My little one is almost 7 months and while he has (thank god) grown out of his spit-up factory phase, he has entered the teething and drooling-like-no-other phase. Especially when he's gnawing on his Sophie teether, his shirt is just soaked in sweet baby drool! What's a mom to do? Throw on a bib, of course! We have some hand-me-downs that do the job, but they're stained and, well, boring.

So imagine my delight when I came across Beauty & the Bib making the cutest bibs ever!!! My favorite is their bandana style bib, which they have in cute designs such as London Bus, camo, and bumblebee! They also have fun shapes like strawberry, star, apple, cupcake, and heart.

Here are the bibs I got my hands on:

I was oh too excited to strap one of these on to my little guy. No longer was his bib just for doing the dirty work, now it was a cute accessory, too! I was so excited with our find that I took our new bib stash to one of our play groups and let our baby friends try them on. They are some pretty darned adorable kids, but these bibs are a close second in cute factor ^_^

Review wise, I can't say enough how cute and unique they are. They're also incredibly soft and well made. They have a long velcro strip in the back giving you extra room to grow. So whether your baby is spitting up, drooling, or having a wet time getting the hang of a sippy cup / bottle, definitely check out Beauty & the Bib if you want your little one to be stylin'! Please note that the US distribution site is under construction, but you should be able to order directly from them by mid-August 2013, with a 10% off discount using the code "MINYMOE" no less! If you can't wait that long, you can order from the original UK site here.

**Disclaimer: Although I did receive this product free of charge, I was not compensated in any other way to do this product review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and completely unbiased.

Let me preface this with one thing. If you don't want baby food puree smeared all over your little one's face, don't try to feed them when they're tired. Whoops, mom fail! On a side note, isn't it SO CUTE when they rub their eyes sleepily??

So, we've been doing the carrots for about a week now and decided it was time for introducing a new food. Today's venture was peas (Earth's Best again, I went ahead and ordered a veggie and fruit "starter pack"... don't judge, at least it's organic!!)

First taste, not so sure about it...

And then, he's diggin' it!! Though he did make several gaggy faces. The consistency of the peas was a bit thicker than that of the carrots. Still, he did well and got quite a bit down.

I remembered to strap a bib on after a couple of spoons, you can see why I'm glad I did!

One more pea-mouth shot for cuteness sake:

Of course I went ahead and tried a taste for myself. I have to say... YUCK!!! Bleghhhh!!! Then again, it's peas, with no added sugar, salt, seasoning, etc... what do you expect??

Here's Kenzo "drinking" from his sippy cup that daddy got from the Japanese market in NJ. He pretty much just gnaws on it and the tiny bit of water that does come out just gets drooled down his shirt, but I think he'll get it soon. We only have the one, so I'm looking to buy some more, probably stainless steel ones. Any recommendations?

Sorry he's not rocking his usual cute little faux-hawk. This crazy-do is the result of a romp through the spray showers on the way home from Fort Hamilton's Babies & Books class. It's a 30 minute walk, and there's a spray shower about half-way home for us. It was a life-saver for me, so refreshing! But I was once again a hot sweaty mess by the time we got home, to our terribly hot and humid apartment. Followed by 3 loads of laundry, including one pillow that took one for the team when Kenzo had a carrot-filled blowout today, his first in a long long time! Fun times of a SAHM!!

I had been equally looking forward to and dreading this moment. The moment that my baby takes in nutrients from a source other than me. Sure sure, it's not until about a year old that baby's main calories and nutrition will come from food rather than milk, but still, it was one of those big moments where you realize your little guy is growing up!

Because I'd heard about the recent studies suggesting starting solids prior to 6 months increases the child's risk of developing chronic diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, eczema and celiac disease. So I held off, despite one of our doctor's trying to persuade us to start solids at 4 months (story on that here). I waited until after getting the green light from another doctor at our 6 month visit. She suggested starting with orange vegetables, a new one every 3-5 days, and then green vegetables, then fruits. No idea where the color idea came from, but sounded like a reasonable and doable approach.

Leaving the doctor's office I was all pumped - "Yay you're gonna have real food and it's going to be fun!!" but then faced with a big decision... to make or to buy the food. I knew I wanted to go organic. That was all I knew. I headed to the grocery store and they had a pitiful selection of single ingredient organic baby food. Most were mixed like green peas and brown rice, and I didn't want that. I found an Earth's Best Carrots and the ingredients were: organic carrots, water. Literally. That's it! Some of the other brands had fish oil (what?? seriously??), ascorbic acid, etc. Remembering a friend who's baby took weeks (months?) of introducing solids before he would actually eat anything, I wasn't really looking forward to making a big ol' batch of baby food myself (pumping milk, steaming the veg, blending it all together, freezing in little ice cub trays), so buying one little bottle of food to try for now seemed justifiable (oh no, have I just entered the rabbit hole of buying pre-made baby food??).

We waited until Daddy's next day off to start the adventure of solids as a family, which happened to be the Fourth of July. God baby strapped into his high chair, bib on, tray snapped on and "WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" oops, guess it was milk and nap time! I ordered "Abort Abort" as I had read it's not good to try food when they're cranky, so I fed him the tried and true way and he went down for a nap. Later that day we gave it a go and this time we had a happy baby on hand.

Mommy was the feeder, daddy was the photo/videographer. The first couple of teeny tiny bites went right in and down. I was surprised he wasn't spitting it out! I read about the "tongue push reflex" and when they're ready they will swallow rather than push the food out of their mouths, so I guess he was ready! But after a couple of tastes he started making a "yuck" face and wouldn't take any more. I wasn't expecting him to down the whole jar, and I call our first go at solids a huge a huge success.

I did find my mother's DNA coming out in me as I instinctively scraped baby's chin after each bite and the second he got something on his hand or cheek I wiped it away with a wet wash cloth. Sure sure I know it's probably good for his development to play with the food, but not good for my sanity!! I have friends who have to take a shower with their baby after each meal. Seriously? Must be hilarious and a great photo opp to let them go to town and get avocado goop all over themselves and the kitchen once or twice, but 3 times a day? I'm just not down with that, yet. I know there will come a day when I can't easily control it, and hopefully I'll just be able to let loose and deal with the cleanup afterwards. But right now, a simple swipe and wipe is all it took and everyone stayed nice and clean :) On a side note, we don't have AC and it's in the 90's here this week. Sorry, I will do whatever it takes to avoid any unnecessary housework this week!

For curious minds, his next poo was slightly orange. Haha! Funny how even the littlest bit of non-milk can effect the poo! I gave him his 2nd "meal" the following night and he got about the same amount in, just a couple of teeny tiny spoonfuls. I did try it myself, and had to coerce hubby to try it as well. I think it tastes just like tomato soup rather than carrots. Not exactly "Oh yum give me more", nor should it be with no added salt or sugar, but definitely not bad at all!

Would love to know what food you introduced first to your little one, and how the experience went!! Are you a purely DIY or Pre-Made jar baby food feeder? I'll probably do both... from a jar is just so easy, and if you can get it on sale it's probably cheaper (or close enough) than making it yourself, and if you get the right organic brand without all the added unnecessary stuff, what's the harm right?? Haha does it sound like I'm trying to justify it to myself or what!?