If you’ve been paying attention, then you’ll have noticed something: the boy keeps getting bigger. I’m serious. When he popped out — with some pushing on my part, and yes, I’d still like credit — he was a scrawny wee little guy with spindly legs and bug eyes. We feared we would break him if we blew our noses too hard in his presence. Tiny little Baby Jackson.
And now: he’s chunky McChunkerson from Chunkersville. His thighs are roly-poly and he has a pudgy little belly … when we kiss it, he giggles.
How did he get this way? Genetics. And food. Lots and lots of food. After the four month doctor’s visit, and at the suggestion of daycare, we started giving the kid cereal — you’ve seen the photos, we’re in the “eat it and wear it” phase. That was going along swimmingly until daycare said, you know, he still seems hungry after eating his cereal, perhaps he’s ready for solid food. We said, okay, you know more about babies and development than we do, we’ll make him some food. We went to Whole Foods, we purchased one (1) sweet potato (if he hated it, we weren’t too keen on being stuck with a big bag of them), we read up how to cook it – very easy, nuke for 3 minutes, flip, nuke for 3 minutes, let sit 5 minutes, dig out the middle, blend and voilà! sweet delicious sweet potato puree. We did so, and the next day we sent our chunky monkey to day care with his milk, and a good half pound of pureed sweet potato. We thought, okay, perhaps he’ll eat part of it, he’ll probably have leftovers, and then he can eat some tomorrow.
When I went to pick him up, he was smiling and flailing his arms and legs up and down — this is pretty typical for “happy Jackson” behavior (if you want to see it for yourself, check out the video of Captain Flails-a-lot in action). I asked Carileen, his main provider, if he ate all the sweet potatoes. “Oh yes!” she says, in how many sittings I ask? “One,” she replies “he really liked them!” Let me get this straight: he goes from no solid food to eating a half pound of sweet potato at once!?! On the way home I purchased four (4) sweet potatoes and an avocado. The next day, he ate a whole sweet potato, and 1/2 an avocado “He loves the avocado,” says Carileen. Indeed, is there anything he doesn’t like? We’ve now tried:
- carrots (yep)
- spinach (yep)
- broccoli (yep)
- edamame (yep) and
- Cheerios (yep!)
So far, he’s liking everything, and it shows. The Very Hungry Jackson. As for that caterpillar? Let’s get real, slightly peckish at best.
The moral of this culinary adventure is that the boy is growing growing growing. His latest stats are:
- Weight 18 lbs 1 oz (50%)
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- 28 inches tall (75%) – clearly where all those sweet potatoes are going!
- Head 44 cm (50%)
The doc was very happy with him. All of his bits and parts checked out healthy. He’s alert, he entertains himself well, he can sit up unassisted – though one must watch out for “timber” followed by “bonk” followed by “indignant face” followed by “red-faced screaming” – he flails like a maniac and he’s just plain happy. She told us he was the first and only kid who’d smiled at her that day and she was running with it. The only time he got mad was when they got him with the four shots, but mostly it was one cry, and then he was over it, and back to flailing. That’s our boy. When you’re happy and you know it, flail your arms and scarf down veggies!
For more photos, see the gallery at: AJ’s 7 month doctor’s appointment
