He's got sole but he's not a soldier

These days, I am really enjoying one of those so-mundane-it-puts-the-rest-of-the-world-to-sleep, but-I'm-his-mom-and-I-love-it things: Liam learning to eat. He's already good at shoving things in his mouth - what I mean is him eating real grown-up food, discovering new things that he loves, things that he will still be eating 20 or 50 or 100 years from now (God willing). I find it hilarious to see him munching on a bagel or a piece of cheese or green peas (and every time he does, I quote Seinfeld: "He eats his peas one at a time!!" - a reason Jerry once used to dump someone), looking as if he has always eaten this way, and sometimes I need to pinch myself to remember the six months he spent on an all-liquid diet. We are now trying to move past the purees and get him onto as much regular family food as possible. On Monday night I made one of my all-time favourite dinners, a fish fry, and I left a piece of sole unbreaded for him and then watched with delight as he gobbled it up (and no, I did not let him actually accompany it with the tartar sauce, though I'm sure KFC Gravy Mom would have).

I'm also trying to get him more onto regular foods because on the weekend I cut him down to 3 nursing sessions per day. This is in anticipation of soon returning to work. I know a year sounds like an awfully long time to be away from the office, but it certainly doesn't feel like it, and I think I know why. You might get a year off, but there are just so freaking many constant reminders that the year won't last forever. You see people drop out of playgroup one by one, you start calling around for daycare at six months, you slowly start weaning at nine months, and everything just points to the day when you will no longer be together with your little munchkin. If you could block out all thoughts, I mean all of them, of returning back to work until the night before it happened... I think the year would pass in a much more leisurely manner.

And speaking of leisure... as of Monday he had another new tooth, his 8th, so that's it: we're on a Teething Break. I hope. He grew all 8 teeth inside of a month: surely he deserves a rest now.