Beans, Beans the magical fruit!

Okay, so we haven't technically tried beans yet (Aaron did give her a bite of a mashed one at a restaurant but she spit it out)...but, we are officially starting solid foods now!!  So far, it has been really fun (and MESSY) to watch Emmeline discover different tastes and textures.  We just love letting her explore the foods that we are eating.
We usually put her in the bumbo seat (on top of the kitchen island) while we are preparing meals. I like to think of it as she has a front row seat to the best cooking show ever! ha, ha.  She enjoys watching us (who am I kidding, it's mostly daddy) prepare and cook dinner.  We explain to her what we are doing and she listens and watches very intently.  We bake, steam and/or mash her portion.
She then joins us in her highchair at the dinner table where we eat and talk as a family.
I just finished reading a really great book about the Baby Led Weaning approach to introducing the world of food to your child.  We are using this method (with some purees/spoon feedings as well).  I like the idea of letting Emmeline "play" with her food in order to learn more about herself (fine motor skills/hand-eye coordination/being independent) and the world around her (shapes, colors, textures).  The important thing I learned is that they don't need the nutrition from food at this age, it is more about discovering what food is and how to eat it.  All they technically need is their mother's milk until age 1, but we are having fun introducing things little by little as she gradually weans herself.
Here is some info if you are curious about this method:
http://www.babyledweaning.com/
http://baby-led.com/

 So far she's tried organic banana, sweet potato, pear, apple, strawberry, avocado, peas, broccoli, egg (daddy gave her a tiny bite of his breakfast even though you're technically supposed to wait until they are one!), carrot and blueberries.  She now says "Mmmmmmmm" and gets really excited when she sees us eating.  It is so cute.

Mashed avocado beard!  Still cute.

YUM--sweet potato mash!

 Finger painting with avocado ;)

She stole this pizza crust off of my plate when I wasn't looking!!!  That's my girl!

Banana is one of her favorites (and something we have on hand almost every day).  She can now chomp down half of a banana (with a little help as it gets too slippery to pick up).  Who needs teeth when you have strong gums?!ha ha

Trying to figure out how to feed herself mashed peas...

Broccoli (this was my favorite to watch!)...

 Hey! These look like little trees.  I wonder what they taste like...

 Let me end this by saying, I really wish Oreo was like other dogs who eat food off of the floor.  It's going to be a messy journey...