Adventures in Eating

Melanie is getting more open to trying new foods lately (Thank you, Lord!) While many are still in the bread family (toast with peanut butter, blueberry bagel *that she stole off my plate!*) there are a few that branch out farther (raisins, yogurt, spaghetti noodles with tomato sauce). She's starting to beg off my plate more and more, so I'm trying to be better about variety (which isn't always easy since some things sound completely disgusting right now). She is a very messy eater, so most days I just strip her down to her diaper to save on laundry. Here are a few of her latest eating endeavors.

She was way too attached to her p.b. toast to let it go, and she didn't want me to help her, so she drank her bottle like this at breakfast the other morning.

All gone! (well, not really)

I made a similar hand gesture the other day when feeding her, and she's been mimicking it ever since. Here she's eating fresh sliced peaches (yum!) which isn't really a new food, but she ate it with her hands, which is a big step for her. Until recently she's had a complete aversion to anything that makes her sticky/dirty. Whenever she gets something on them she brushes them together to get it of.

Further proof that she's over the sticky hands thing.

I was letting her feed herself while I made dinner, and she had been using a spoon (or so I thought). I'd give her a little food, go check on my sauce, give her some more, and so it continued. Every time I came to give her more she'd hand me her spoon, so I assumed she was using it, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how she was getting so messy using a spoon. It wasn't until I caught her doing this that I realized she had abandoned her attempt at civilized eating for a more efficient method.