Sweet Peas and Carrots

One milestone after another, you would think we were running a marathon! My sweet peas are growing up fast and are officially eating cereal and veggies. Here are pictures of Chase & Ella’s (affectionately known as “Chella”) first experience with carrots. Ella ate like a proper little girl and probably would have dabbed the corners of her mouth if she had a napkin within reach. Patient and pensive as always. Chase is more about the full experience- hands dirty, food everywhere and interested in eating anything that looks remotely interesting (like the colorful bib he was wearing). This is very much aligned with their personalities and they really couldn’t be more different.

That aside, this experience of “eating” for the first time must be quite odd and perplexing for these little ones. Think about it. Out of the blue the grown-ups they’ve come to love and trust begin holding a funny looking stick with mysterious matter in their face, while excitedly cheering with their mouth open wide in hopes that the babies will follow suit. Not only does this stuff NOT resemble food as they know it, but it doesn’t resemble ANYTHING familiar (except maybe the fill-in-the-blank vegetable that their big brother just spit out in protest). But it’s FUN and EXCITING and DON’T YOU WANT A BITE? And if they open their mouth just the slightest bit it is quickly filled with this foreign goop, sending their taste buds into overdrive (at which point they instinctively and immediately spit it out). How ironic that we start our lives having to be taught to enjoy eating only to spend our adulthood trying to retrain ourselves not to enjoy eating SO much.