Learning About Eating

Did you know that eating is a learned skill? It's one I sometimes wish I'd never learned. I think my waistline would be much slimmer if I never learned to eat certain foods like cheese, chocolate, maybe beer?

Anyways, Matt and I tried feeding Charlie his first actual food the other day and watching him is unreal. The kid has no idea what to do with his tongue when the spoon is in his mouth. It's on top of the spoon, it's sticking out next to the spoon. It's everywhere but under the spoon. Then there's the swallowing of this unfamiliar substance. His first bite sat in his mouth for a second, he thought about it, and then he spit it out, clearing his bib, right onto the side of the highchair.

So we're going to keep practicing with the rice cereal because Matt's dying to put pizza and steak in the food mill and let Charlie taste real food. However, he doesn't want to do it too soon because wasting said foods is not allowed in this household.

One last note: I know you're thinking maybe I should put the fact that he's eating a little now together with the fact that he's sleeping a little better and see the correlation. However, if you saw how much he actually swallowed you'd agree there's no connection this at this point. Oh and Charlie slept for 9 hours again last night and Quincy is back on Orcas so it appears he wasn't the reason for it either. Charlie must just be growing up. Today: sleeping through the night. Tomorrow: packing up for college. Time sure flys with this little guy!