that thing down straight away following the rice cereal.

My only concern is that she ate all of this only an hour and a half after her previous bottle and she typically goes 3-4 hours between feedings! (Her bedtime is no later than 7PM because she has to be up around 515-530AM so regardless of when her last feeding is, I've been giving her a bottle before bed so that she's not waking at 10PM to eat. And it's been working. In fact ::knocks on wood:: the past several nights, Lovie hasn't had anything to eat until the next morning!) Did she drink so much because the rice cereal got her little taste buds stimulated?Or did she drink because she was hungry even though she had just eaten 90 minutes prior?

I'm a believer that babies don't overeat... but what about once they start solids? I mean, I know for damn certain that *I* overeat so now I'm concerned about Lovie.

We'll see what transpires tonight.
So now we're on the quest for a high chair. I told the hubs that once we get one and if she takes to it like I think she might, maybe I could actually... I dunno... prepare a meal again (I'm ashamed to say that I can't recall the last time I cooked)! I envision Lovie sitting in her high chair with toys or food, while I talk to her as I cook. If we start doing this now, maybe it can become habitual and thereby making it easier to continue doing so in the future as well.

The money we would save if we stopped ordering delivery or takeout is, I'm sure, a lot. And I really want to raise Lovie in a fashion so that she can value dinner time.

Without really looking into any high chairs, I'm hoping to find one that has an adjustable height (so she can sit high when I'm cooking and lower when we're at the table), that has the option to recline (she's still not able to sit on her own), that won't take up a ton of room (maybe something that can fold down??), and that will last until she no longer needs a high chair. Also, it would be nice to have something that's not too babyish. Or pink. Lovie may be a baby and a girl, but that doesn't automatically mean that everything has to have pink puppies on it.

If you have any loves or hates when it comes to high chairs, I'd love to hear from you.