Solid Food Is for Winners! And the Dumb Donald Babies Torment the Cat

Messy, messy winners.

Our battle with solids is slowly starting to ebb. Butts still doesn't particularly LIKE to eat her food, but we've at least started to move past the stage where everything that goes into her mouth comes immediately out again at high velocity.

For weeks, every time we've coaxed her to open her mouth long enough for us to sneak food in, she's quickly closed her mouth around the spoon and pushed everything right back out again, usually with an amusing "yucky" face. We would persist to feed her about half a container of food--which took no less than twenty minutes--then give up and call it a day.

Now, however, she's gotten to the point where we can feed her an entire container of 1st stage food and at least 2/3 of it goes into her stomach. The rest, of course, goes EVERYWHERE else. She's especially fond of rubbing her face with her sleeve and then rubbing her sleeve on whoever is feeding her. Or sticking her hand in her mouth while it's full of food then flinging her hand around her head like an interpretive dancer. It's all very exciting.

Button during her epic battle with a small tub of carrots.

And a quick video of the altercation.

In Gabe-related news, Finn came over Saturday evening and the pair discovered the fun of robbing their sense of sight and running around.

Obviously, because they had stocking caps pulled over their faces, various Fat Albert references were made.

Growing up, I was no fan of the show. I WATCHED it, of course, because I watched pretty much everything that was available to me--which, because we never had cable, was not very much. The show itself never bothered me--it might, in fact, have been amusing to me at the time. What bothered me was the similarities between the main character's name and my own. It was a very short trip indeed between "Hey, hey, hey! It's Faaaaaat Albert!" and "Hey, hey, hey! It's Paaaaaat Albers!"

Oddly enough, nobody but me ever made this connection until I was a freshman in high school and Fat Albert was little more than a blip on everyone's cultural relevance radar. The first person to make the connection was a senior. I can't remember, exactly, who the guy was, but I do remember that he wasn't what one would be tempted to call an "astute observer of the human condition." And because, by that point, I wasn't a fat kid anymore, the connection quickly faded into the background and, really, nobody ever made the reference again, except maybe in passing.

In grade school, though, I was a chubby kid. My jeans always had elastic waistbands and, more often than not, were of the Husky brand. That is, by the by, one of the WORST, unflattering brand names ever. It's almost as bad as having a women's clothing store named Dress Barn. Anyway, somehow, none of my childhood tormentors ever made the connection between my name and the name of Billy Cosby's famous, morbidly obese cartoon character. And, for that, I'm ever thankful.

I wonder what ever happened to Fat Albert. I wonder if the Diabetes ever claimed his feet. Poor guy. I bet he's a shut-in now and that's why we never hear anything about him. They'll probably have to tear off his roof and pull him out with a crane when he dies--or burn the house down around him Gilbert Grape style. Sad.

But because of my familiarity with the show, I am among the few people who know that it was NOT Mushmouth who wore his stocking cap over his face. It was Dumb Donald. Here's proof. Is the distinction important? Almost certainly. At least it is to someone like me who is a stickler for the accuracy of obscure cultural references.