My baby's through with eating like a baby

Well, it's officially over. The eating pureed foods, that is. At first, I was in denial that he could already be through that stage and that he was really growing up... but it's been a couple of weeks now... The last meal Nicholas ate well using a spoon was exactly 2 weeks ago, when we stayed for dinner at a friends house (thanks again Steve and Natasha!). For a week after, we tried the usual foods at every meal (baby cereal and pureed fruit for breakfast, and some form of combination of vegetables and meat, fruit, yogurt or cheese for lunch and dinner). These were always accompanied by some finger foods as he was developing an affinity towards them and really beginning to like to feed himself. These mainly were Cheerios, some well cooked vegetables (broccoli being one of his favorites), pieces of cheese, very ripe pieces of fruit, etc.

Well, within a couple of days of trying out these "new" foods and being able to feed himself, he started to completely refuse the spoon. As I said above, we tried at every meal for about a week, but the only things he would eat were the things he could feed himself. So, I eventually stopped trying. Now, he eats what we eat. Toast and fruit pieces for breakfast, left-overs for lunch, and whatever we have on the menu for dinner. His plate is nearly the same size as Christine's, just cut up smaller. And he eats by the fist-full!

It is much better in a lot of ways: I don't have to prepare something different for him, I don't have to puree some of the foods we're eating, I don't have a cupboard full of boxes of cereal and a few jars of food, I can start emptying the freezer of all the cubes of pureed food, I don't have to feed him before eating my cold food, the list goes on. BUT, it somewhat limits, for now, what we eat. I have to be careful things aren't too spicy or making dishes that contain too many things he hasn't tried yet. Definitely though, the rule of only introducing one food per 3-5 days is out the window. He had tried a bazillion things before this, so it's not really that bad, but it's still not perfect (he had pasta, onions, tomatoes and several spices for the first time one night and you know what: he survived!). I figure if he has a problem, the I'll avoid all of those things and just introduce one at a time later.

Last night, he even had his first real desert: a small piece of the gingerbread cake Christine and I had made for Trevor (using only egg yolks, of course).

Oh... my baby is growing up...