Milo had his six month doctor's appointment last week which was a week after he turned six months but that's just how I roll now. Although some doctors suggest starting baby food as young as four months almost all of them suggest it with certainty at six months. Oh, sigh, the dreaded baby food. I worked myself up so much over Ben's refusal to eat baby food and anything else until well into his second year of life that I am still rather traumatized by it. I actually barely fed Tessa any baby food at all besides the pouch ones that older kids can inhale on their own (she still likes them) and instead just gave her very tiny pieces of regular soft food to start with. But, Milo deserves the chance to decide for himself I guess, so I bought a few little cubes of Gerber (which according to some parents is non-organic poison and why wouldn't I just make my own? OK...sure...) sweet potatoes and carrots and a box of rice cereal (which was recently under fire for containing arsenic I guess? When it comes to feeding kids a person just can't win!)
As soon as I mixed up a tiny quantity of the cereal the smell of it brought all of spoon feeding memories back to me. Yucky for me. Milo had a captive audience bringing him toys and yelling in his face as he ate which is how he experiences everything so I guess it was probably best to have him eat in his normal environment.
I almost didn't include this picture because my arm (yes, that is my female arm) looks like a man's arm but I thought it would be a good chance to mock myself. Nice job, Man Arms!
When Milo had his appointment, I also scheduled Ben's 4 year appointment. After many months and years of me fixating on his slow weight gain and low percentile on the growth charts he is now thoroughly average and in the 50th percentile for height and 35th for weight. One less thing for me to worry about, I guess! I remember asking the doctor, in desperation, when it would be a good thing for a child to be below average for weight in this childhood obesity prone world that we live in. I was just exhausted from hearing people, usually strangers I encountered in public, shriek, "He's TINY! What a PEANUT! He doesn't have any ROLLS!" because everyone knows that "chubby babies are the cutest!" and then comparing him to their grandchild, child, nephew or whichever robust and chubby baby they had in their lives. She said around age five and now that day is soon to be here! Milo is small just like Ben was but now I don't care. He is who he is! And if he decides he doesn't like those nasty purees I won't force the issue!
The appointment took an unexpected turn at the end when it was time for Milo's shots. I was asked if I wanted Ben to have his Kindergarten shots. I reminded them that he won't be in Kindergarten until 2017 but they said he could still have them and then he wouldn't need any shots until he is 11 years old. I agreed. Let me tell you...he was not happy about this! The poor guy had no idea what coming and he screamed accordingly! Then he continued to scream all they way out to the car. He said, "I don't like the doctor anymore waaaaaaaah!" No sticker or temporary tattoo or mini bag of teddy grahams could distract him. I felt bad and still feel bad for my betrayal but now we don't have to worry about it for seven years so that's good.
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