Rice, Rice Baby - Cereal, That Is

As of May 19th, our baby angel Makenna is a whole four months old.  It's unbelievable to me how much she has grown and changed since the day she was born!  I look at our old pictures of her and am just amazed.  At her four-month checkup, her doctor said she looked perfect.  (Um...of course!)  He also let us know that it was time to start introducing solid food.  I have to tell you, I was SO excited about this!  Even though it's just rice cereal to start, it's such a big step for us!


That evening, I went out and bought my first box of Gerber Rice Cereal.  I read the box carefully and had her little spoons all washed and ready to go.  I then realized I didn't have one thing - baby bowls!  Oh well.  An "adult" bowl would do just as well, but I made a mental note to buy some cute baby bowls as soon as possible (which, of course, I did!).  


Since Chad had to work longer hours the next day, we waited until Friday to start our solid food adventure.  After all, Daddy could NOT miss her first bite of cereal!  I got the table all ready for her that morning - towel spread out (because there were sure to be spills and drips), Bumbo all set up (no highchair yet - put that on the list, too!), bib ready to go (because we all know how messy this is going to get).   Once Makenna was up, we put her in the Bumbo, and she was ready to go!

We mixed up the cereal according to the instructions on the box for her first feeding - one tablespoon of rice cereal with four tablespoons of formula.  I knew IMMEDIATELY that the mess was going to be legendary.  Daddy took the first turn, and Makenna was none too thrilled with this new development.

I had the video camera, because of COURSE, this was something to remember.  The looks she was giving her poor Daddy were priceless!


First Cereal Adventure

It took quite a while, with lots of spitting, gagging and squirming, but we managed to get at least half of it in her mouth.  Now, whether half of it STAYED in her mouth...that's a different story!

Now, after almost a week, she is up to a mixture two tablespoons of cereal and three of formula, and she is downing it ALL!  We finally figured out how this spoon thing is supposed to work, and this morning, she even grabbed it from me and stuck it in her mouth herself!  It took lots of trial and error, but we are on our way to real "big girl eating."  Next up - bananas and apples.  I can't WAIT to see how she likes them!