Baby Boyardee

Noah has been eating table foods for a little over a month now. Every time Josh and I would eat something, Noah just stared at us. Eventually, he started opening his mouth making it clear he wanted to taste whatever we were eating. So we started giving him table foods. I actually put off giving Noah table foods because one day, when he was around 9 months old, I gave him a Cheerio, and he choked on it. I literally almost had a panic attack. We continued to try different foods here and there, but most of the time the food would go straight to the back of his throat and he would gag, so I decided that he might not be ready for table foods just yet.

About a month ago, we tried again, and he has been learning to chew and doing so well. Our only problem is that, well, he does not want to feed himself. He will play and play with the food, but will not bring it to his mouth to eat it. He sits and waits with his mouth open wanting one of us to feed him. I'm starting to realize we should have been encouraging him to feed himself from the beginning. For the past week or so we have been placing the food in front of Noah to teach him to feed himself. As much of a mess and struggle it has been to get him to pick food up and put it in his mouth, it has paid off.

Tonight Noah fed himself for the first time! I gave him ravoli and he loved it! Of course he still wanted Mommy to feed him, but with encouragement, he brought the food to his mouth. I never realized how excited I could get watching Noah accomplish what seems like a simple thing, but I was clapping my hands and cheering like I won a million dollars. I'm so proud of my ravoli baby!

I guess it's a learning process for all of us!