Learning to eat

Question: Why do they call it "introducing solids", when a baby's first food is really nothing but a bunch of mushy fruits and vegetables? There's nothing solid about it at all!

Considering Baby's reluctance to ever drink out of a bottle, I was somewhat concerned that she might also resist "solids", because they're not delivered via the boob. Thankfully, she's doing quite well and seems to enjoy eating (which is made evident by her very chubby tummy). She still has quite a limited number of foods that she's eating, but nonetheless I consider it a huge success. Her current "solids" repertoire consists of pureed apples, pears, bananas, and carrots (her one veggie). All are made by yours truly, thanks to delicious fresh Swiss produce, a steamer basket, and a food processor. I can now add "baby food chef extraordinaire" to my Hausfrau resume. So far she has rejected sweet potatoes, peas, and avocado, but we'll keep trying. Here are a few recent photos to capture her adventures in eating.

At first, she thought the avocado wasn't too bad.



Only a few moments later, however, she made her very dramatic "I'm gagging" face, in which she sticks out her tongue and tries to cough out the remaining (disgusting) food.



Then there was the recent attempt at her first real solid food: a baby Zwieback cracker. I found it quite curious that, although she puts absolutely every toy in her mouth, she chose to hold the Zwieback in her hands for several minutes studying it carefully before considering whether it should go into her mouth.



After some prompting from me (in other words, I stuck it in her mouth), she gummed it for a little while, and then realized she didn't know what to do with the crumbs that remained on her tongue.



The adventure continues. Next up: Kürbis (also known as pumpkin or squash).