4 months

Holy Moses! It almost snuck up on me. This week Charlie is four months old! He's learned a bevy of new tricks, none of which I have been the first to see. Dad has, to date, been the first to see him smile, hear him laugh and last night, witness him roll over from front to back. Oh well, I guess it makes up for the fact that Daddy doesn't lactate! His status now as a 4 month old means lots of people will be asking "Have you started him on solid foods yet?" *Enormous sigh* No, Charlie hasn't started solids and I'm not sure even now if we are quite ready. Once, when he was about 9 weeks old, in a moment of weakness, I tried giving him rice cereal. It didn't help him sleep any better and we gave it up. He pushed more of it out of his mouth than he swallowed, so clearly he was not ready. There's a ton of information out about why starting solids too early is a bad thing, but what's too early? I read a cereal box that said if your baby is a 'supported sitter' and leans into the spoon with an open mouth, he might be ready. Really? Have you seen this kid? He leans into everything with an open mouth. Just last night he was grabbing fist fulls of Dad's hair and putting it in his mouth (see exhibit A). I'm not sure that's a good indicator. I read somewhere else, to wait until your baby 'shows interest'. What constitutes interest? When we eat, Charlie watches us like a starving mutt. Does that qualify as 'interest'? I don't know. Micha cannot wait to start feeding Charlie solids. In fact, he gives Charlie little finger dabs of whatever he might be eating to see what faces he makes. I want to say, "Don't be in such a big hurry. He'll be big enough for that before you know it and then you'll wonder where the time went." I don't say it though, because this is his first and he has to figure it out the same way everyone else does, by winging it and praying that the therapy won't be too expensive.

Exhibit A