Patrick and Food

So it turns out that Patrick really likes eating. I've started thoroughly enjoying feeding him. He's not terribly fond of the rice cereal anymore now that he has started fruits, but he will still eat it. I think his favorite food right now is bananas. We've been feeding him that for a couple of weeks now, trading off rice cereal with it (that's cheaper), and he eats the bananas much better, opening his mouth wider and faster for it than the cereal. Yesterday we started him on pears too. It was the funniest thing watching him take his first bite of pears. They look a lot like bananas, so I'm sure that's what he was expecting. When the pears didn't taste like bananas, he looked surprised and refused to open his mouth for another bite for several minutes. After deciding pears weren't so bad after all, he started really liking them. I think he likes them about as much as bananas. He is probably just over twelve pounds and can already eat an entire jar (actually plastic container) of fruit and sometimes some cereal too, and that's just after draining me. Matt and I are thinking he must have gotten my metabolism; he burns the calories as he eats them. Otherwise, I don't know how he could possibly fit all that into his tiny belly.

Breastfeeding has also started to get more enjoyable. In the last few months, Patrick has figured out his part much better, so I have to do less to position him and keep him there eating. The new holding position we tried awhile back is much better too. I've managed to position him so that his head is still higher than his belly, countering the acid reflux, while still cuddling with him. Sometimes when he won't relax any other way, feeding him like this can relax him enough to doze off. That was a great strategy during some of the worst hours of teething the other day.

Another story, completely unrelated to eating: Patrick has started cooing much of the time when he's not crying or eating. He's figured out that all the extra drool from teething can have a purpose other than moisturizing his chin. He'll make a sound like "Aah-pthoooo," spitting that second syllable. He can change the emphasis too, sounding excited or content or upset or even comforting. Earlier today he was imitating me as I made the sound to him, and I think he liked that game. The funniest was when I put him down for a nap a few minutes ago, though. I played Gloworm for him, as usual, and he immediately turned his head toward Gloworm when he heard him, looked at him lovingly, reached his hand over to start caressing his face, and cooed at him. These were the content/comforting coos. When Gloworm finished his song, Patrick would look back up at me and get excited again until I played Gloworm again. Then he'd coo through another song. He did that until I left, leaving Gloworm silent. Maybe he'll coo that lovingly to me later.

Here's another picture of Patrick trying to eat his fingers. As my mom commented on the last finger-eating picture, he actually does try to see how many fingers will fit into his mouth at once. I've seen him try for the whole fist, but his favorite is stuffing the fingers from one or both hands into his mouth. He didn't quite fit the second hand in this time, but that doesn't mean he wasn't trying!