rice cereal tastes . . . so. gwate.

"Food... glorious food. [Peter was] very anxious to try it." At least that's how we interpreted his interest in whatever the heck we were doing during mealtime. He used be kinda fine playing on the ground or in his swing while we ate dinner... but a while back he decided that true happiness could only be found up high on the peak of Mount Dinner Table. So... being the awesome parents that we are and disregarding every warning sticker we've ever read... we put the Bumbo up on the table and buckled him in so he could find out what this eating-real-food thing was all about. He loved it. Seriously... don't listen to whoever tells you not to put the Bumbo up on the table. You're crazy if you don't. I mean I guess you could use a high chair like a normal person but we don't have one of those and it's not like we leave him unsupervised. Also... I can't believe they just barely started putting belts on those things. You're crazy not to use the belt, too.

Anyway, he has started eating rice cereal since that monumental moment of ascending to the top of the mountain but he still acts pretty intrigued with our meal... either that or 100% bored. Depends on what we're eating I guess... and how accessible our utensils and water bottles are. Grab grab grab... that's all he does.

Sometimes these moments a top the dinner table can get pretty uncomfortable. Like that moment on a first date when you've run out of witty conversation starters so you just play with your food and scrounge for something to ask. "So... do you like... cheese?" 

I have yet to decide who is more uncomfortable during these moments. Peter, because he has to just sit there and watch us eat (usually) delicious foods. Or us, because he just sits there and stares us down. Every movement... the hand to the fork, the fork to the food, the food to the mouth... and voila! The food is gone. We play with him on and off but usually we converse with each other about the happenings of our day and such. Peter doesn't let this happen for too long though. He usually waits until a silent moment and then reminds us that he is there with one of those inhaling screeching noises. It's almost as if he is warning us that if we don't eat up he'll swoop down and snatch our food. Yes, my child is a vulture. A funny little vulture. Just waiting... and watching.

"They just sit there... watching us." -Manny

Turns out the whole time we thought he wanted our food... he was just interested in our company and our shiny utensils. I mean, who wouldn't be?? Anywho... as I mentioned before Peter has since become a rice cereal connoisseur. He loves the stuff and at one point he was downing half a cup in one sitting. For a little guy like him that is a lot of food. A lot of food, glorious food! It hasn't always been this way though. His first experience with the rice cereal was a doozy...

(que bubbly flashback music)

He was 5 months old and his doctor said to start him on rice cereal between 4 and 6 months. So I figured 5 months would be a good time. That was mistake number one: he wasn't old enough. Some babies are. Peter wasn't. He was also recovering from a cold and had a really yucky wet cough. Mistake number two: starting solids while he was sick. But, we were excited and probably bored on that (freezing) rainy Sunday so we went for it. I made a serving of the cereal which was 1/4 of a cup and he downed the whole thing. Mistake number three: feeding him the entire 1/4 cup. You're supposed to start with a teaspoon, not 1/4 cup (equal to 12 teaspoons)!! Haha big woops. All of this was before some milk from momma.... mistake number four: topping him off with milk after the cereal. He played on the floor for a bit aaaaand before the delicious cereal could hit his small intestine he started spitting up blood. Woah woah woah! Not normal man! We didn't connect the blood with the cereal at all and thought it was his nasty cough causing the problems. So we earned some good parents points back and did some research online to find that Peter probably had bronchitis. Yuck. We called the on-call nurse and she was pretty concerned about the situation as well and scheduled us for a 9pm appointment at the urgent care 30 miles from our house. Joy. Don't forget there was freezing rain all day. Double joy. We had a couple worries. Obviously we were worried about our child. But he was so happy and smiley so really we were worried that we would make the long slippery drive and get there only to have the doctor tell us we were crazy. Pretty much that's what happened. The nice grandma nurse did all of Peter's vitals and he played and laughed the whole time. Didn't cough once. Come on man! Makin' us look like a bunch of maroons here! Once the doctor came in she asked us some questions and pretty soon she started chatting with us about his skin. Excuse me, I didn't know we were at the dermatologist. He has a horrible wet cough that is making his insides BLEED! His skin is the least of his problems, okay. It was kinda an awkward moment... definitely a terrible change in topics... "So his skin is sensitive, eh? ... I overheard you say on the phone to the nurse that you started rice cereal today. Is this correct??" Then it turned into one of those "I am a bad mom and the doctor's about to tell me so" moments. So I probably didn't (and still don't) bath him enough in the first place and up until that point I didn't put lotion on him after every bath because it made his skin dry and patchy... do your job lotion! Sheesh. It was a vicious cycle. I didn't admit this to the doctor though... I just said something like, "Yeeeeeah his skin doesn't really like the lotion." She gave us a little lesson on what lotions to- and not-to use... and then connected the dots for us and told us how babies with sensitive skin also usually have sensitive stomachs. Ding ding ding!! It was the rice cereal, in the kitchen, with the spoon! 

And that was that. She advised us to wait another month to start cereal and we were on our way. Our 30-minute-freezing-rained-on-roads way.

We followed her advice and at 6-months we tried again. It was no surprise when he downed a ton just like the first time. Except for this time he kept it down. (: Go Peter! Woo! Another month later and he is now also eating butternut squash and so far is doing very well with it. At least that's what his skin is telling us. Haha.

Try #1--

Huh... cool spoon.

Rice cereal. Big woop.

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Try #2---

Hmm... I've tried this before.

What?? It's gone??! Make more. Now.

She is taking forever! Can you even believe the service here??

Hmm.... I could eat this all. day. long.

On a Skype date with my sister and mom... she captured our true emotions towards the cereal. I look fairly disgusted and Peter would rather eat his bib. Mah. Just kidding we must have been talking about something else... like the content of his latest diaper.