Food

Feeding an infant might sound simple, but it's easy for a first time parent (okay, I'll be more specific--ME) to make it complicated. Bottle then solids? Solids then a bottle? How many ounces at a time? I keep telling myself that, by the looks of his ham-hock thighs, he's a pretty good eater and I should not worry about his nutrition. Most of the time, I don't, but the eating doubts still creep in every once in a while.

Ben has tried a ton of new foods over the last few weeks and seems to enjoy them all; peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, pears, peaches, plus rice and oatmeal cereal. He tried applesauce and got diaper rash that same day. Not sure if there was any correlation but we've not given it to him again. These have all been in standard, drippy, runny baby food form.

Jonathan and I have decided to start offering Ben some "real" foods in the next few weeks and while Ben and I were out at a mom's group happy hour yesterday, I got a little overzealous.

While I don't have pictorial documentation of this event, suffice it to say that Ben is a big fan of hummus! I grabbed a spear of orange pepper and used it as a spoon. It was a big hit!

Today during our lunch we sat Ben in his high chair and offered him some Cheerios. He can grab them but can't really get them in his mouth. He looked longingly at our fish tacos--sorry Dude. Not yet! I then realized that refried beans are a pretty handy baby food and mashed some on his tray. Another hit! I feel mixed about this experience, to tell you the truth. On the one hand, Ben starting to eat adult foods means that we can include him in some of our meals (yes, that's a poorly written sentence and no, I'm not going to go back and edit it!), as he often tries to grab what's on our plates. While he still gets his primary nutrition from formula, and will until he's a year old, it's nice to be able to offer him some snacks while we're eating.

On the other hand, seeing my BABY in his highchair, feeding himself beans makes my heart ache. Where did my tiny baby boy go and who is this beefy boy-looking-child that replaced him?

Tempus fugit!