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"We have a new game," Freckles said, as Baby J clung conspiratorially to his shoulder.

"Oh yeah?" I said.

"It's called 'Vampire.'" Freckles explained, "watch."

He held Baby J up to his shoulder. Baby J obediantly nuzzled his face into the crook of Freckles' neck and attempted to bite him.

"See?"

So, I gave birth to a vampire.

But even vampires have to eat, and so, this Sunday, on November 9th, Baby J made his first foray into the world of solid foods. (I'm not even going to get into the traumas Freckles and I endured trying to make brown rice into a powder. That might be a post in and of itself.)

Obviously (seriously, it's us), we made our own rice cereal from the book a friend bought for us at Williams-Sonoma. We boiled the mixture, thinned it, set it to cool, and set up the video camera generously granted us by Freckles' sister. We put some rice cereal into a bowl and sat Baby J down in his Bumbo seat for the feast.

"Mmmm..." you can hear me saying idiotically on the video recording, "doesn't this look tasty?"

Baby J looked at me like this time the insanity might be for real.

I spooned a little into his mouth. He actually opened his mouth quite readily, which I took to be a good sign. Once the food was inside, he stared at me as if I'd attempted to feed him ashes. He choked down a little of it, all the while looking more and more unnerved. He did a bit better with the mainly liquid parts.

We stopped filming when more food started coming out than had gone in.

Later, Baby J stepped up his efforts to bite both of us in the neck. I guess rice cereal is all well and good, but it can't compare to the taste of human flesh.