Monday, March 1, 2010

Our first "real" meal

Today marked a big milestone in the Ellis house - Gwennan’s first non-milk meal.
I knew what was coming when my little girl’s eyes doubled as I lifted the lid off the crock pot. Cumin, cinnamon, apricots, chicken - she realized that she’s missing out with her single-item menu. Her early interest made sense coming from a mom who considers food one of her favorite art media.

Introductions needed to be made soon between Gwennan and the world of vegetables. She has her first avocado-stained bib. Why avocado? That’s a reasonable question.

For the full case, check out www.wholesomebabyfood.com. My brief version is this: if you could only eat one food to sustain you, breast milk makes sense because it has all the nutrients and vitamins you need with plenty of protein. If you are only surviving on two types of food, I’d still keep breast milk as number one, but it makes sense to have something nutritious and protein-packed as your number two food as well. Enter the avocado.

At any rate, Gwennan literally wrestled the spoon from Daddy’s hand to eat more. She is still licking her chin and hands thirty minutes later. Avocado is a big hit.

Everyone told me before she was born that “I would just know.” I figured it must be true as millions of women throughout history and around the world become moms without so much as a Lamaze class, and they do a fabulous job. Still, I really didn’t know what they were talking about.

Then Gwennan came along. Miraculously, I know what she wants when she cries. All the frustrated years of babysitting, staring at a screaming baby thinking, “if you only had words, intelligible words.” Now I understand that moms really don’t need them, at least not at first. Later when your teenager just wants to know you respect him, you’d like more than a dissatisfied grunt - words would be nice. But right now, her eyes widening when she smells dinner is all she needs to let me know that she is ready for big girl food.

3 comments:

  1. I used this same baby food website as a guide. I loved it! Great job Katie!

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  2. I was told the other day that I picked the most random food possible to feed for the first time. In fact, I was told that he would have thought of tadpole eggs before avocado. Thank you Z for getting tadpole eggs on everyone's mind.

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  3. You guys are a lot of fun to watch. I can't remember if my mom or my grandmother told me this but I remember telling Sharon this - Follow your instincts. They are generally better than a book. I am glad you are not instinctively drawn to baby frogs. I would worry some there.

    Rick

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