We started Emily on single grain rice cereal this week. Her pediatrician thinks it is best to start at 4 months. The purpose is not so much to increase nutritional value to her diet, but to get her in the habit before it becomes a huge ordeal. Emily has been exclusively breastfed for four months so anything other than the breast is a big change for her. We are starting with one tablespoon of cereal about 20 minutes after her normal morning breastfeeding session. The cereal is not supposed to replace any breastmilk at this point so we aren't cutting out any feedings in it's place. And actually, the doctor has us mixing the cereal with breastmilk instead of water. I made a big deal out of her first bite of cereal, insisting that Ben be there to get it on video. Ben described it as very anti-climactic because he pointed out it is basically just slightly grainy breastmilk in a spoon and not much different. (To be fair, I really built up the whole thing quite a bit...) But considering Emily's aversion to breastmilk in a bottle, the fact that she takes anything from a spoon without fussing is beyond fantastic! So far so good. When I took Mella for her yearly check up, the vet said that I shouldn't be surprised if our very lean dog who is fed nothing but the regular amount of dog food starts to pack on weight out of nowhere. Apparently a lot of pet owners come in trying to figure out why their dog suddenly gained 5 lbs, until the vet discovers there is a small child in the house that has just started eating solid food. We never give Mella any people food and Mella is always inside with us so the vet warned me this could happen. After I fed Emily her cereal this morning Mella discovered that Emily's hands were covered in food. And then after she got everything from Emily's hand she realized there was some on her face too. I would have stopped it but it was making Emily laugh.