Adventures in "Solid" Food

Sam turned 6 months old on the 17th of June, a big milestone for the little shaver! Liz and I had discussed what we wanted to do to celebrate the occasion with our little boy and we decided that he would get his first taste of solid food on his 6-months-since-birth anniversary.  I know, not overly exciting, but this brings me to an important point I wanted to discuss, which is the over-celebration of milestones in a baby's life.

I have read stories of absolutely over the top 6-month or 1 year old birthday parties for the precious little tykes of modern day parents.  You name it, and it happens - clowns (AHHHH!), big parties, lots of people, bouncy houses, ponies, highly planned party themes based around the likes of your tykes, etc.  Here is my pin to pop the ever-growing balloon of ridiculousness...THEY WON'T REMEMBER IT!  Here are five good reasons why these sort of exuberant celebrations should not occur:

1. THEY WON'T REMEMBER IT! (you may remember this point from 3 seconds ago)
2. All the extra excitement is more likely to elicit a negative reaction from your child than a positive one.
3. It's expensive, yo, and they won't remember it...which I've already said.
4. Do you REALLY know what they like/don't like? Just because they laughed at a clown one time does not mean that you have a clown-loving baby.  It just means that they laughed at a clown once. For shame.
5. The child in 99% of situations likes the box more that the gift.  Likely, all your effort and planning will be in vain because of all the craziness at your party, the box that the statuesque cake arrived in will be far more interesting to your tot than your planned event.

These parties are fodder for picture albums and Facebook, much more as bragging right of parents that as fun events for babies.  Think about that.  Your baby would rather spend some quality time with its parents doing something together as a family.  Can there be cake? Sure!  Should you hire a magician? No. Peek-a-boo still works wonders.

Anyway, back to Sam's 6-month Solid Food 1/2 Wild and Crazy Birthday Extravaganza! (please note the sarcastic tone used) We put Sam in his Bumbo chair with the little tray, and mixed up some baby rice cereal with some mother's milk until it was quite runny, and then he tried it.  He was most interested in chewing on the spoon (gotta love teething), chewing on his seat buckle, and taking the spoon from me. However, he did open up his mouth for food, and he ate a little.  Over the past week and a half, he has begun to eat more, and at a thicker consistency, but he does manage to wear most of it :)  We will remember this 1/2 birthday milestone, and though Sam will not, he will at least continue to hone the useful life skill of eating "solid" food from a spoon.