Ah, food. Solid food, pureed food. Solid food pureed into every crevice imaginable on a high chair, table, low chair, floor. I highly recommend hiring a dog to help you with cleanup by the way, very useful.
But back to baby. Who knew just six months after practically force feeding mashed vegetables into his mouth, here we are... a tiny human, who ever so carefully picks up pieces of food set in front of him with the most delicate tweezer like squeeze of his fingers. Who diligently attempts to put said food into his mouth repeatedly, and these days makes it straight in most of the time. This baby seems to eat everything, so I don't know what all those Mother's group Facebook pages are on about with their 'picky eaters'....
That is... until now.
He's not picky. He's 'choosy'. And he's got it all figured out. Vegetables are usually a no-go, unless dad feeds them to him, then he'd eat moth balls and squeal with delight, because dad fed him. But I digress. The kid loves chicken. And meat, and really any form of protein, eggs, fish, whatever. Which is great. Except that he doesn't love much else, for dinner. Except for, that is... pasta. In conclusion, Mr. Clever Clogs, likes meat and pasta, and not in that order.
Last night, I started with rice crackers as a muse bouche, if you will. 'Meh.' said the baby. Then we moved on to leftover fish, 'mmahm, mahm, mmm' he said in delight, none of those noises were referring to me by the way. So far so good. But I made the rooky mistake of introducing pasta as he munched away on fish. Too soon, too soon!! And with that, a swift swipe of the arm sent all the fish to the floor, the dog to the fish, and the baby now laser focused on the pasta. And that, my friends, was the end of that. Because there's no going back to anything once pasta takes centre stage.
So the lesson I have learned is this. Do you remember the pyramid with all the food groups on it? Eat the most of veggies, then protein, then fats like cheeses, and sweets were at the top... or something like that, needless to say I didn't heed that advise very well. But go back to the pyramid for a moment. The lesson is that babies, at least this one, do not believe in equality and balance of food groups. They believe in 'this one tastes good' and 'this one tastes great', and you can go from 'good' to 'great' but you can never go from great to good. And I need to remember that, at least for now...
Find out which food groups are bubs' favourite, and then don't. mess. with. the. matrix. Identify the three foods you are going to serve, their rank in the favourite food category, and then structure that shit in your mental pyramid and don't ever forget it. Because there's no going back. Last night, I managed to get sweet potatoes down the hatch first, then chicken, and then I don't even remember because I was so proud I got sweet potatoes in (these have been scratched from the 'like' list for a while now, ever since chicken entered the menu.)
There is no equality or democracy of meals just yet, at least not today. It is still most certainly a dictatorship, and yet there's a very democratic balance of leadership between parent and baby... food for thought ...
Bon apetite, et bon chance.
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