Solid
Our pediatrician said Dmitri could start trying solid food now that he could hold his head up on his own. Yay! Progress! My wife decided it should be a big event. And it is. How often do we eat our first solids food? Only once. This deserved to be recorded for posterity.
We set up the high chair and strapped Dmitri in. He wasn’t upset, but he wasn’t exactly happy either. His expression was like, “So. . . what’s going on?” That’s the thing about our baby. He knows how to roll with the punches. My wife whipped up some rice cereal, which was really more rice goop than anything; a runny liquid that looked more like something the cat would throw up than a baby should eat. But hey, what do I know?
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I had my phone ready and made my debut as Spielberg of Dad Smartphone Films. My wife scooped up some goop and presented it to Dmitri. He didn’t look away in revulsion. He was curious. He opened his mouth, and my wife poured in the goop. It didn’t stay in there for long, falling out and getting all over his chin. She scooped up the dribble and tried again, but with the same result. This went on for ten minutes or so. I’m not sure how much Dmitri actually ate during that time. Most of the goop seemed to get on his chin and dribble down his industrial strength rubber bib that we busted out for the special occasion.
Dmitri’s first experience with solid food was a bit of a letdown. My wife said the important thing wasn’t that he slurped up all the goop without any of it getting on his chin, but that he tried. I mean, it was his first time eating solid food. He deserved a break. That made sense, especially since I’m no eating savant. I’ve had trillions more hours of practice than Dmitri and still manage to have food (and liquid) fall out of my mouth and stain my clothes. What matters right now is that Dmitri gets used to the act of eating. Soon enough we’ll get to him not having any of food dribble out of his mouth.
Hopefully.
He is, after all, my son.
