A good, old-fashioned eating update

At around 7.5 months we expanded the daily food consumption to include breakfast, bigger lunches and a little meat. Or should I say grandparents had already started introducing breakfasts (you can't keep this kid happy while you're eating, unless he's eating, too), and my daily recaps from Daddy include repeated requests from babysitters for MORE FOOD.

So now Cayden has a breakfast of regular-'ol-instant-oatmeal microwaved with water. Probably about two ounces, but I don't measure.

And lunch has gone from three ounces to four. Always two foods, some combo of veggie and veggie or fruit and veggie.

And dinner remains three to four ounces of baby cereal mixed with pureed prunes or apricots. You know, to keep things moving.

Chicken still has yet to ever refuse any food or additional quantities. I'm beginning to think he's missing that self-regulating-appetite thing all the books say babies have. He'd rather eat until he's exploding and vom up all the milk I work so hard to make, pump, measure and prepare, than turn away when he's had enough.

We also introduced ground turkey and beef earlier this week, and some chicken tonight. All wolfed down, although it is sad and entertaining at the same time to see the little guy excitedly rake at the food on his high chair tray, whip his fist up to his mouth, then open the fist and drop all the food down into his lap, rather than get any in his yapper. He's definitely practicing feeding himself, but he's got a-ways to go, until this pincer grasp develops to get the food where he wants it.

This week also saw the introduction of Cheerios (who am I kidding; they're the Walmart-brand toasted oatie-ohs or something, which are about half the price for the same ingredients), and grapes. However, the grapes are a choking hazard (apparently for quite a while to come, as I learned when I made the mistake of offering 15-month old Rylie grapes on Friday, only to have her mom intercept, biting each one in half for the little girl who was conVINCED the fruit would taste better if it was whole, the way I offered it originally; uugghh, I have so much to learn about how not to kill or maim or piss off a child). So Chicken's grapes get cut in half, then put into a mesh teether. The first time he tried them, he reduced five grapes to nothing but skins in less than 10 minutes.

And for what it's worth, I was worried Cayden would start filling up on food and not want to nurse or drink as much during the day. I've never read about or heard of the 7.75 month growth spurt, but I swear he had it the past few days. He was nursing like crazy -- on top of the increased food -- and he didn't yam nearly as much as he was a few weeks ago (I recycled outfits TWO DAYS this weekend; that's, like, some kind of anti-laundry victory).

We're still nursing five to seven times a day, so I guess he's getting all the milk he needs.