CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Mr. Independent

Since I was pregnant I have been trying to think of ways to make my children as independent as possible. My cousin, Jen, has three amazing daughters and they are all so independent. She lives in California, so I don't see them often, but we were there a few times last year for the holidays and my Nana passing :(. I remember sitting at the table one morning watching as the three of them, 2, 4, and 6 at the time came downstairs and worked together to make their own breakfast.. frozen egos with syrup and milk. They were able to get their own dishes, get their own egos, the oldest daughter got the milk for the younger two.. AMAZING!! Minutes later they got themselves dressed and were able to pick out their own clothes, despite her fashionable advisement. As I watched those girls I decided THAT was my goal, and I'm starting as early as possible with small things such as routines, keeping Reilly's dishes as low to the ground as possible, and although it may be a disgusting mess and take three times as long- not baby'ing him while he is already trying to do things on his own.

Today was particularly frustrating though and it's just getting harder, but I know the end result will be well worth it! I should have known he was going to be a fun day when I offered him his pacifier while we were sleeping this morning and he swatted at my hand, took the pacifier, and put it in his own mouth. He has been doing this new thing lately where he slaps the food right off the spoon when you try to feed him.. and he is quick! It's so frustrating because I want him to eat so that he getting enough nutrition, but as soon as I pull the spoon out of the bowl his hand is in the air like he is about to spike a volleyball. I decided to go ahead and start letting him try to feed himself, he likes to take the spoon, turn it around backwards, and chew on the end- I even tried giving him the spoon backwards, but the kid cannot be tricked. He did get a few bites in, but considering he is already 6oz shy of staying on his growth curve for weight, don't want him to fall behind at all. Meanwhile, I gave him some bananas and cut up puffs- he is still working on the self feeding, but it's so cute. So of course he is COVERED in food, his high chair is covered in food, I am covered in food.. massive mess, but that's fine.. I'm sure their will be messier days in parenthood, so I stripped his clothes off and washed him down, then took him out of the high chair and set him in the floor for a minute while I wiped the high chair. Earth to Sarah.. he can crawl now, and of course he went straight for the dogs' water dish.. where else would he go? When I called his name to stop him, it startled him and he fell into the dish and started crying, so I'm covered in puree'd food, holding a soaking, naked, screaming baby with no clue where to go next. It was pretty hilarious in hindsight!

Fortunately after two meals of making a mess and making pterodactyl noises at me when I tried to feed him, he was pretty willing to be fed at dinner time. I'm excited to start giving him little pieces of food, but can't go ahead with that until after he sees an allergist (he is allergic to dairy and pet dander.. so they want to test him so we know what else he may react to before giving him foods), which he was supposed to do today but they had to cancel his appointment, so we will wait another week! But I did give him some green beans at dinner tonight, he didn't seem too stoked.

0 comments:

Post a Comment