Solid Food Is for Suckers

Button had her four month checkup today, and the doctor stressed that we should start trying to feed her solids. We had planned to do this anyway because, well, god it's nice when kids switch to solids and feedings can be thought of in terms of times of the day instead of times of the hour . . . (yeah, I know, that doesn't really make sense. Kids don't eat several times an hour, no matter how old they are, so their feedings are pretty much never thought of in those terms, but my poor, stupid brain couldn't think of any not-quite-clever way of putting it that paralleled the "times of the day" statement, and I'll be damned if I will erase something just because I couldn't think of something to follow it up).

We bought some baby bananas and applesauce the other day, and tonight she got to try the bananas. She was unexpectedly disinterested, and even a little disgusted by them.

This surprises me somewhat. See, Gabe started eating almost as soon as we got him. Within the first two weeks, we realized that he was getting constipated on his soy formula, so we had to start sneaking him fruit to keep him regular (you're welcome, Future Gabe, when you read this, for sharing this bit of information with the world). He got a shot of juice at first, but that didn't work, so we decided to skip all of the in-between steps and went straight for the mushed up prunes. And he ate them! Not a lot at first, but eating solids was something that he loved to do. Often, I thought he resented the bottles and really wanted to only eat solids, starting probably around the four to five month old range. That wasn't possible, of course, but he sure liked to eat his solids.

And there wasn't much he wouldn't eat. After conducting weeks' worth of experiments on whether or not he was allergic to this food or that, I started conducting numerous experiments on whether or not he would even EAT this food or that (because I was making just about all of his food myself, I could put just about whatever I wanted to in it--and, believe me, he got a taste of just about everything that seemed vaguely appropriate for a small child to try). He tried a little bit of everything, and he ate pretty much all of it without any troubles.

The only thing he took a dislike to was roast beef, for some reason (he's still not very big on meat, except hot dogs--so, technically, he's still not very big on meat). Possibly it had something to do with the time, he was probably nine months old or so by this point, when I fed him some ground up roast beef. Three hours after the meal, while we were out walking, I noticed that he was chewing on something. I stuck my finger in and dug around for a bit, only to find a quite small piece of roast beef, completely sapped of its color by his saliva, that he had been cheeking that entire time. It was disgusting, and should probably have turned ME off to roast beef, so I can only imagine the effect it's had on his subconscious.

Anyway, it would appear that Norah will not be following down the same path. She decidedly did not take to the bananas. And if you don't like bananas, then what hope is there for pretty much any other food? We'll try the applesauce tomorrow night, probably, and see if we have any better luck.

Butts not eating bananas.

And in other news, over the weekend, Finn came over for some baby wrestling (which we will probably continue to call it even when they're hanging out in their teens), and Gabe decided to show him the trick with the cabinet. Finn, unfortunately for Finn, is a bit of a follower. If he sees Gabe doing something fun (and usually mildly dangerous), Finn will almost certainly try it too. So he had to join Gabe in the cabinet.

Mere moments after this picture was taken, the top shelf went ahead and collapsed, as we sort of feared it would (actually, I think someone was saying something to that effect while I was snapping this picture). No children were harmed, but both of them were pretty much scared shitless. Nonetheless, minutes after I fixed the shelf, they both wanted to get back in there.