A Solid Start

These days, even some of the clearest plans can get derailed by a new milestone

May 25, 2026

This is Dad//Citizen, a space where parenting and civicness come together. Where we try to make our communities a little bit better, every day.

This past week, I had a vision of writing more about the political climate and some of the really interesting elections that are either taking place or coming into shape right now, both locally and nationally. It’s also Memorial Day Weekend which is special to my family because it’s the anniversary of my marriage with my incredible wife. But then, on Monday, something momentous happened that changed what I thought about for the rest of the week: we gave our boys solid foods for the first time. It was the most beautiful chaos.

The boys, surprisingly patient for their first meal of solid food

I had set up the eating stations at the dining room table. High chairs locked in, bibs on, small spoonfuls of broccoli ready to go. Broccoli was the first food because apparently it’s harder to go from fruit → veg than veg → fruit.

Splat. The soft broccoli slapped against the floor as our 6 month olds flailed to try and use this new device called a “spoon.”

Squish. Tiny hands squeezing already finely mashed broccoli as hard as they could manage in order to better understand the properties of this fascinating substance called “solid food.”

My wife and I exchanged multiple looks I think most parents exchange when they know they’re about to witness something.

What happened over the course of the “meal,” if it can even be called that, was anything but graceful. There was confusion, then resistance, then something that looked briefly like betrayal. But underneath all of it, I could see something else happening. Something that was actually really moving. The gears were starting to turn in the boys heads. Slowly at first, then faster. You could almost watch the question form in real time: what is this stuff, where did it come from, and what am I supposed to do with it? New information. New sensation. New territory.

I think… I think I’m supposed to stick this in my mouth…?

I have read enough about infant development to know that moments like these are, quite literally, the brain wiring itself. Neural pathways being laid down that weren’t there before. But knowing that intellectually and watching it happen on your son’s faces are two entirely different experiences. One is a fact. The other is more like a privilege.

I want to be honest, too. The past two months, since returning to work, have not always felt like this.

Returning to work after parental leave has been its own kind of adjustment. Managing competing deadlines and multiple inboxes and the particular rhythms of professional life, it’s a lot. Especially in a new job. And in the background, the boys keep developing because we have a network of other people, importantly and especially my wife right now, who manage it all. The milestones have arrived whether I was present for them or not. Some mornings I’ve been moving too fast to fully register what I’m seeing. Some evenings I sit down in front of the boys and feel the soft ping of guilt that comes from knowing the day got away from me and I wasn’t there for enough of it.

This one, though, I was ready for. A real solid start.

My wife and my sister found an app called Solid Starts, which has become something of a household essential now. It’s a detailed guide to introducing foods safely, establishing any allergies, and building a varied palate from the beginning. Solid Starts has been so helpful already. It’s the kind of resource that turns what could be a complicated, and even anxious, process into something closer to intentional and simplified.

Eat your normal meal, make something similar for the babies, watch, log it, move on to the next one.

And with two dogs, clean up has also been simplified thus far :)

Most importantly, when the moment came, I was there. Fully there.

I think about the word milestone a lot now. We use it to mark progress, to track how far someone has come. But watching my sons take their first real bites, watching their faces cycle through confusion and curiosity and frustration, to something that looked, eventually, like satisfaction, was better than an actual roller coaster. With each passing minute I thought less about the food itself and more about the entire experience. The learning, the developing, the growth.

The core memory.

The boys were beginning something transformational. The pistons were firing. The pathways were forming. The world was opening up to them.

And I was there to see it all happen, right there at the dinner table.

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