Dinner Time

I’d like to start by saying that my husband used potato flour to lightly bread the fried shrimp last night and it was awesome.  Like fried shrimp and french fries together.  No, we don’t eat a lot of fried foods, but how can you live in the south and not enjoy a little fried shrimp and okra every now and then?  It’s do-able, but why?  For the record, I’ve never liked those fried foods that have more breading than item being fried.  Realizing I’m gluten intolerant several years ago just meant that I have another reason not to eat those things.  Gary’s cooking is better tasting, gluten free and probably a lot healthier. 

But glowing about my husband’s cooking skills isn’t my main point.  It’s the little man’s growing desire to do all that Mommy and Daddy do, especially as it pertains to dinner time.  I think I mentioned his growing disdain for sitting on the bouncy chair well out of vision range of top of the table dinner time activities.  It is this issue that led to the possibly terrible habit of having him sit on our laps at the dinner table.  I thought that once he was strong enough to sit in the high chair, that this would fix this problem. Not so much. 

This past week, we put him in the high chair and scooted him up close to the table right in between Gary and I.  It only works for a short time before the fussing and whining begins.  He wants to be on one of our laps.  We try and finish eating and tell him “no” firmly in the interim, but we’ve not been successful and I’m the one that caves.  I don’t want a loudly crying baby at the table and don’t want to reward him for crying by waiting until things devolve until that point.  I fear I’ve created a beast.

Tableside entitlement issues aside, Remy’s behavior from lap vantage at the dinner table is pretty interesting.   First lesson from Daddy Gary was how to hold, fold and crinkle the paper towels we use as napkins.  That’s right, The Big Crumpler is teaching The Little Crumpler to…CRUMPLE.  You would expect any different?

Then Remy started grabbing plates and bowls to see what happens when he moves and tips them.  Mommy and Daddy are obnoxiously preventing these heavy, breakable items from falling to the floor to see what kind of noise they make.  How dare we.  He’s learned that table mats can make these items easier to move around and that they make an interesting clink when they knock against each other.  Also is the grabbing for the multi-colored and multi-textured stuff that we have on these plates and bowls.  He’s getting pretty sneaky and quick with that move.  He doesn’t seem to have any interest in putting the food in his mouth yet.

So what about the glasses of water?  Remy intently observes our drinking water from glasses and insists on participation.  He grabs the glass on either side (with our help) and opens his mouth for us to tip the glass upward.  Thus far, the water just dribbles out of his mouth instead of being swallowed, but he gets a lot of enjoyment out of the process.  Such a big boy!

I presume that all this is preparation for eating real food down the road.  Our pediatrician says that introducing solids sometime around 4-6 months is fine, but it’s also fine to wait until after 6 months.  Remy is big and probably will take to solids well, but I don’t think he’s quite ready at 4 1/2 months.  Plus, I don’t want to push our luck with my history of food sensitivities and allergies.  We’ve begun to give him tastes of things by putting a little juice from the orange or apple we’re eating or the essence of squash soup on our fingers for him to suck on.  He likes those things. 

We’re thinking at least 5 months old before solids, but maybe all the way to 6 months.  We’ll see what my instincts tell me and go with that.  I’m not sold on having to introduce rice cereal first, but that’s another blog post.  This one is long enough.  Doctor says it’s for the iron supplementation.  She’s already suggested Vitamin D supplements, which we’re foregoing and trying to get him in the sunlight enough.  What’s enough?  I don’t know…I just don’t want to supplement breast milk.  There’s something weird about supplementing the perfect food no matter what the medical community says.  Call me a renegade or call it mother’s instincts, but Remy’s dinner time is still a simple liquid diet for now. 

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