Each week, I get a newsletter about what to expect at each stage of my baby’s development. A couple of weeks ago, it included the following:
“Any day now, if she hasn’t already, your baby may try feeding herself.”
Any day now? Joe’s been doing it for months! Months! Trying, I mean. He’s only actually succeeded in the last couple of weeks, but he’s been failing at it for ages.
I think he sees it as a great way to combine his two favourite things: eating and making a mess. Yes, he’s happy for me to feed him, but I generally manage to get the food into his mouth, whereas, I imagine he thinks that if he does it himself he could shove it in his ear, throw it on the floor… the possibilities are endless!
But he’s not unaware that if he sticks the food in his ear, he’s not actually getting to eat it, so he certainly wouldn’t want to feed himself exclusively – he sees it as an addition to me feeding him, not a replacement. One spoon from me, one from him, one from me, etc. Of course, that also means he can feed himself during the moments I’m feeding *myself* his food (don’t judge me! You’ve all done it too!).
Oh and Joe is so keen on scoffing that he will not tolerate baby spoons, hell no. Food can fall off a baby spoon. Also, they’re too small. Joe has to use a teaspoon. Ironically (or perhaps fortunately, since we’ve got 10,000 of them) (we haven’t really, that’s an Alanis Morissette joke) (oh yes), Harry now prefers to use the baby spoons.
I await the newsletter that includes the line: ““Any day now, if she hasn’t already, your baby may try cooking for herself.” But in the meantime, I’m going to try Helen’s rice pudding recipe. Today. Be afraid.
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Keris Stainton
http://www.keris-stainton.com
http://www.fiveminutespeace.co.uk
