Care and feeding

For several days now, you have been eating solid foods.  Feeding you has been interesting.  I have learned several things.  For instance, you are a far cleaner child after eating without a bib than you are with a bib. This is because in between each and every single bite you would insist on cramming the entire bib--until it nearly choked you--into your mouth.  That means that in between each and every single bite I had to extract the bib from your mouth.  Thus, within two bites both sides of the bib was covered front and back completely with whatever you were eating and drool and well, yuck.  But you were obsessed with that bib--you would not leave it alone!  Finally I just ditched it all together.

For your very first meal, I fed you some baby oatmeal.  You weren't sure about the first couple of bites, but by the third you had grabbed for both the bowl and the spoon I was using and tried to shove them in their entirety in your mouth.  I was jazzed.

You were quickly bored with oatmeal, and since it took a few days for our Baby Bullet to arrive and because 98% of our kitchen stuff is still in storage, I cooked and then pureed all your food by hand.  Really it wasn't too bad except for the butternut squash.  Yikes.

You love to eat!  We've had to experiment a bit to figure out our scheduling and seating arrangement and all that, but today I felt like we were starting to hit our stride.  You ate three big meals enthusiastically, and so far carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes are your favorite.  With the exception of letting you suck on my apple slices, I've purposefully delayed the fruit a bit.  Tomorrow we will try both bananas and peas for the first time. 

I actually love making your food.  I love knowing exactly what you are eating and how carefully it was prepared.  I love the organizing and the labeling and the planning.  And it is gratifying to see you waiting with your mouth open like a hungry baby bird.  I know it won't always be this easy to get you to eat vegetables, but for now I am enjoying it while I can.

Your grandma actually got very nervous when I told her about cooking your food.  *Her* kids ate jarred baby food, and she argued that, "There's a lot of additives in those jars that she wouldn't get otherwise."  (Exactly!  Ahem.)  I think she thinks it's some hippy, granola-eater thing I picked up in San Francisco.