When his big sister was a wee thing, it seemed like forever between her first efforts to steal our food and that long-awaited first meal. However, James is a pretty laid-back kid in most respects, and his attitude toward food is no different. He’s looked at our food with a sort of vague interest as we eat, but he’s expressed no desire to actually try some himself. Nor were we in any hurry to feed James, as giving an infant a solid meal often requires a good 10 minutes of prepping and a half-hour of cleanup, not to mention the feeding time itself — which, if the baby isn’t a voracious and competent eater, can take at least another half-hour. But our pediatrician suggested that James was of such an age and size that solids would be beneficial now, so today marked our wee boy’s commencement into the world of nondairy nourishment.
The overall verdict? James pronounced his rice cereal mildly entertaining but not the be-all-end-all it proved for his sister. Most of it wound up on his chin or in his right hand, which he insisted on repeatedly thrusting in his mouth to investigate this odd starchy substance that was being shoveled into his slobbery little maw. He’s definitely going to need a little practice on this whole eating thing, we discovered.
Not the tidy eater his sister was, we suspect that the introduction of solids will necessitate a nightly bath time, as James eats not with his mouth but with his entire body. His propensity for slime and odor was driving us in that direction anyway, but the fact that I am an accomplished and tidy baby-feeder and still couldn’t keep him from covering himself in rice cereal definitely speaks for James’ future cleansing requirements.
And here they are: The long-awaited (at least by me) shots of James’ first solid meal:
James takes his very first bite of food
“Hey, this doesn’t taste like milk …”
James decides food isn’t half bad