The Vending Machine

This week we introduced solid food to Julia for the first time. She has entered into a whole new phase. She now grabs faces, and when you are holding her at the dinner table, she reaches out and grabs the plate. I love it. She is more and more playful. And she is more aware. She has been watching us eat for a while now, so we thought it high time to introduce her to the spoon.
Last night I was flying solo on child-duties. Annie had to be gone, so I was alone with the girls. We had a really fun time. The milestone for me was being able to feed spoon-feed Julia for the first time. I took a photo of how cute she was.



She is actually a neat ... well, noneater. Despite my less-than-nimble spoon work, not much oatmeal ended up on her face. That is a credit to her daintiness and good manners, not my expertise.

Mixing up the Gerber oatmeal was just like old times with the twins, only I didn't have to do it in industrial batches, just a few ounces. I thought I had it all down until I actually tried to feed her. She has the whole 'open your mouth' thing nailed, but not the 'now swallow' part. Every spoonful of oatmeal would immediately come back out. It reminded me of trying to feed a wrinkled dollar bill into a vending machine. Sorry, no Three Musketeers for you. I took comfort in the fact, though, that I wasn't actually trying to feed her, so much as getting her used to the act of being fed via spoon.