Soy to the World

Over the last week Gusi has had the opportunity to try a number of new foods. He has had two different kinds of soy-protein "meatballs" which he gobbled up promptly. He tried some actual soy beans today that were in a chicken and veggie teriyaki medley that I made for him. He actually cast aside some of the chicken to pick out the soy beans, and he loved the baby corn pieces too. And finally he tried soy milk (vitamin enriched of course).

I was told that Gusi can now start to drink whole cow's milk. It's interesting that a lot of my mom friends who nurse (with babies 12+ months) are hesitant to give their kids milk, but not me. I think it's great. The problem is that I never liked milk as a kid. My mom never made me drink it and when my grandmother did she quickly found herself looking for the mop to clean up the aftermath. It just tastes weird to me and unless it's camouflaged in some way (in coffee or tea, with chocolate or in a fruit smoothie) I still won't drink it. It does make my tummy rather upset as well, so I stick to rice milk which I use in just about everything.

So when Gusi first took a sip of milk out of his sippy cup I thought that he would love it because most kids do. He wrinkled his nose, made a gag-type face and promptly spat it out. I tried on three other occasions and got the same reaction. Ok, perhaps he's like me? I then tried the rice milk. He didn't gag but he did wrinkle his nose and spit it out. I was at a loss. What to do now? Is it the taste, is it the presentation? I picked up some chocolate milk and mixed a few drops of it with his regular milk thinking that would do the trick. Nope, same gag, same wrinkly nose, same results. Finally I picked up a set of small boxed drinks of soy vanilla milk (vitamin enriched). He's really into straws lately so when he saw that there was a straw he was curious. I held it out for him to try which he did hesitantly. He sipped and spat. I wasn't going to push it--obviously he's not ready. But then as I was going to put the box away, he asked for it again only to spit it out all over. Then he asked for it one more time and this time it took. He drank for quite a while, albeit slowly. He was chewing the straw and playing with one of his toys while he sipped. Finally he said *enough* and that was that.

So, is it no to cow's and rice and yes to soy? Or is it no to sippy cups and yes to boxed drinks? This is what I'm wondering. I suppose I could get more boxed drinks of cow's milk or rice milk, but I think I'll just finish the ones of soy milk first. I've already gotten stuck with a half gallon of whole milk and a small carton of chocolate milk, I'm not about to spend more $ for nothing.

On another note, Gusi has learned how to sign *milk*--which is how I knew he wanted more soy milk--and *light*--that was a while ago, I just forgot to write about it. He showed me that the light in my car goes on when I turn the motor off and take out the key. Every time I turn the motor off he babbles and makes the sign for *light* because he knows that comes next. Sheer brilliance, wouldn't you say?