More Organic Rice Cereal Please

My wife and baby came home after being away for over a month. I was afraid BabyG would treat me like a stranger. She didn’t. I could tell by how relaxed she felt in my arms that she knew me and remembered enough to think of me as part of herself, her little circle of projected me-ness. I still thought to myself, “We need to reconnect. I’ll put you in a sling. I’ll take a nap next to you at noon. I’ll sing you all the songs I’ve been singing to you since you were in the womb.” This evening after MaGreen went to pick up a rental movie BabyG started to cry. She seemed hungry so I mixed some expressed milk with organic rice cereal. We’ve tried to feed her rice cereal before, but she usually plays with it in her mouth for a few seconds before blowing the food out like she’s trying to make bubbles. This time she ate it. I had to mix an extra batch because she wanted more.

I feel like this could be the beginning in the shift from the strict, biologically-defined role of mother as the sole food giver to a more shared parenting, which I’ve been looking forward to for six months.