Maggie is a great eater. Just like a little birdy she opens her mouth after she swallows each bite. She's very neat too; mostly everything that's meant to go in her mouth actually does. And she fairly well understands that her high chair is an exciting culinary place to be.
This is all assuming, of course, that the food in question is orange. Boy, this kid's gonna have great eyesight. Carrots, squash, peaches -- these go down like beer at a Superbowl party. Pears, bananas, and apples are also hits. Sweets for the sweet, I guess.
Green stuff has been less successful. She did eat avocados, but it was obvious she wasn't happy about it. And when I tried the store-bought green beans, she would also eat those (this was before she'd tried peaches, carrots, pears, or apples). When I cooked green beans and pureed them for her (since the store-bought test was positive), she actually made herself gag on the second bite. So much for Momma's home cookin. (Going back to brand-name baby food has not remedied this, by the way. I guess she's been momentarily spoiled by all the sweeter fruity things.)
She's very interested in the eating thing now. The other day, after watching us wholly enjoy what we were eating at the table, she opened her mouth wide and looked at Bill expectantly. Unfortunately, we were eating popcorn and so she wasn't allowed any. That was a bit sad. But I think she'll be an adventurous eater when she has the opportunity to try whatever she wants. In the meantime, the act of feeding her "real" food is satisfying. It's as if it turns her from a completely dependent creature into an actual human. Which may sound terrible coming from her own mother, but there it is. At least I'm coming around.
