Food Fight

Wouldn't it be nice and tidy if you could just say to a baby "This is how we eat. With a utensil, not with our hands. You don't need to throw the food in order for it to be delicious. You don't really even need to rub it all over your cheeks before you get it in your mouth. You can just eat...oh...and then here's a wet nap. Clean yourself up."

And the kid would take it all in and then apply his new knowledge during meals. The world, and my kitchen especially, would be a better place to live!

I don't really do mess all that well, which is why I sometimes avoid feeding my kids certain foods. My fear of the unclean became a nightmare around the time the doctor insisted I start to let Carter feed himself.

Are you kidding me?

In his chunky little hand a spoon will become a weapon of mass destruction. He insited that if I didn't let him try then I would end up having to spoon feed my 18 year old some day. And did I want that?

Um, can I think I about it for a minute? I need to make a list of pros and cons...

The first time I let him self-feed I literally sat next to him with a roll of paper towels. I wiped his mouth, and then his hands when he stuck those in there, in between bites. It was awful and I hated it.

I eventually lightened up and he got better at it...plus I started giving him a spoon for each hand so he didn't have a spare hand to stick in the yogurt bowl. Pretty genius if you ask me.

Now my biggest food issue with him involves peanut butter. I hate it. He loves it. Naturally he would gravitate towards foods that annoy me, it is Carter after all.

The sandwich itself isn't the problem..its the fact that he MUST open up the bread and actually TOUCH the peanut butter inside. Guess how I feel about that?

He then leaves his gross little fingerprints everywhere. I found out early that the baby didn't have a nut allergy. I knew this because he had no reaction the day I found a peanut butter handprint across his face...

And then there's the hair. What is it about certain foods that makes kids want to rub it on their head? Does anyone else's kid do this? If not, don't tell me. Let me enjoy the illusion that my children are normal for a little while longer.

After going through the self-feeding stage with Carter, I had a few tricks up my sleeve for Grant.

The first time Grant had watermelon I stripped him down to his diaper, placed him in his Bumbo chair and put that chair right into the sink. He ate his gross, drippy fruit with the juice running everywhere and he loved it. Then when he was done, I simply took out the sprayer attached to the sink and hosed him down. It was like a mini car wash.

If Carter could still fit in the sink that would solve a lot of my problems.