Food, Glorious Food

Jackson enjoyed his first taste of solid food on September 15. The jury is still out on whether or not he enjoyed the rice cereal/ breast milk combo. As you can see from the video, he makes a yuck face, but then reaches out and grabs for the spoon… And then he turns to the camera and makes such a plaintive face, as if he’s asking for the parent behind the camera to please save him from the indignity!



More videos after the jump.

In the beginning, feeding is a game to babies – apparently we aren’t born knowing how to eat off of a spoon; I guess I had never really thought about that, since I don’t remember a time that I didn’t eat using utensils… In any event, you can introduce solid foods at any time after four months of age, provided your baby can sit up supported and they’re showing an interest in you when you’re eating. To be honest, I wanted to stretch Jackson out to six months before we introduced solids, but from the start Jackson has very clearly communicated what he wants (even if we don’t understand what he’s asking for), and it was obvious to me that he was ready (and what’s a few more weeks, anyway…). At one point, I picked Jackson up from day care, he was a bit hungry and had an ounce or so of milk left from his previous bottle that the ladies were about to give him. I fed him instead, and at one point Jackson reached up and put both hands on the bottle. I indulged him, and then let go… Jack kept the bottle up, and finished the bottle holding it without assistance. That’s when I figured that Jackson was telling me he was ready for solids.

That afternoon, we went to the grocery store. While we were there, Jackson helped me by holding some of the groceries – he held a zucchini and a squash while I got a produce bag to put them in, and then we went to get him his cereal… As you can see, Jackson is very excited to help!







Grandpappy just happened to be over for dinner on our first pass at eating solids. I fed Jackson his first bites, then Jesse... By the time Grandpappy gave Jackson some bites, Jackson kind of had the hang of it. We've moved on to more solids, and rice cereal still is not a favorite!




A few days later, we were at Mom Mom's house, and she gave us some tips for feeding Jackson; apparently when I was a baby, I'd gag if I got the spoon's bowl too far into my mouth, so my mom gave me the spoon sideways. Once we started doing that for Jackson, he would eat much more! This is what Mom Moms are for!!!

I was saying to our friend Natascha that on one hand I’m so happy and joyful to see Jackson grow up and hit these milestones… but on the other hand it’s a bit bittersweet because it means that Jackson is becoming more and more independent. I know I still have plenty of time before he moves into his own apartment, but each step he takes away from infancy is a step toward adulthood…