Please Mom, can I have some more...

I was in no hurry to start baby food with Calvin.  As I repeated our family motto, "I don't know any 15 year old who can't'"... fill in the blanks - eat, walk, crawl, sleep by themselves, etc., I knew he would eat eventually.  So I didn't even start baby food until he was 5 months old.  The first month, I stirred up the baby oatmeal or rice and he would refuse it all.  Oh well, we tried.  By January, he was 6 months old and we moved on to Stage 1 baby food - peas and green beans.  You can't start with the fruit because then they will never eat their vegetables, right?  Ha, Laci loved her baby vegetables and now won't even put one on her plate let alone eat one!  Calvin didn't seem to be a fan of any of those either.  In February, we had the daycare start feeding him food at lunch.  Slowly but surely he started to eat.  At the end of March, he moved up to the next infant room (8 - 13 mon).  I remembered seeing the babies in there get snacks of goldfish, puffs, etc.  Calvin had never had "real" food.  All the other babies will laugh at him for not knowing how to eat!  So I quickly pulled out the puffs to see if he could eat.  Nope.  He had no desire.  After a few days in that room, his teacher commented that he wasn't a good eater.  Of course not.  He had never done it before.  Slowly but surely, he started eating real food.  I would put bits of toast on his high chair tray.  He worked so hard at picking up each piece to get it in his mouth.  When they disappeared, I would so impressed that he was eating so well until I picked him up and realized all the food was on his lap.  A few weeks ago, I realized that if I fed him the "real" food on a spoon, he did great!  So now I feed him his dinner but still leave him bits on the tray.  I always feel like I am feeding a bird.  But he eats.  And eats.  We use very little baby food now.  They are so convenient when we go out and compliment whatever we are eating so it is still nice to have around.  But it is hard to believe that just over a month ago, he had never had any "real" food and now that is almost all he eats.  Just another example of babies growing up too fast!