Food, Wonderful Food!

At dinner I dripped sauce all over my shirt.  It reminded me of when my children were first introduced to solids.  What a great big mess - I mean, milestone! 

I was wondering how my son would do with solids, because he had already proven himself to be not a great eater, even with breast milk. I had tried many things, with not much success.  However, several other new moms had assured me that every child in the world loved Cheerios.  So I put some on his highchair and watched in happy anticipation for him to eat them and love them and instantly begin demanding an entire turkey dinner....basically, my expectations were pretty low and extremely reasonable.

Colin picked one up (I held my breath), examined it closely, and then leaned over and dropped it.  He liked what he saw, and proceeded to drop every single Cheerio (along with my hopes, but let's not be too dramatic - oh wait...too late) onto the floor.  I'm not sure...is it a step forward that he has graduated from merely stashing the food in the seat of his highchair to dropping it all over the floor?

My son's unique approach to food makes at least one resident of our household especially happy:  the cat.  Toby (aka "The Glutton") will be upstairs in a deep sleep, but if I so much as glance at the can opener, he will hit the ground running and be in the kitchen in one nanosecond flat.  The sound of the can opener used to be the only thing that could motivate Toby to move.  But now, as soon as he hears Colin getting placed in his highchair, he comes running as if all the catnip in the world is about to disappear.  He knows his food will be deposited shortly.  Is it wrong to wish my son wanted to eat as much as my cat does?

There is a lot of food for Toby to clean up, anyway.  I knew that children were messy eaters.  But I had no idea HOW messy.  Colin will be eating his rice cereal, lulling me into complacency, and all of a sudden a well-placed left hook will come out of nowhere, the spoon careens off-course, and there is cereal in my hair, on the tablecloth, on the adjacent chair, and behind Colin's ear.  It's amazing.  I think it defies the laws of physics, but I'm far too busy to pursue this groundbreaking phenomenon.  Does Stephen Hawking know about this?  I look at my beige tablecloth and wince.  Note to self:  buy dark coloured, washable tablecloth!

Colin also started hiding Cheerios in strange places, like in my shoes or in various drawers.  He is having a lot of fun putting objects in different places.  The other day I let him play with the cordless phone (I know, I know - a classic rookie mistake) and then when I needed it, I couldn't find it.  And I couldn't use the 'locator' button, because I had turned it off so he could play with it.  Note to self:  when the phone rings, it doesn't really help to yell in desperation into the air, "I'm HERE!"  Anyhow, I finally found it pushed way back under the couch.  I hope this is all contributing to his intellectual development in some small way.   Because God knows his nutrition isn't!