I couldn’t wait the 6 months. I went 6 days early. He’s been wanting solid food for so long, it’s a shocker we managed to get this far without him learning how to walk just so he can eat in the middle of the night while we’re not looking.

Last night we strapped him into the high chair and I set to pumping so I’d have something to mix the powder with. In the meantime, Eric gave him a cheese wheel to play with and I tried not to worry that he’d rip it open, eat all the cheese and be sick for a month.

This was the first time I’d pumped in a long time, and, as usual, it took nearly 20 minutes to get an ounce and a half. Ben couldn’t possibly be surviving on 3 oz of breast milk every 2 hours, so I’m convinced that pumps and I just don’t get along. So there, to all those advice givers who kept saying, “Huh. That doesn’t make any sense…maybe you should pump more oftttttten.”

I mixed 1 tablespoon of rice powder (the overflow landing all over the floor…the floor that Eric just finished vacuuming) and 4T of breast milk (I nearly typed BM but, to me, BM is bowel movement and I just can’t manage to change that in my head) in his brand new, mama-gave-me-for-Christmas Classic Pooh bowl. Eric got the video camera and the regular camera ready. Yes, we are those people.

And then he ate.

And he liked it. He kept going for quite a while before doing something I’ve never seen him do before. He refused to allow anything else to enter his mouth. He was full, done, finito, that is it. Shocker.

He got more into his mouth than on his bib and I was incredibly proud of him, not to mention giddy because I (being the selfish mom that I am) was really, really excited to get a spoon in that boy for a long time.

He’s such a big boy.