where's the manual?

As I was showering this morning and wondering when Bridget's pediatrician would recommend we start putting cereal in her bottle, I realized that I've been waiting for the instruction manual. I think they forgot to give it to me at the hospital, or maybe the pediatrician was supposed to give it to me and didn't do it. Because after Bridget's four-month appointment (scheduled for July 13), she probably won't have to go back until, I don't know, a six-month appointment? And surely she will be eating "solid" foods by then (as in, mushy baby food). But when? And what? What will she be allowed to have and at what age? My gotta-plan-ahead mentality even wondered if there's a Child-Rearing for Dummies handbook. Those guys have everything. If not, then I'll start writing them for year-by-year instructions and it'll turn into one of Al's get-rich-quick schemes. Hey, I'm good at manuals. I'm a technical writer by training, after all.

As I blog and take precious schoolwork time (Al's watching Bridget just so I can do schoolwork), I know one thing for sure: Bridget's first food will not be liver, as mine was. I didn't like it (still don't), and that's proven because my parents got it on Super-8 video. I will get Bridget's first food on video, too, but as to what it will be, I have no idea yet. I'm still secretly (I guess not so secretly, now) hoping for a list of "okay" foods and "hold off on this" foods at my next pediatrician's appointment. I know kids can start eating solids anywhere between four and seven months, and since Bridget's a big girl, I'm suspecting she'll need them in the earlier months. I'll just have to do some research before she reaches that age, I guess. Child-Rearing, here I come.

P.S. For those of you wondering, no, I'm not robbing the cradle. That's my brother Erik holding Bridget. My husband's forty. :)