Blake, the Independent.

I don't like to have too much in each post, thus the numerous posts today :)

Blake has decided that he likes to eat by himself. We used to be able to appease him by giving him a spoon to bang around. Well, that doesn't quite work anymore. Now he wants a spoon, a plate, AND wants to feed himself. Earlier, when he just needed to spoon, Scott was trying to feed him and he refused to eat. Scott told me he couldn't feed him, he didn't want the food. I told him to just give him his own spoon. Scott didn't believe me, so I gave him the spoon and instantly Blake opened his mouth for food. Amazing.

Now, he turns his head and buries it in his highchair giving us the Scarlett O'Hara (from Gone with the Wind) look--he turns abruptly away, but still looks at us with his peripheral vision to see what our reaction is. It is quite funny. Well, Scott was again feeding him and he pulled this on Scott. Scott forgot the trick and so did I for the moment. He had just finished being really sick, so we were thinking he was still just not interested in food. After trying several types of food, I remembered he didn't have a spoon. Scott was like, oh yeah, you've told me that trick before. We gave him a spoon and put the food in front of him and he ate happily.

Well, now he doesn't really want to be spoon fed lately either...this sure makes for a messy meal, on top of the fact that he literally "clears" his tray when he is finished. We can't figure out how to cure him of throwing his food on the floor when he is done. He knows he isn't supposed to and sometimes when he is about done, he puts his hand full of food out of his highchair, and shakes his head "no." I say, "no" and shake my head with him. He then puts the food in his mouth with a big smile and I say "yes, good boy." This happens a few times until he decides he really is done, puts his hand over the highchair, shakes his head "no" and releases. He then gives me the biggest, happiest smile ever as I give him a stern "no" and shake my head, trying so hard not to laugh. I think he knows I'm laughing...

When I try to make him stop throwing food, he tries faster to get all the food thrown off his tray as possible and it is a race to beat him by trying to take the food away from him. Oh child, what am I going to do with you??? Well, now that he wants his own food, I have to watch that he doesn't throw the whole plate/bowl off, like this:

Let's just say I'm glad we don't have carpet, b/c even if we did have a drop cloth on the floor, many times he turns around in his highchair and chucks the food behind him as far as he can throw...he's got a pretty good range at the moment. Here's a couple "Blake eating" shots :)

Notice the plate on the floor :)

Oh Mommy, you know you love me too much to be too mad!

And here's our oatmeal breakfast this morning, which was Blake feeding himself for the majority of the time!

The spoon is only slightly effective when most of the oatmeal lands on his bib, so he resorts to his hands most of the time.

 

Licking the bottom of the bowl--love how you can see his face through this!!

Ahhhh

He finished his bowl of food, so I just gave him the pan to finish off :)

Busy at work



Hmm, maybe two spoons will work better.
I'm glad we have a lot of baby spoons b/c we use two at every meal--1 for Blake, 1 for me to actually feed him with



Banging the oatmeal :)

Licking his lips, yum, yum! Wow, he's dirty!