Big Day – Self-Feeding!

Another big milestone has overtaken us. You are now capable of picking up your own food and putting it in your own mouth. Way to go, baby! You are working hard on getting that pincher grasp down. You haven’t quite mastered it, but you’re getting really close.

The first finger food I gave you was some mashed up banana chunks a couple of weeks ago. You’ve been eating bananas mashed with a fork and a little bit of water for a couple of months and you handle soft chunks of food really well, even mashing your gums a little bit to squash stuff down before you swallow. So I figured you were ready to graduate to some easy solids, with my constant supervision of course.

You were fascinated. Right away you started with the pawing motion curling your fingers around the gooey morsels. You’d get one or two in your palm and then spend a couple frustrating minutes trying to get the chunks from your closed palm to your mouth. Hehe. It was cute, but I felt kind of bad for you. Every few minutes, I’d pick one up and help you out.

Several times you got a chunk between two fingers like this,…

…and even though that made it easier to get it to your mouth, you still haven’t quite figured out how to let go once the food has reached the desired drop-off point.

Next up, rice crackers. Last weekend Daddy and I went to Babys R Us and picked out some Mum Mum Rice Husk Crackers for you to try out. They’re really airy and dissolve as soon as they get wet, so they seemed like the safest best for a first try at crunchy solids.

No hesitation here either. You knew just what to do.

You spent as much time turning the cracker over and over and passing it back and forth in your hands as you did eating it. You did not take your eyes off that cracker until it was at least half gone. I would say you were a Big Fan,…

…as am I. This, I’ve discovered, is the new best way to distract you for 10 minutes when I need to get something done without having to hold or entertain you. Better than any toy.

I’m going to buy these things in bulk. I can’t wait to have to you try out all the other crunchy goodies, puffs, O’s. How fun! I can tell how cool you think it is that you finally get to feed yourself.

Lastly, more because I’ve read in a couple of places how much you might enjoy the experience than as a source of nutrition, I gave you a big pile of cooked whole wheat spaghetti to see what you’d make of it.

You weren’t so much into the eating of it – although you did try. But you had a blast grabbing as much as you could in both your hands and waving them around. Hilarious.

They should sell babies in the entertainment department. Seriously, there is nothing more fun than watching you experience for the first time all the things we take for granted.

I love you ridiculously, baby. I’m so lucky to be your Momma.