we didn't do rice cereal either. but we waited till DS was really developmentally ready for solids & mostly did baby led solids - we offered a range of foods & the limitations were more on the consistency of the food rather than the type (i.e. steamed fingers of vegies rather than introducing one food at a time). that was at 6ish months. we introduced a water bottle at the same time but, like FabFiona, he took a while to get the hang of it & it took a few goes to get a drink bottle that worked for him. i was still BFing on demand though so i knew he was getting plenty of fluids (starting solids coincided with summer for us so i wanted to be sure he was well-hydrated).