Stew, Deconstructed

I, like many other new mothers of my generation, put probably entirely too much thought into what my firstborn's first solid food would be.  Back in our parents' day it was easy- you gave 'em rice cereal because that's just what you did.  But these days what's CCC is that pretty much anything you can dream up (except for honey and obvious choking hazards) is 100% acceptable as a First Solid.  Heck, these days you even get to choose if you're going to start with purees or literal (soft) solids.  After much deliberation (actually none at all) I decided to more or less skip purees, because I didn't much see the point: he doesn't need the nutrition, per se- that's what the breast milk is for- so it doesn't really matter how much he swallows: it's more about the taste/texture/experience.  And it seemed to me like my experience would be a lot better if I wasn't constantly having to puree things.  Hence I decided that Neeps would eat whatever we eat.  Just maybe cooked a little longer.

That decided, I turned my thoughts to, "Yes but what?"  At first I was thinking avocado, because avocados are awesome and buying one for Neeps meant that I would get to eat about 90% of an avocado, and that just seems like good planning on my part.  But then I started considering other foods- maybe some broccoli?  Sweet potato?  Something seasonal picked fresh from the local Farmer's Market like a good little hipster?

In the end there was nothing appropriate at the Farmer's Market (asparagus, while delicious, has side-effects I just didn't want to deal with), and so we didn't start solids over the weekend as I'd intended.  And I felt myself beginning to flounder.  Ah but then!  Then Nathan made us the most delicious Irish Stew, and I realized that stewed meats and veggies were the perfect texture for baby's-first-nomming.

Thus did I give my son a variety to choose from:

Mmm, paleo.

The white-fleshed sweet potato was immediately knocked to the floor (much to Isis's ecstatic delight), and then the hunk of beef was enthusiastically grabbed for an intensive gnawing session.  He also waved it about a bit without dropping it, much to Isis's agonized despair (it was an evening of extremes for Pig).  Once Neep tired of that exciting new experience (which we got video but no photos of) he moved on to the mushroom, which created a nice sort of handle for a baby-sized fist to grip.

Hmm, interesting texture here.

That resulted in much sucking and slurping and gumming, until he got tired of it and moved on to the carrot.  I was a little surprised when he took an actual bite of it, chewed it up, and then swallowed.  I wasn't expecting any swallowing for this first adventure!  I was ludicrously proud of that little accomplishment, and the fact that he later spat it back up onto his father's pants did not diminish my pride in the slightest.

Pig is Ever Hopeful.

Needless to say, Isis is 100% on-board with our decision to feed Neeps this way, and has made it clear that she will make the sacrifice and act as our cleanup crew.  Noble Pig.