While Mom was getting ready for worship this morning, I was in the other room doing some last minute preparations for my Sunday School class. Mom had Caleb in the room with her on his quilt next to our dresser. He rolled over pretty quickly and was exploring an area he hasn't really been before. He noticed the handles on the dressers drawers and decided he need to investigate them further. He was able to grab one of the handles, but it frustrated him to no end that he could not get into his mouth. The complaint was so loud that I could hear him in the other end of the house and I had to go check it. When I got to the bedroom, I found Caleb on his stomach with his arm flailing around as he attemted to chew on the drawer handle.
After worship today, I was tasked with the responsibility of putting together Caleb's new high chair. We picked up the chair last week, but I had not had an opportunity to deal with it 
until this weekend. Caleb sat in his bouncy seat supervising and Mom sat on the couch holding various bolts and screws while I put the thing together. All in all, we make a good team. After getting the chair put together, it was time for a test run. After obliging us with a photo, Caleb decided his focus was to taste the tray and let us know whether it met his approval. After a quick test drive, Mom and Caleb took a nap until it was time for the big adventure of the day.
All along, our target was to start giving Caleb solid foods when he was six months old. Mom discussed solids with Dr. K. on Thursday and then we were ready to go, save for the highchair. Once the chair was ready, there was no holding Caleb back. Even though we were waiting six months, it had become obvious Caleb did not want to wait any longer. He has become very aware of when we are eating or drinking and he has show an extreme interesting in eating instruments such as utensils and cups. If we are eating or drinking, he leans toward us with his mouth open and has been reaching for our cups and forks for quite some time now.
Before heading to our life group, we gave Caleb his first taste of some rice cereal. There are a number of pictures from the big meal below. I fed him while Mom watched. I held the spoon toward him and he instinctively opened his mouth. I inserted the spoon, dumped some ceral on his tounge and pulled the spoon out. He just sat there kind of starting at me, not sure what to do next. I'm as clueless as he is at this point, never having fed a baby his first solid food before, so I reached over to his chin and pushed it closed and then tried to massage his jam in a chewing motion. He seemed to swallow what was in his mouth. (Aside: I learned this trick from a veternarian back when we first moved to Miami. The vet had given us some pills for the cat to calm her down during the move. He gave a us a syringe like devise to deposit the pill at the back of her mouth, then we were supposed to massage her throat to encourage her to swallow the pill. I figured if it works on a cat, it might work on a baby.)
I knew we were on the right track when I held out another spoonful and he did not refuse to open his mouth. From there, we proceeded to eat most of the rice cereal. Of course, I say "most" fully aware that probably half the stuff dribbled out of his mouth down his chin and onto Caleb's chest, tray, seat, the floor and any other object between Caleb's mouth and the floor.
Mom has read that we should let Caleb hold a spoon while he is eating so that he will learn how to use it more quickly. This is an interesing idea, in theory. Of course, anything in Caleb's hand goes in his mouth. So, of course this was true with the extra spoon. It was very difficult to get him to remove the extra spoon so that I could replace with a spoon full of food. Caleb also thought it would beneficial if he used his hands to help me guide the spoon into his mouth. Each time I raised the spoon, he wanted to reach for it and grab it. His hand ended up in the rice cereal more often than not. He would take the spoon from me. This was especially amusing because he was grasping the spoon so hard, I had to literally pry the spoon from his hand.
We had a good time feeding Caleb for the first time. We laughed alot and Caleb, sensing our enjoyment, was quite pleased with himself. Welcome to a fun life filled with good food Caleb.
On the other hand, there are some things we aren't ready to give Caleb yet. One of those is TV. This is hard on me during footbal season as I spend a tremendous amount of time on the weekend watching football. The Cowboys were on during feeding time and I know Caleb wouldn't want me to miss part of the game, so I brought the high chair into the living room so I could accomplish two things at once. I guess Caleb could tell I was looking at something over his shoulder, so he would lean as far to his left as he could and peer over his left should as much as posible to see what I was looking at. What can I say? Caleb is going to be a football fan too.
Below are some pictures from the big feeding. Enjoy!
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