What's for Dinner?

We've reached the point in our child's life where we have to start feeding him real food. I can't even explain how terrifying this prospect is. I finally have a firm, white-knuckled grasp on parenting and now I have to add another step into the process.

Bottles: Got it.
Medicine: No problem.
Bath time: Easy.
Bed time: Under control.

But food? What the eff... It's complicated. You'd think it would be the simplest thing ever. Heat food and put it in your kid's mouth. I'm stressing about it a lot more than that, though. Food shouldn't take the place of bottles, so he has to have a bottle first before eating. But what if he isn't hungry then? Or what if he eats too much and then barfs it all over? What if he wants something to drink afterwards? Do I give him another bottle or can I give him water?

Will my pediatrician think I'm a psycho if I ask her these questions? Should I just forward her to my blog and beg PLEASE GUIDE ME!!!

Obviously, there are certain foods best suited for feeding a baby without any tolerance for food, or teeth. But we still have to be conscious of his MSPI and reflux so foods with a high acidity, or foods containing or resembling soy (lima beans and things like that) and dairy are out of the question. I've checked a bunch of sites and I have a small list of safe foods: carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans and mangos. Yumm. It's kind of funny that my baby is a vegan.

I am kind of excited for him to start growing and packing on some weight with these new foods. He's kind of small. The ped's office usually measures his height really fast because he's squirming, so it's not totally accurate. They measure him about 2 inches taller than he really is. According to them, he's around the 25th percentile for height, but I measured him while he was sleeping and he's actually off the chart at less than 5%. He's just a wee little man.