He Ate It, Mikey ... I Can't Believe He Ate It!

Its true! Ray has actually eaten something that is not pureed baby food! It was just soup, but it WASN'T BABY FOOD!

He actually seems to like soup quite a bit, except for the chunky parts. Hey, we're making progress though.

We've had a couple of random incidents where he'd bit a french fry, but spit out the pieces. He's swallowed a couple of bits, but not with any consistency. He's also eaten one or two goldfish crackers according to the ladies in the church nursery, but has never eaten one in front of us.

Then there was soup.

Our refrigerator has been on the fritz for a month, so we lived out of coolers for a while until they got the frige partially working. Yes, we were keeping milk in the freezer part because the other side was too warm. No, the milk never came close to freezing. I think it was just cool enough to keep the milk from spoiling. Anyway, the point of all of this is ... we were eating a lot of soup because it was easy.

Ray took a notion that he needed to be in Dennis' lap every time his daddy started eating, even though he'd already had his meal. Then he kept grabbing the bowl and sticking his nose over the edge. Dennis finally offered him a bit of New England Clam Chowder and HE ATE IT! He wanted "Mo! Mo, DaDa!" So, Dennis kept feeding him. He ate almost all the broth from the bowl. He would spit out the chunks if Dennis gave him one though.

Since then Ray has had the broth off several types of soup. Rigatoni, Chicken and Corn Chowder, Steak and Potato ... Then, he discovered Italian Wedding soup. He wouldn't eat the meatballs in it, but he ate every bite of pearl pasta and spinach that went into his greedy little mouth. He even ate some crackers that were soaked in the broth. It seems it should be such a little thing for a baby to start eating table food, but, at 25 months, its a big deal for us. It means Ray is starting to catch up a little more. Its such a change for us from Joe who was totally off baby food by the time he was about 15- or 16-months-old.

OTHER THINGS WE'RE WORKING ON

Ray is also coming along more each day on his speech, though I still have to remind myself the doctor said he had to catch up on recognizing sound due to the past ear infections that he feels affected his hearing.

Right now Ray can say:
Doe (Joe)
DaDa
MaMa
Baw (ball)
MattMatt (his friend at school)
NiNi (the daycare director)
Mo (more)
Gogah (yogurt)
Night Night
Baf (bath)
Hello
Hola (thanks, Diego)
Daygo (Diego)
Dabo (Diablo, our dog)
Mik (milk)
Eat
Bye Byeeeee
Pease (please)
BunBa (spongebob)
No - he's got that one down pat!
Es - yes

He also tries to say "walk," but I don't think I can spellit the way it sounds.

Hey, once I write it all down, he's not doing so bad, eh?