Lately Johnny’s mealtimes have been messy. No, messy is an understatement. Mealtimes have become all out warfare. Johnny has recently realized he is quite dexterous, and he loves to practice batting, swinging, and flapping his little arms. He can grab just about anything within his reach. And boy is he quick! Those tiny arms and hands present a real challenge when we are trying to feed him.
Johnny gets so excited when it is time to eat. We bought a high chair for him, but he prefers playing with his toys in the high chair and eating in his infant recliner. As soon as we put him in his seat, he begins to kick his legs and shriek. He proceeds to whine, and eventually cry, if we do not get the food to him fast enough for his liking. It is when we begin to feed Johnny that the real fun ensues.
Most days I have to change Johnny’s clothes after each meal. Putting a bib on him really makes little difference in how dirty his clothes get while he is eating. He seems to wear as much food as he eats these days. This is not due to our ineptitude at feeding. Casey and I are actually fairly accurate at getting the spoon to Johnny’s mouth with little spillage. Well, we used to be.
Achieving spoon to mouth now is like completing an obstacle course. We dip out a perfect spoonful, steady our arms, steel our nerves, grit our teeth, and dodge two waving, slapping, grabbing, Mr. Miyagi-wax-on-wax-off hands. The food usually ends up flying off of the spoon and onto his clothes, the seat, the floor, and any other nearby object. He sometimes manages to get food all over his face and hands and in his hair and eyes and nose and eyebrows and anywhere else those little hands may roam.
Yesterday I decided something had to be done. Even though Johnny’s food-covered face is really cute, scrubbing stains out of all those little outfits is not so cute. I read in a magazine to give Johnny a spoon of his own to hold during mealtimes in order to deter him from grabbing my spoon. Ha! All this accomplished was making my job more dangerous!
Needless to say, Johnny loved having his own spoon. He brandished his spoon like a sword and sent food flying when he smacked my spoon. He put his spoon in his mouth, which would not have been a problem if he had waited to cram it in there after I removed my spoon. He poked himself in the eye and cried. He threw the spoon in the floor and cried.
In the end giving Johnny his own spoon turned out to be more of a hassle and a mess than just feeding him, but it made for some really sweet pictures and some fun mommy-baby time.
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ReplyDeleteWow, he eats like I eat.
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