My first meal

Sunday night, Gretchen decided it was time for Augie to have his first real meal. Up until now he has eaten, almost exclusively, breast milk. A couple of times while Gretchen was substitute teaching, he had formula mixed with breast milk, but otherwise just breast milk. So, after more than four months of life on this earth, Augie ate … rice. Here’s the rundown of how things went:

The first step was putting Augie in his high chair.

He wasn’t sure what was going on, so he did what he does best, he chewed on something.

After some hocusy pocusy, magical mixing of fluids in the kitchen, momcame out with a bowl of white mush. Augie inspected it with his tongue…

…and didn’t seem to like what he found.

After a few more tastes, though, and with a firm grip on his bib…

…Augie was reaching for the bowl of paste.

Most of the food ended up in Augie’s mouth and stayed there.

But Augie generously shared some with the monkeys on his bib.

While dad was doing the important work (taking all the first-meal pictures), mom was busy shoveling the rice water into Augie’s mouth.

By the time he was done, I’m not sure if he was reaching for the bowl to get at the rest of the rice, or if he was hoping to spill it. But the “Save me dad” look tells me he had had enough.

Before he was done, Augie took a timeout to inspect his meal with his fingers.

Mmmm…rice.

And when the meal was done…

…Augie graciously wiped up after himself.

And there you have it, Augie’s first meal. It went surprisingly well. No crying. No projectile vomiting. No rice in the hair or on dad's camera. All in all, Augie is a pro when it comes to eating people food.