Avocados & Art

Last night ZJ had her first taste of a whole food: avocado and it was a big hit! We got her set up in the Bumbo chair and pulled her up to the table. Blinn and I sat side by side and I cut up some avocado slices for the two of us as ZJ watched. Together he and I tasted the food, making a bigger deal out of it than necessary in an attempt to get ZJ interested. She didn't seem to care. The next step was to put some in a tiny bowl, mash it up well and put it on a spoon. Here's her first taste of something other than a liquid... and her first time with a spoon in her mouth.

In several of the books I read, it was suggested to introduce your babe to foods by putting it on your finger, rather than a spoon. For some reason though, I forgot that tidbit and how great I thought it was and I instinctively stuck plastic in her mouth. Oh well, can't redo it. Here's Papa trying it with his finger.

And after a few more tries by finger-feeding and spoon-feeding, I gave Roo the spoon to explore things for herself. As you can see, she was a fan!

As I mentioned in my previous post, the transition to solid foods has been hard for me and somewhat emotional. I was surprised by how much I felt the need to have control over every step of the process. Trying to be helpful, Blinn suggested that he make a run to the store the other night to pick up fruit and cereal and I vetoed the idea (kindly). I needed to walk into the store, pick things out, pay for them and then be the one to make the bottle with the cereal in it, cut up the avocado. Its like a rite of passage for Roo and I. I needed to do it all myself.

I think I'll learn to like, maybe even love, this new chapter of life with our girl. I can see it now: food flung around the room, stains in clothes, chunks of stuff in her hair, crumbs everywhere. Bring it on, I say! These next few months are gonna be great!

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After dinner we headed to The Toledo Museum of Art to take advantage of their open-late-free-on-Friday-nights dealie and it was a great night out with the fam. There's currently a pretty sweet visiting exhibit, "The Psychedelic 60's: Posters from the Rock Era" which proved to be a fantastic first taste of art for Baby Girl. She liked looking at all of the bright colors, large images and especially the room where all the posters were illuminated by black lights. As we perused the collection I took the opportunity to teach her a little bit about Woodstock, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles (which she's already a fan of, thanks to her daddy), Aretha Franklin, and Jefferson Airplane just to name a few bands. Blinn I took extra time to check out the wall full of posters protesting the war and drempt about what we might have been like, had we lived through that time. There was one poster that read "Peace for all time." Simple enough, right? Guess not, since we currently find ourselves (still) in another war.

At the of the night we took Roo out of the stroller and wandered around the museum's Glass Pavilion. Every time I'm there I find something new to be in awe of. This time it was a ginormous, glass punch bowl with matching glasses and an equally ginormous table that they were most likely displayed on back at the 1904 World's Fair. Beautiful, breath-taking, and totally unrealistic. Roo seemed to like this piece as Blinn got her up close and personal and let her touch it. As Blinn (and Seth Aldridge who was with us for the night) looked at a few last pieces I stood in the hallway swaying my girl back and forth, back and forth singing in her ear. It was a weird medley of Iron and Wine meets Indigo Girls meets Patty Griffin meets Eva Cassidy, but it did the trick. She nuzzled in so close and tight and flirted with sleep. She's currently quite fond of grabbing at a chunk of my hair, pulling it to her face and just holding it there as though a blanket to comfort her. Yeah, it hurts a little, but I sorta love it. She's also been exploring my face with her hands and her touch is often so gentle and sweet and when we make oh-so-close eye contact, its precious. My love is growing up. I can hardly stand it.