A New Favorite Food: Gerber Lil' Crunchies, Zesty Tomato

Technically, this isn't my favorite food to eat but to watch getting eaten.

A couple weeks ago, we introduced our little one to the wonderful world of Cheerios. We tentatively fed him a single O. And for a boy that has no problem trying to put objects bigger than he is in his mouth (take my exercise ball, for example), he gave his now familiar skeptical-food-look with the lone Cheerio. He crinkled up his brow, and we waited to see what he would do. Well, chew, of course. We had success - the boy would eat Cheerios.

The we put some Cheerios down in front of him, and encouraged him to pick them up and eat them himself. Yeah, that didn't work out so well.

It took him a few eating sessions to realize how the whole setup works: we put the Cheerios in front of him, and then he's supposed to pick them up. Then there was the minor detail that his fine motor skills just weren't quite up to the challenge of getting those teensy Cheerios all the way to his mouth. He might manage to pickup a Cheerio, and then would end up gnawing on a part of his fist that was nowhere near the Cheerio itself. Yes, it was absolutely precious to watch.

One of his teachers at daycare suggested we try the Gerber Biter Biscuits. These are a hefty cookie that he could really go to town on. The bigger size definitely helped him get a handle on the food, and he started to show some control.

Shira then picked up a package of Lil' Crunchies. What an excellent find. They turn out to be big enough that he can grab on to them, but small enough that he can chew and swallow them with ease. (And they actually taste pretty good)

And tonight he showed off just how far he had come along. We dumped a bunch of crunchies on his tray, and he went to work. Holy Smokes! He was able to pick them up and munch away. Sure, there was crunchies in his hair when he was done - but heck, I tend to have food in my hair when I'm done eating. Who doesn't?

He also branched out and tried a few stalks of broccoli tonight. The shape was close enough to the crunchies that the same skills applied. And he gave his classic - now, what exactly are you feeding me? look. But, did manage to get a few pieces down.

Looking at our 6 month old grow it boggles my mind both the shear magnitude of what we need to learn as humans, and just how fast we learn it.

I'm humbled. And very much entertained.