Monday, July 18, 2011

Adventures in Self Feeding

I once played in an Ooozeball tournament (volleyball in knee-deep mud) when I was in college.  I always thought that would be the messiest thing I'd ever done...then Madeline came along.    

I've been a little slow in the finger food department for Madeline because I'm paranoid she's going to choke.  She only has 1.5 teeth after all.  The fact that she thinks it's hilarious to stick her tongue out and make gagging noises does not help ease my fear.

But, I've been stepping it up lately, giving her chunkier foods, and letting her feed herself. (Mainly because she starts screeching whenever I try to feed her with a spoon.)

Have you ever seen a baby feed herself?  It's pretty gross.  This is probably what the caveman looked like when he tore into an antelope for the first time.  

She's been eating a lot of turkey loaf this week.  Have you ever seen mashed up turkey loaf?  Have you ever seen it after a sippy-cup of water has been dumped all over it, carrots have been mixed with it, and it's been mashed between two grubby little baby hands?  It's pretty gross.  It looks like Madeline is eating a plate full of vomit.

Since she's still figuring the whole self-feeding thing out, about half of the vomit loaf ends up in her mouth.  The other half ends up in her lap or on the floor.  This means that I get to spend a lot of time picking vomit loaf out of Madeline's chins and elbow crevices.  Jealous?  At least her bellybutton is an outie.  No vomit loaf in there!

As messy as it is, it's fun to watch Madeline feeding herself.  She looks like such a big girl with her plate and cup in front of her!

P.S.  This little gadget in the pictures below is the coolest thing ever.  I can fill the net with any solid food and let Maddie go to town without worrying about her chocking.  Mmmmm, watermelon!



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