Persistence...This seems to be a major key word needed for teaching infants. Our cute little bundles of joy sure do require patience on the part of the caretaker. Of course they sure do bring lots of joy and excitement at the same time, but yes, lots of patience and the key...persistence.

Zachary will be a year old on Thursday April 24! Looking back on the past year, it does seem that time goes quickly. It is hard to imagine that Zachary was a tiny new born. Their rate of development in the first year is amazing.

The first persistence topic that comes to mind is food and eating. When we first started little Zachary on solid foods it took about a month to get him to eat his entire bowl of rice cereal on every try. We just kept offering. Starting him on veggies was no piece of cake either. At that point he was at least eating all of the rice cereal. After much frustration we still kept making it at every meal and offering. And then he flipped. He wanted veggies more than the cereal. Try try try some more.

One day he was taking both all the time quite well. And actually, he was taking anything I put on a spoon. Those were the days. Even when we started giving him soft solids such as cut up cooked carrots, peas, corn and so forth. This was awesome. It lasted a couple of months. At that point I started noticing veggies on the floor. I think it may have been a combination of texture and taste. He liked neither. I as a new mother and all was very surprised that he went from loving them to throwing them. He knew exactly which spoon and which bowl they came from also. The only one he would eat was potatoes. Apple juice hides quite a bit. So we continued to puree veggies and sneak them in the cereal, but only after offering a bit on a spoon.

One weekend I visited The Woodlands. I packed the easy baby food veggies to mix in with the cereal since pureeing on the road is not ideal. I as always offered some green beans on a spoon. To my surprise, he excepted a second bite. And a few more. So as of today he's still eating his green beans and potatoes. We have yet to move on to another veggie.

I guess the point to this story is persistence. It also applied to teaching him to drink from a sippie cup, teaching him to drink soy milk, insisting that he isn't moving while we get him dressed.....I guess it's all about telling ourselves not to give in or give up too soon. Sometimes I really have to convince myself and take a big leap of hope and faith, but it's true. They come around. Or so far that's been the case. I'm still very young and I'm learning every day all the time. If you every have suggestions for me PLEASE, drop a line.

I hope you get to enjoy them every day as much as I do!!