Ten months.

Now that he is equipped with eight teeth, we are trying to help Jack make good use of them. If it were up to our son, he would eat nothing but mashed up bananas. But this funky monkey must evolve into a wacky Jack who uses his hands and teeth to eat more solid foods.

Cheerios have proven to be the best transition for him so far. We have taught him how to use his pointer finger and thumb to pick up the cereal bit from the table. Right now he’s at the point where he can do that, but he won’t immediately put the Cheerio into his mouth: He simply plays with it.

But then, as is the current ritual, he puts it in his mouth, in the name of exploration. Next he realizes, “Oh, this is food, I can eat this.” The problem is that he hasn’t quite figured out what to do with solid food once it is sitting on the center of his tongue. So there’s this gagging process he goes through before he eventually swallows it.

We did discover this week that Jack loves rice and beans, which is the perfect size and texture for him to easily chew up and swallow right now. For what it’s worth, Jack is 1/8 Mexican; maybe that has something to do with it?

With Jack’s healthy build, you would think he would be chomping down Medieval sized turkey legs by now. Or at least jars of “chicken dinner” baby food.