Spoon Feeding

Look who is all grown up and using a spoon. The other day Belinda decided she was going to start experimenting with new types of food for Stella. We have officially reached the age where formula is not the only choice of food she can eat. Might as well teach her now that life is about making choices.

Stella knew something was up when she was strapped into her bouncy and her bottle was not in arms reach. She had that look of, "hey, whats going on here." To her, that spoon was just another object to put in her mouth for no other purpose than to drool on.

Belinda calculated her approach and slowly started to try and feed Stella. In my mind I'm think how hard can this be. She is going to see the spoon, smell the food, and eat. I just assumed you came out of the womb learning to work a spoon and fork. It was not until you got a spork that confusion set in.

Well as you can see by the photo most of the food ended up around Stella's mouth than actually in it. She was having a blast playing even if she wasn't getting much nutritional value. You can see by the photo below that mid way through the experiment it was decided to go back to old faithful, Mr. Bottle.

Since that time we have had a few other opportunities to try and feed Stella. It was the other day that I told Belinda to try a different approach.

Lately Stella has taken up to screaming. Sure we can call it learning to communicate and wanting to tell us something, but we are realist so we are going to call it what it is which is screaming. So as I watched Belinda try and feed Stella I could see every time the spoon came to her mouth she locked down her lips like an main door on a submarine. That spoon may have touched her lips, but it wasn't getting any past that. Not one second when you took the spoon away Stella would let out her scream. So I told Belinda, try putting it in when she is screaming. She looked at me like I was crazy. Like I had just recommended we insert a tube into her mouth and pump the food in. But I insisted she try it. So reluctantly she did. I wasn't telling her to stick the spoon down her throat, just make it past to castle doors. So there we were. Waiting. Waiting. More waiting for the perfect scream. And when it came Belinda shot into action. The spoon was in. She shoots, she scores!

Guess who started to munch on that food. She was eating! Now, as much as we thought we had won Stella still controlled the gate. We spent a good fifteen mins laughing at all the failed attempts to get that spoon with food back into her mouth. Belinda is quick, but Stella might be a little faster. By the end of the feeding I think Stella had a score of thirty and Belinda ten. Part of Belinda's score came from the laughing we did hearing Stella "communicate." You could tell her yell was meant to be longer but it was interrupted by her attempt to stop the spoon. Imagine a sound clip stuck in a loop and that's what we were hearing.

As someone who doesn't like to a lot of change, I guess I can respect my daughters unwillingness to change her feeding habits. I don't think the kids in high school are going to be as understanding though.