Walker is 0.5 (prounounced, “a HALF”) and that means he’s allowed to start solid foods. Everyone says you begin with “rice.” Given that we weren’t there yet, I never asked what “rice” really meant. I mean, there’s such a wide variety from the basic short grain white to the fancy-schmancy kind you get at Trader Joe’s. But this rice is more like a powdery meal that is mixed with milk, water or formula. It’s not exactly what I would call “rice” but hey, I’m no nutritionist (you’ll recall I used to eat spoons of chocolate icing as an after-school snack). On Sunday morning, when Walker was 26 weeks old, he got to eat his first solid food. And by solid, I mean, not 100% liquid but certainly something you could slurp up through a straw. Of course I’ve been eating for more than 38 years so by comparison to Walker, it’s solid.

This is a big deal. Not really for Walker but more for his parents. There was a family meeting to prepare for the big event. We had to discuss what time we were going to start feeding him; we had to read the directions for making the meal and we even put him in his high chair the day before so he would get used to it (we didn’t want him to get caught up in sitting in the chair and then not be interested in the food). The morning came and at 7:30 am on Sunday, December 23, Walker had his “rice.” Or perhaps, his rice had him (you can see from the photos that we did our best to get as much as we could into his mouth but we did get a bit messy). The one thing we didn’t think about in all of our very thorough planning was how much food would get all over him. We have all these wonderful bibs and we forgot to put one on him. That’s what laundry is for.

Monday and Tuesday was another day of eating and we increased the rice to milk ratio. We also remembered the bib. Again, Walker very much enjoyed the food. The aftermath was a bit more pronounced because the cereal was more viscous and able to stick to every crack and crevice of the little boy. Today Walker ate in a legless onsie so after his meal he had to take a morning bath. Each day he seems to take to eating a bit more. Periodically he sees the spoon coming and he opens his mouth (not wide but enough to sneak it in there) and he grabbed it a few times as well. Tomorrow we start green foods. Photos should be really fun then…

Walker’s 6 month stats: head is 43.5 cm (50th percentile), length is 26.5 in (50th percentile), weight is 18lbs 10oz (75th percentile).