Ding! Ding! Dinner Time!

Paxton is feeling a lot better. I ended up having to take him to the doctor after his temperature was elevated for three straight days, despite the Tylenol and Motrin. When I took his temperature on Friday afternoon, it was 102.9. I called his doctor and they recommended that I bring him in. The pediatrician was very reassuring. He told me that Pax's lungs and ears both seemed to be fine, meaning that we caught this in the early stages. He said it was a virus and we just needed to ride it out. He also said that the old wives tale that babies get temperatures when they are teething comes from the fact that when they are teething, they are more apt to put anything and everything in their mouths, thus leading to them acquiring more germs than normal. Interesting stuff. I had no idea.

What was so terribly sweet was that even though Paxton clearly felt like poo, he was such a trouper about the whole thing. He works that new smile of his like a pack mule. The eyes squint. The bottom teeth flash. There's no real heart and soul in it. It's more like a cheese move you do when the camera is pointed at you. It's awesome. I adore it. Anyway, I am so impressed that his "bad days" are like many kids "normal days". He's a pretty happy little dude and it's sweet to see that that perseveres even when he's rocking a fever of 102. I don't know where he gets his good attitude. Not from his fiery -tempered mommy, that's for sure. From me, he gets his tendency to scream when his ball rolls out of his reach.

Okay, so on a different note, I am entering a new phase of baby feeding that is bringing me undue tension. When I took Paxton to the pediatrician for his six-month well-check, they asked me if he was feeding himself yet. Uh...what? He had barely started to eat solids. Yes, he was a pro at trying to wrestle the spoon out of my hand and he often shoved it into his mouth himself, but I think that was less about feeding himself and more about chewing on something that I was trying to keep from him. Still, the seemingly innocent question made me worry that maybe I was doing something wrong. I mean, it was terrifying enough for me to introduce solid foods to him at all. Breastfeeding was going so well, and I was relatively confident that I was doing everything right in that department. I mean, yes, I still drink caffiene and I take antidepressants, but I think that the risk that presents to him is less than it would be if I was without those two things.

I got over my terror of him having a deadly allergy attack from the solids I introduced. It took a couple of months, but I think I'm relaxed in that area now. But without intervention, I think that I would probably still be spoon feeding him pureed fruits and veggies when he's three. I didn't understand how I could introduce things that he's expected to chew when he only has two teeth. I guess, upon further inspection, he mashes these soft things with his gums. I started with Baby Mum-Mums, which claim to dissolve in the baby's mouth. Then I let him have an organic teething biscuit, which he wasn't too into, even though it smelled for all the world like a cookie to me. I gave him some organic cheerio-type cereal, and he was not interested. I gave him banana pieces, but he would only eat it if I inserted it into his mouth, even though dozens of pieces were right there at his fingertips on his high chair tray and he seems to want to stick everything else in his mouth. Last week, I tried some avocado. He was a little gunshy since I had given him the dreaded Tylenol earlier, so he sealed his mouth shut and turned his face away. I sweet-talked him, though, and he succumbed. Again, though, he would only eat it if I fed it to him on a spoon. Drat! Today, I offered him pieces of tofu, rolled in cereal crumbs. Was he curious enough to feed it to himself? Uh, no. But he liked it when I fed it to him. I guess that's a start. I just hope I don't have to go with him to high school to feed him his lunch.