Waste Not

While I have always had my doubts, it has been recently been confirmed that my husband was born during the Great Depression.  He may only be 33, but he displays so many characteristics of my grandma, who survived the Depression, that it has to be the case that he lived through it.  I mean, I turned a blind eye when he refused to throw out fast food soft drinks until they were empty and I looked past the fact that he has Neosporin that expired in 1999.  Given his history, I should have known that starting Karter on solids would bring out the Great Depressionist in Mark. 

Karter just doesn't like baby food.  For the last 5 months, I have looked forward to the day I could start him on solids.  Not because I want him to sleep at night (because honestly, nothing will make that happen!) but because it was another big milestone that I felt took him from newborn to infant. I really wanted to wait 6 months until starting him on solids, but he showed signs that he was ready before that and the doctor encouraged it (and yes, I did plenty of research and used my own judgement as to when I wanted to start him.)

We started with rice cereal at 4.5 months and after a week he had had enough so we stopped trying.  Last week we started again, but this time we tried butternut squash-which, might I add, we grew in our garden and I Baby Bulleted up.  Lo and behold, Karter hates it.  He eats just enough to make his diapers disgusting (especially since we are using cloth) but not enough to make the squash in his bowl disappear...and we're talking like a tablespoon here.

This is where the trouble lies.  Mark wants him to eat it all.  I have tried telling Mark that Karter doesn't understand the concept of eating what's on your plate, but Mark seems to think this is something Karter should learn early on.  Poor Mark, I think it genuinely tortures him to see leftover squash in the bowl.  So what does Mark do?  He has been finishing Karter's leftover baby food.  It's a sickness, I tell you.  He came home yesterday after work and I had already fed Karter and his first question was "Did you eat the leftover squash?"  I think he could tell by the look on my face that the answer was a "no."

I realize now that perhaps starting Karter on solids isn't quite the milestone I imagined it to be.  There's a good chance that after we finish off this batch of butternut squash, I may wait until he understands the concept of "waste not, want not" to make more baby food...or find Mark a support group for "Father's Whose Babies Don't Eat All Their Baby Food."