First Food!

Last night, Mitch has his taste of real food for the first time. According to his weight, we should have fed him a big juicy steak and a side of potatoes and veggies, but we played it safe and went with rice cereal. At his 4 month doctor's visit on Monday, our pediatrician asked us if we'd started solid foods yet and I told him no. He said most babies are OK to wait until 6 months to start, but he said with a baby Mitchell's size, he (meaning Mitchell) probably wouldn't want to wait that long. He gave us the go ahead to start right away. Before the appointment, I was totally OK with waiting until 5 or 6 months to start solids, and I'm sure we would have been just fine to wait anyways, but Mitch is a big guy and loves to eat. I had a friend ask me today, after seeing how big Mitchell is and finding out much he weighs, "Does he just constantly nurse/eat?" He does eat often and a lot, so we decided to give solids a try.

Here he is, before the big meal, mentally preparing himself for the event, spoon in hand, All-Star bib on.

And.....game on. He leaned forward and gobbled every bite.

I think this picture describes the whole event- he LOVED it! He was open mouthed, tongue out, leaning forward and loving every bite. He couldn't get enough.

Chloe was begging for a turn, and after all her practice at my parent's house last week of "pretending" to feed him, we thought we'd let her give it a shot. After all, she did get Mitchell used to using a spoon and he did great with it tonight. Notice Chloe's open mouth- when I used to feed Chloe as a baby, I would, not noticing, open my mouth with every bite she would take. I see other adults do it, and apparently, kids do it too!

Chloe did a great job feeding him and Mitchell loved it- whenever she is around, he hangs on her every word, turns and follows her with his head and can't get enough of her.

We started off with the suggested "first time feeding amount" on the box- 1 Tablespoon. But he gobbled that up in no time and kept eating and eating. This is a very serious shot of him- food is a serious business in the Andros home. No messing around.

If this picture doesn't show a full, satisfied baby, I don't know what does!

So- Solids were a hit! I had forgotten what it was like to feed a small baby. It is so much fun! It is a lot more work and a lot messier than just sitting down and nursing or bottle feeding a baby, but so worth it. He loved every minute of it and so did we. There's no looking back now- he's tasted the good life. My boy is the size of most one year olds, so he deserves a hearty meal!