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August 14, 2008

Something New at the Barn

For her first 142 days of life, Alden's diet consisted of one thing and one thing only. Think about that for a moment. I mean, how awful. I have been feeling terribly guilty, feeling that it is my duty to expose my young daughter to the richness of life's bounty. I long to share such delights as Chipotle, ribs, and Procolino's pizza, but have been heretofore thwarted by the ironclad counsel of our pediatrician, who declared her immature digestive tract not yet up to the challenge of these exciting foods.

When we took Alden in for her four-month checkup, however, we were told that we could try introducing her to small amounts of rice cereal. We were cautioned that babies her age are not always able to figure out how to swallow. His advice was to give her a small bite to see if she knew what to do with it.

Robbi has been staying up all night this past week working on the illustrations for Volume 16. She is a madwoman who finds her purest artistic zone from the hours of 2am-6am. And so I have been taking care of Alden in the mornings while Robbi gets her sleep. When Alden started wailing the wail of the mortally famished around 9:00 yesterday morning, I felt pangs of pity for sleeping Robbi and decided that the time might be right to test Alden's readiness for the mysteries of rice cereal. Bob and Seiko happened to be visiting, and so we had a 3:1 adult-to-baby ratio working in our favor.

I mixed the rice cereal per the instructions on the box, Seiko manned the spoon, and Bob took it all in.

Seiko offered the first bite. We waited to see what would happen.

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The jury did not tarry long in making a decision. Alden liked it. She liked it a lot.

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Bite after bite, she liked the heck out of that rice cereal.

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Until finally, it was gone.

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In some ways Alden takes after me, in other ways, after Robbi. When it comes to eating, she is surely my child: enthusiastic, daring, and insatiable. She clutched the silver spoon expectantly, even after the bowl had been washed and returned to the cabinet.

Dr. Ramirez has told me that Alden's first Chipotle will have to wait until Alden has teeth, etc. This disappoints me, if only because I hate to think of her missing out on life's good things for so many more months. I will grudgingly oblige, if only because even in its thin, watery blandness, the rice cereal seems to bring her such genuine joy.

Posted by bogenamp at August 14, 2008 10:32 PM