At 8 months my DS was sitting unaided, but only if he was put into a sitting position, and starting to commando crawl. He HATED solid food, so I was offering food but without a great deal of success. My staples were the Rafferty's garden rice cereals, often mixed with stewed apple, vegemite sandwiches, avocado sandwiches, cheese, and pureed vegies/meat for dinner. 4 months on, DS still isn't great with food compared to some, but he does eat chunky mixes of vegies, is handy with sandwiches, and is starting to want to control the spoon action. I agree with MBear - don't listen too much to what you "should" be doing - 1/2 an hour on BB will tell you that there's a huge variation in what & when kids reach milestones. It sounds like you're doing a great job anyway.