Love at First Bite

March 2, 2008

About 2 weeks before Sam turned 6 months old, he started acting as if he was definitely not getting enough to eat. He never seemed satisfied after a feeding, which was not like him at all, and was trying to put everything in his mouth and got frustrated when it wasn't doing much to help the problem. So I knew it was time...I knew I had to whip out the rice cereal. This is a fun event in baby life, but I was dragging my feet for a few reasons. One more thing to have to do, one more thing to have to clean up, one more baby item taking up space when we brought the high chair up from the garage, and one more sign that my baby is growing up WAY too fast. I mean, seriously, didn't I bring him home from the hospital yesterday? And now we're already working on solid foods? But of course I didn't want to be nursing him a zillion times a day anymore either...so it definitely had to be done!
And there was no learning curve involved in this process. He was a pro from the get go. He was kicking his legs and waving his arms wanting more and we were serenaded with grunts and 'mmmmm's' during the entire feeding. He ate all of what I had made him and wanted more, so he got more. Much different than the first feeding with Tyler. It took him much longer to warm up to the idea of solid foods. Sam was definitely a happy camper with this whole process.
I think if he could have told us what he felt, he would have asked us why in the world we had been holding out on him for so long? We are so mean!
And this is the point where we had to make him some more. The only point at which he was not a happy camper...

As bittersweet as it kind of was, I have to say I had forgotten how fun it is to feed babies for the first time and see them discover this whole world of food. It's quite entertaining actually!
The face of one very satisfied customer at Cafe Gerber, indeed. Love at first bite, without question. And at this point, we've done all the fruits and veggies and there hasn't been anything he has tasted that he hasn't liked. Now we may as well own stock in Gerber because I am sure forking out a nice chunk of change in order to keep my pantry stocked for this little dude.