Learning to Eat

During the past few visits to our pediatrician, she has asked us if the babies were able to feed themselves with a spoon.  Visions danced through my head of the twins sitting in their high chairs, dirty spoon and bowl forgotten on the ground, as they they squeal with glee and splash in puddles of babyfood on their high chair trays.  I always emphatically answered, "No!" 

No, I do not sit and spoon feed my children every meal.  I do NOT have time for that.  Mostly I give them finger foods and if the food isn't traditionally finger food, I figure out a way to make it work.

But yesterday, I decided we were going to have oatmeal. To be honest with you, I thought the twins wouldn't like it (they didn't like it last time I gave it to them!), and I would end up giving them dry cereal with a cup of milk.  Much to my surprise, they LOVED it, and kept asking for more.  I sat down and spoon fed them for the first time in months. 

When the older girls asked for oatmeal again today I knew giving the babies dry cereal would not fly.  So I finally broke down and let them have their own bowl and spoon

They didn't do bad considering it was their first try.  The crazy thing was, Lilly (my clean eater) was FILTHY when she was done, and Maya, who is seriously the messiest eater I've EVER seen was actually pretty clean.  It was so unexpected that Addison even suggested that maybe they had swapped bodies...and for a moment, I considered the possibility.

That bib is just the tip of the iceberg. I had to completely take her PJs off before I got her down from the high chair so she wouldn't get oatmeal all over my house.

 

And this was as bad as it got for Maya.

Normally there's food on her pants, all over her arms, in her hair, UNDER her bib.  Seriously, I don't know how this kid gets food in all the places she normally does.  But this time, just a little bit on the bib and face and that was it.  It almost took, me just as long to clean her as it did Lilly because I was searching for the food I knew must be there that wasn't.

And then, as I was almost done cleaning her off I had to run to squelch a fight brewing in the other room. She wasn't particularly happy I stepped away before getting her down, but she entertained herself.

"Hmmm... I'll just take this off for mom..."

"and put it on the ground..."

"Wait, now that's on the ground and I don't have anything to play with...."

"Mom! Stop taking pictures and get me down."

Don't worry, Lilly to the rescue.

Lilly is one funny little girl.  Maya's great at playing by herself.  She'll find a toy and be content playing with it for quite a wile.

Lilly, on the other hand, only wants to be held.  The only time she doesn't want to be held is if she sees Maya's playing with something.  Then she wants to get down so that she can take away whatever it is that Maya's playing with.

UNLESS Maya's in her high chair.  Then it is Lilly's personal mission to bring Maya EVERY SINGLE TOY in our house. 

It's sweet, but rather annoying if Maya's not done eating.  If I don't keep a close watch, all of the sudden half of our toys are on Maya's tray covered in spaghetti sauce.  Ahhh, the adventures of having twins.