Paste is like rice cereal, only with more flavor and an advanced texture.
Today O and I began the adventure of solid foods and eating with a spoon. I mixed some rice cereal with some freshly pumped breast milk, put O in his chair, got out the soft tipped spoons, and offered O a taste.
O promptly drooled it all over his face, forming a rice-milk-paste goatee. Very young Lenin.
The next spoon full went all over his bib. The third spoon full was intercepted by his hands, he wanted to hold the spoon. The basic concept of spoon-to-mouth was simple, keeping the food on the spoon, not so much.
The concept of Spoon-as-purveyor-of-food seems nebulous, Spoon is an Item Vigorously to Gum on, Grab at and Wave Around. The idea of Bib is also a somewhat foreign concept, but it worked well enough.
I look forward to moving beyond rice cereal into more exciting (flavorful) things. I wouldn’t want to eat rice paste, why would I expect O to want to?