Another Big Day of Firsts!

Today was a very big day for Aaron. We gave him solids for the first time - rice cereal mixed with formula. I'm actually very surprised how well he did with it. At first he kind of left it on his tongue, not really sure what to do with it. Eventually, though, the cereal made its way to the back of his throat and he was forced to swallow. He figured out that he really kind of liked it so the next time I came at him with the spoon, he opened his mouth right away to take in more. I was so proud of him! We gave the cereal to him three times today after he had drank all of the formula that he was willing to drink. We knew that he was really ready for solids because recently he seems to have been bored with just formula. At first I thought he was just losing his appetite for some reason (being sick possibly) because he would push the bottle away after only about four ounces. But then we noticed that he was extremely interested in what we were eating and drinking, so we could tell he wanted to try something new and possibly more substantial and filling. It worked like a charm because he seems more content now after meals, so we'll try this for a while then introduce some veggies.

We also brushed his two little teeth today for the first time with training toothpaste (Gerber calls it Tooth & Gum Cleanser. Whatever.). It has no fluoride or saccharin in it. You know, all the things that are in adult toothpastes that I didn't know were bad for babies until I started to look into infant dental care. He seems to enjoy the teeth-brushing as well, but I'm pretty sure that is due to the apple-banana flavor of the toothpaste. Whatever works!

Finally, we bought Aaron an exersaucer for an early Christmas present. Actually, it was mostly a present for Mommy and Daddy because we have noticed that Aaron is starting to get bored lying on the floor while playing with his toys and he doesn't have the strength yet to sit up on his own for longer periods of time, which means we have to either be holding him or sitting with him on the floor or he gets mad. We bought the exersaucer so that he could sit/stand up with lots of support and have tons of stuff to play with (and maybe I can get some housework done!). There are mixed reviews so far about the exersaucer. He seems interested but only for a short while. I'm just hoping that it's the newness (is that a word?) of it all and he will start to like it more when he figures out all the toys.

I really hope that we didn't make a mistake trying all these new things out at once on Aaron. He seems to be doing O.K. with it all though and we'll see how he sleeps tonight. My only fear is that the combination of the cereal and toothpaste may upset his stomach so pray for us that he has a strong tummy!