August 28, 2008

Babies are Weird

The half-year old, who is now 7 1/2 months wiser than the day he was born, was introduced to Cheerios yesterday. It was one of those, your-baby-food-is-defrosting-and-you're-hungry-NOW moments. I placed a Cheerio in his mouth. With minimal gagging and sputtering, the sport of Cheerio eating had begun.

Later in the evening, I, in a moment of wild freedom, snuck (yes, my spell-check insists on "sneaked", but as I am human, and my spell checker is not, "snuck" remains) out the door, childless, into the wide world to buy cheese. While I was gone, Husband coached half-year old and the art was perfected. Half-year old now ranks in the "professional" category for Cheerio eaters... as far as chewing and swallowing go.

Getting the Cheerio into his mouth on his own is another matter. He picks Cheerios off his tray with ease. And stares at them. And tosses them between his fingers. And forgets about them. Not so with leaves, airsoft bb's, bugs, and other bits of foreign matter he finds hiding in the carpet. If there's a tiny dead beetle 20 feet away from half-year old, he pinpoints its location instantly (How... smell? Sonar?), makes a beeline for the nasty creature, picks it up in one fell swoop, and slaps it in his mouth without any hesitation. And yet, he can't pick a cheerio up from his tray and get it to its destination. Maybe I need to smush cheerios and leave them strewn about the carpet.

As my mother-in-law aptly pointed out over skype, half-year old just might fit in well in rural Kenya. Ants over Cheerios any day.

3 comments:

seb and jesse said...

so funny! maybe sprinkle some beetle parts in with the cheerios, see if that helps!

The Farmer Files said...

And I thought...no no no...she did not go buy cheese with him still in the high chair...until I kept reading! LOL! Post pictures!

Anonymous said...

My mom tells the story of when I was around 1 & she was talking to my grandmother on the phone. Apparently, I shared the love of things ground into the carpet with your half-year-old. I had taken a whole box of Cheerios & coated the carpet with them & proceeded to stomp & grind them into the carpet. I've never been a fan of Cheerios since. I suppose even at 1 I thought them to be a little too cardboard-like.

Thanks for sharing that story. Very, very well-written!!