I recall talking to my close friend Rob about babies when Willow was a newborn.
Rob has two of his own, including one who had her first birthday in September. During our conversation, Rob was cast in the support role; he was leveling with me about the reality of having a newborn as opposed to the romantic notions I had at the time.
You see, Newborn Willow wasn't doing much other than sleeping, and I told Rob that, expecting him to say, "Oh, sleep today, play tomorrow!"
Instead he said with a chuckle, "The Gerber baby doesn't arrive until she's 6 or 7 months old."
And so I waited, and I continued to carry along my romantic notions of the Gerber baby.
As time passed, I began to wonder if the visions were too dreamy. It's the same for all first-time parents, I suspect, harboring Hollywood dreaminess of what having a baby is going to be like. Take, for example, the eagerness first-timers have about taking baby home a day or two after birth then realizing the hospital staff just planted your weary-eyed selves outside the door with a quick "Good luck!" (I had never been more tired in my life than on that drive home).
But seven months later, I am none the worse for the wear (I'm way better than the wear, actually, but I've always wanted to use that idiom) and happy to report that Gerber baby is in full bloom.
And she's everything I've dreamed of. And more.
She's happy and playful almost all of the time. She sleeps soundly. She cries little. She laughs all the time. She makes glowing faces. And she hams at the camera.
She's perfect.
But I have to report she's not 100 percent the Gerber baby I expected.
I have to report this for other first-time parents who are basing their dreams off the Gerber commercials. The commercials surely don't show what actually happens when Gerber babies eat Gerber food. (Now that I think of it, do they actually show Gerber babies eating Gerber food?)
Willow has been eating solids for a few months now, and the first few months weren't that messy. The food kept mostly to the mouth region.
That was really Pre-Gerber Willow, I've come to learn.
Gerber Willow is a mess.
I've known that Willow is going to make a mess with her food, but I've expected that to come when she starts feeding herself.
Pre-Gerber Willow used to open her mouth for the spoon, take the food and swallow. Little mess. But Gerber Willow sometimes grabs the spoon or sometimes sticks her hand into her mouth to feel the food. Sometimes she spits the food out. Sometimes she smears the food across the highchair tray. Sometimes she uses her super-baby secret-attack mode to grab the bowl out of Daddy's hands and spill the food before running her hands through the food.
My favorite, though I have no idea how she does it, is when she plasters the food into her hair and eyebrows (I've never witnessed her putting the food there, but I have to clean it up later; must be her ninja-like baby speed that she uses when snatching eyeglasses and necklaces).
Gerber Willow is a master of diversion. "Look, Daddy, look what I'm doing with this hand over here!" And I look while she uses the other hand to do God knows what. Maybe that explains how the food ends up in her eyebrows. I know that's how she grabs my glasses.
Despite the food-time messes, I'm sticking to my earlier statement: Gerber Willow is perfect. I don't know, it seems as if all the Gerber cuteness that comes with Gerber Baby makes the mess that much more bearable.
And some days I think the mess is just part of the Gerberness. Cute even.
Rob has two of his own, including one who had her first birthday in September. During our conversation, Rob was cast in the support role; he was leveling with me about the reality of having a newborn as opposed to the romantic notions I had at the time.
You see, Newborn Willow wasn't doing much other than sleeping, and I told Rob that, expecting him to say, "Oh, sleep today, play tomorrow!"
Instead he said with a chuckle, "The Gerber baby doesn't arrive until she's 6 or 7 months old."
And so I waited, and I continued to carry along my romantic notions of the Gerber baby.
As time passed, I began to wonder if the visions were too dreamy. It's the same for all first-time parents, I suspect, harboring Hollywood dreaminess of what having a baby is going to be like. Take, for example, the eagerness first-timers have about taking baby home a day or two after birth then realizing the hospital staff just planted your weary-eyed selves outside the door with a quick "Good luck!" (I had never been more tired in my life than on that drive home).
But seven months later, I am none the worse for the wear (I'm way better than the wear, actually, but I've always wanted to use that idiom) and happy to report that Gerber baby is in full bloom.
And she's everything I've dreamed of. And more.
She's happy and playful almost all of the time. She sleeps soundly. She cries little. She laughs all the time. She makes glowing faces. And she hams at the camera.
She's perfect.
But I have to report she's not 100 percent the Gerber baby I expected.
I have to report this for other first-time parents who are basing their dreams off the Gerber commercials. The commercials surely don't show what actually happens when Gerber babies eat Gerber food. (Now that I think of it, do they actually show Gerber babies eating Gerber food?)
Willow has been eating solids for a few months now, and the first few months weren't that messy. The food kept mostly to the mouth region.
That was really Pre-Gerber Willow, I've come to learn.
Gerber Willow is a mess.
I've known that Willow is going to make a mess with her food, but I've expected that to come when she starts feeding herself.
Pre-Gerber Willow used to open her mouth for the spoon, take the food and swallow. Little mess. But Gerber Willow sometimes grabs the spoon or sometimes sticks her hand into her mouth to feel the food. Sometimes she spits the food out. Sometimes she smears the food across the highchair tray. Sometimes she uses her super-baby secret-attack mode to grab the bowl out of Daddy's hands and spill the food before running her hands through the food.
My favorite, though I have no idea how she does it, is when she plasters the food into her hair and eyebrows (I've never witnessed her putting the food there, but I have to clean it up later; must be her ninja-like baby speed that she uses when snatching eyeglasses and necklaces).
Gerber Willow is a master of diversion. "Look, Daddy, look what I'm doing with this hand over here!" And I look while she uses the other hand to do God knows what. Maybe that explains how the food ends up in her eyebrows. I know that's how she grabs my glasses.
Despite the food-time messes, I'm sticking to my earlier statement: Gerber Willow is perfect. I don't know, it seems as if all the Gerber cuteness that comes with Gerber Baby makes the mess that much more bearable.
And some days I think the mess is just part of the Gerberness. Cute even.
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