Feeding the LGBB has become a thing of mystery. She's making all the right appreciative noises (interspersed with frustrated gruntings which I was taking to mean displeasure), leans in to the spoon.... and then tries to inhale what's on the spoon by opening her lips about as far as, well, let's say a credit card would have trouble swiping the space. What this means is, she gets just the hint of flavour from the food. There's no way anything's passing those lips unless it's by absorption. And she looks so frustrated about it.
She looks at me with such anticipation. Wide eyes. Bushy tail. Gets all fired up, wiggles and bounces. And then.... pursed lips and chin(s) to chest as that spoon comes. It's beautiful. And equally exasperating for me. I show her how to open her mouth by opening mine. She either grins at me or a look of disdain passes fleetingly across her unamused face. It's either one reaction or the other, and neither of them have resulted in the open mouth.
Then today, she reached for the spoon with one hand. Then flailed with the other to grab on as well. There we were, the LGBB and her two hands wrapped firmly around mine, which was trying to make its way to her clammed mouth and dodge pumpkin drips at the same time. Once that spoon hit her mouth, she opened up! And in it went! The key, it seems, has been for her to do it herself.
Is this wise, I ask, with a 6 month old? Should I just get out the orange paint right now and save myself the trouble of worrying about sprayed walls and floors (and ceilings and curtains, windows and light fixtures)? I have always expected I will be giving her her own spoon, and letting her dip it in and feed herself, but was thinking this would happen when it was developmentally a curious time for her. She almost elbowed me out of the way to scrape the bowl herself. Ok, so she didn't really and that's a minor exaggeration - she can't elbow yet - but man, oh, man if this is what her frustration has been (because after this point, she shovelled it in, or allowed me to "help" like there was no bottom to the bowl), I am battoning down the hatches for a rather head down, tail up young lady to share the house with.
Bit.... erm..... nervous? Yes, nervous is the word. And impressed.
2 comments:
What I did with my daughter at that age was give her a separate spoon. And while she was flailing around with hers (feeling oh so grown up) and I was helping her with hers, my other hand would be getting decent spoonfuls into her mouth on the sly...
It's a fun age isn't it? Enjoy getting the pumpkin and squash out of bibs! I recommend soaking then right away as that stuff stains!
We gave GiantBoy a spoon when we started him on solids (almost 7 months old) and he did it all himself. Okay, so most of it went on his face, the floor, the ceiling... I always made double the portion size and had my own Sneaky Spoon so he could at least get something to eat. But he worked things out pretty quickly. Ahhh, that's my boy, working out how to eat more efficiently!
Post a Comment