This post is sponsored by Gerber®, but the content and opinions expressed here are my own. 

It’s almost time for our little guy to have his first food! We’re thinking of introducing them to him after his 4 month pediatrician appointment this week. So to prep myself, I picked up some Gerber Infant Cereal for him at my local Target, super convenient since I’m there a ton, and pssst the baby food is in the baby aisle – who knew! Haha.

I actually thought it would be in the regular aisles of food but it wasn’t. Save on any Gerber Cereal at Target by using Cartwheel app to redeem, I ended up installing it onto my phone and just asked the cash register guy how to use it. He showed me, and I saved a few on this purchase!. I’ve been doing a ton of research about anything and everything that will be going in/on my baby, from first foods, to clothing, and even lotions and creams. I swear I haven’t done as much Googling in my life, as I have these past three months.

Apparently babies are born with natural stores of iron (perhaps from all my prenatal vitamins, which I’m still taking). But they can deplete around his age (he’ll be 4 months old tomorrow!). Baby eats a ton throughout the day, so two servings of Gerber infant cereal meet 100% of your baby’s daily iron needs. I feel pretty confident the pediatrician will suggest we could start trying Gerber cereals for him soon enough, and I’m pretty excited for it. So much so, I mixed some up today to see if he was interested in it, and just to get an idea of how many tbsps fill up the bowl. The Gerber baby cerals are Non-GMO: Not made with genetically engineered ingredients, have no artificial colors or flavors, and the package made with no BPA. #AnythingForBaby

Single-grain infant cereals are an ideal first solid food to check for food sensitivities and help develop baby’s eating skills. And I can always nurse him after his cereal feeds, too. Man, it’s almost time to get a highchair for him too, since he’s doing pretty well sitting up in his little frog-chair! Exciting!

I love interacting and seeing our baby grow, and learn new things on a daily basis. Each day I try and teach him something new. Whether it be a new tree, a cloudy day, or even touching something different like sand, or grass, and even teaching him new words. This past weekend he got his first teddy bear and he kept coo-ing and talking to it, it was so adorable. Here are some other ways I think help keep him stimulated with his brain development. The first few years of a child’s life is definitely a prime-time for learning.

Here are 5 activities that stimulate baby and help brain development that we incorporate into our daily routine:

• Make a facial expression| It sounds simple, but it’s been working! And the reactions are priceless. Babies can imitate simple facial movements, smiling or sticking out your tongue. This week I kept laughing until it hurt…and finally our baby mimicked me and laughed. Oh he makes me work for it!
• Singing| I’m pretty shy singing in front of others, including my husband. But I sing to our baby what feels like hundreds of times a day. But we also love listening to The Beatles in this household. “I want to hold your hand” brings a smile to our baby’s face. Some studies show that learning the rhythms of music is linked to learning math. Let’s hope he’s better at math than I am.
• Talk to baby| Doing the most mundane ordinary tasks, I explain to our baby what I’m doing. Whether it’s putting on his clothes and showing him where his arms go. Going grocery shopping and showing him what I’m picking up, and even going outside on walks and seeing construction workers, or cyclists, I’ll point them out to him. Even when I’m bathing or changing him, I explain he has two legs, two arms… but I make them rhyme a little. “Cheeks and your noooose, feet and your toeeees and your belly belly good” lol.
• Quiet time| Everyone needs quiet time and I discovered that early on, that baby needs it too. During the afternoon’s is when we just both chill out on the floor together, with a burpcloth behind him since I never know when spit up will happen. He’ll either start babbling to me, or just playing with his toes. This is actually when he rolled over for the first time, when he was having quiet time!
• Counting| I make a habit of counting out loud to him. His fingers/toes, or how many steps we’re walking up. Also singing the nursery rhyme, one-two buckle my shoe… remember that one?

When did you first introduce foods to your baby? Every Mama, and every baby is different, but it’s interesting to get the conversation going! And what was your baby’s first food?

Kicking off the week with a 5am wake-up call. Ohhh boy! This little one decided to somehow coax me out of bed at even before the crack of dawn this morning. Luckily he knows that all it takes to be forgiven of such an early rise, is to give me a grin. Now he’s down for his first nap of the day, and I’m about to take one too. But because of the timing I ended up missing out on my first Momma and Baby yoga class – guess it’s a bit of a silver lining though because I was hesitant on dropping $20 on it. Flippin’ silicon valley prices! Not great for a penny pincher like myself .