Our first stop was Whole Foods. They are one of the largest natural food store chains in the country, so they were bound to have something. I ran inside, quickly scanned the produce department, and left the store empty handed. (It was 9pm, and Axel, AND Patrick, were sleeping in the car.) This was failure number one.
The next day we decided to try again, once again, at 9 o’clock at night. This time we tried Central Market. Still no fruit in our baskets. This was beginning to get frustrating.
On our way home from Central Market, Patrick suggested we stop by Whole Foods again, to see if they had stocked any more organic produce. I went inside alone, and went through the usual routine of searching through the produce department. Look, find, pick up, smell, put back. Ugh. I kept going back to this batch of bartlett pears. They looked okay enough, but they were no where near ripe. After finding absolutely nothing else, I decided on one of the pears. I figured it had a good chance of ripening within the next few days, and it couldn’t hurt to try it. (Besides putting a little nick in my wallet. $4.00 per pound, are you kidding?!) By this time, the guys restocking the fruit were beginning to give me weird looks, so I quickly paid for the fruit, and high tailed it out of there. We drove home, and then the waiting game began.
Fast forward two days, and our beautiful pear had ripened. It smelled lovely, and tasted even better. This was going to be the greatest first food experience of all time… Or not.
I made the mistake of listening to people who say to breastfeed each time before feeding any solid food to ensure that your baby doesn’t miss any vital nutrients. I should have known better, though, considering Patrick and I are strong believers in eating fruit on an empty stomach. After a few little tastes of the pear, Axel was vomitting milk everywhere. It was heartbreaking. It just didn’t mix with the milk too nicely. The sad part is that it’s all on video tape. The even sadder part is that I can’t upload it onto this blog. 
It didn’t end there, though. We couldn’t waste that juicy pear, so we let the remaining contents of Axel’s tummy settle and digest for a while. Once an hour or so had passed, we tried again. (The torture that first children go through!) We handed Axel the pear, and just let him at it. He made some pretty questionable expressions, I have to say, but we just watched him closely and let him experiment. He gagged a few times, but nothing like the first time. I think it was just because he wasn’t used to the sensation of solid food going down his throat. He definitely liked it, though, because he kept grabbing it back from his daddy, and knawing on it.
So, overall, it went really well. I’ll admit, we could have definitely done without the puking during the first round, but the second take made up for it. (Although, I’m not sure that Axel would say that, but I think he would.) I could tell that his brain was forming all kinds of new thoughts and ideas about the world, and that was the neatest thing to witness.
Patrick and I are so excited to be a part of this amazing little human’s life. We just can’t wait to see what amazing thing he’ll get to do next.
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First Food (7 months old)
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Thanks very much for sharing this interesting post. I am just starting up my own blog and this has given me inspiration to what I can achieve.
Thanks! I’m just starting out, as well. Good luck with your blog!