Forays into oatmeal - part 1

Yes, a topic that is probably boring most of my readers to tears. But in a more fragile state of motherhood, I'd feel like a complete failure about now over oatmeal. Plus I need to find a quick mushy cereal substitute for baby cereal for Mr. Picky Eater.

I made Eli a bowl of kiddie instant oatmeal today. Actually, I pre-made it when I had a free moment in the morning so that when it came time for him to actually eat, I just whip it out and feed it to him.

Wrong. Apparently instant oatmeal solidifies when left alone. It turned into a rubbery glob. How was I to know? I guess I could have tried reheating it and seeing if it softened up again but I just grabbed a jar and gave Eli squash for breakfast (?!) because I needed to get to MTO. I did taste a piece of the rubbery stuff and I didn't like the taste. Seemed a bit too artificially sweet. I thought my mouth and tongue were tingling from the artificialness...even though it was Earth's Best organic stuff. Or maybe my mouth was tingling because it's used to the artificial stuff and with the all-natural stuff it's like, "What's THIS?!"

Oatmeal - 1, Mommy - 0.