Where's the Beef?

This past week we started Tirzah on baby cereal. Little lady loves to eat, and the Doctor said she is pretty much eating all the formula one baby should be eating, and should move on to something a little more substantial that will scale back the formula-consumption just a bit. Seriously, we know those cheeks or hers aren't fooling anyone. ;) I have people tell me, literally everywhere I go, that they can tell I'm feeding her well. I decide to take it as a compliment. I can whip up a mean bottle-of-formula. ;)

I was thinking *piece of cake*. Merrick loved when we started feeding him cereal. First bite and he was hooked. He even grabbed the spoon and tried to put it in his own mouth, no kidding. Baby food green beans? Not a problem. Baby food beef? Yes, the kind that smells like cat food? He downed jars of that stuff. That kid ate everything I put in his mouth. And a few things I'd rather him not, like shopping cart handles and shoes, but we'll not get into that. :)

I was expecting, naively so, that Tirzah would handle it the same way. Oh, silly me...
She screamed. She gagged. She spit it back out at me. She turned beet red. She screamed some more. I called my mom.

She laughed when I told her my story of the crazy baby who wouldn't eat cereal. What was wrong with this kid? It turns out I think the more appropriate question is what is wrong with Merrick. :) Mom said all of her kids did the gagging/spitting/beet red/more screaming routine too. I just assumed kids liked this stuff. Like I said, silly me. During all this hysteria and flying cereal Merrick was calmly *yes, I did say calmly* playing with his toys on the table. *And yes, he plays on the table occasionally...but I try to pretend I don't see that. ;)* I think he was probably wondering what on earth is wrong with the women in this house, and if he could get some more of that great beef stuff in the jar. *gagging*

Finally we gave up on the cereal for the day...mostly because Tirzah's last ditch avoidance ploy was falling asleep in the middle of her breakfast. I am happy to report, however, that after days of practicing, and sneaking bites into her mouth around her bottle, she has decided that maybe this cereal stuff isn't so bad. I'm not looking forward to how my connoisseur of baby food handles green beans. Pretty sure we'll just skip the beef.