October Food Photos

I recently wrote about the different foods to which Smiley has been introduced. Here are some photographs!


At the beginning of October the only food Smiley really knew was rice cereal. He would teethe on carrots or apples but did not break their skin. He also enjoyed chewing on basil leaves, but we did not let him try to swallow those.


That same day, in early October, he shows off holding his own bottle. He rarely does this now. Once he became proficient at crawling then exploring and playing are much more fun than drinking. Most of his drinking these days is when he is very tired, before going to sleep. Instead of spreading out six ounces during an awake period he waits until bedtime and then drinks himself into unconsciousness.


Injera was his second solid food, after the rice cereal. He loves it (as do most people). In little pieces it works as finger food. Pressed through the food meal it mixes well with anything; later, when combined with vegetables, it lowers the overall fiber percentage to help vegetables be digestible. In this picture he is eating it for the first time using his mesh bag. These days he can empty a bag full of it a few minutes.


Almost three weeks later and that mixture or rice cereal and injera is still a regular food. When we cook Indian food, we tend to use it for half our dinners for several weeks. This happens because injera takes three days to prepare, and the main dishes we eat with injera never turn out to have three days worth of quantity. So we need to make more injera to finish off the main dishes, and then we need to make more main dishes to finish off the injera...


Here is a piece of injera we cooked, before we rip it into pieces to fill his mesh bag.


Only once did we let him take his mesh bag into the living room. Drooly injera crumbs got all over. Now his mesh bag is strictly for in the high chair, which serves admirably to keep him busy while his parents eat their meal.


In this photograph you can see his high chair, which was a gift from his great-grandmother. Instead of being beside our dining room table it is next to a table on which we're coring and dehydrating apples from our apple tree. You can see the pyrex bowl with a mixture of broccoli (through the food mill) and rice cereal, and his bottle beside it.


Ever since he started eating solid food he would eat a few bites and then want to drink a swallow or two to help wash down the solid food.



Broccoli is yummy. But then, so is everything so far. (But we were not cruel, and when it was time for onions or garlic they went into injera or applesauce and were not served plain.)


Face wiping is the worst part of meal time, no matter what is on the menu.


Dal is about the most boring food ever. But Smiley does not know that.


Red lentils and rice cereal. And a really cute baby.


It is not 100% safe to let him play with newspaper, but we do when he is supervised so we would notice if he somehow made a paper mache choking hazard. Newspaper makes a great treat for a car ride if one parent sits beside him.


Even today he only is able to pick up and put in his mouth one piece of rice out of a dozen. But trying keeps him entertained and is beneficial small motor muscle practice.


Rice cake is easier in his mesh bag. Since it can be served in seconds, it is a useful treat when he is not interested in his ExerSaucer but I need to empty the dishwasher, fold clothes, etc.


Beets are about the messiest food ever. We grow white and yellow beets in our garden, which have a more mellow and pleasant flavor. Smiley did not get any of those.