Spoon School

Paul and I have different approaches when it comes to Caroline's eating. He prefers to keep things short and sweet: Caroline is not allowed to touch the spoon while being fed and there is little room for dallying, or Daddy will eat all your dinner. On the other hand, I let Caroline make a bit of a mess while she eats. I don't care if she rubs pureed squash in her hair and I've been allowing her to explore feeding herself with the spoon. Paul doesn't approve of Caroline's free access to utensils, but she's not going to learn how to feed herself without any practice!

Unfortunately, letting Caroline feed herself is much messier that I thought. At first, Caroline was so excited to get her hands on the spoon that she would flap it up and down, promptly flinging pureed fruit or vegetable across the room, into her hair, and (if they were lucky) into the mouths of her two dogs. Handing her a loaded spoon is slowly becoming less of a disaster though. She is able to get most of the food in her mouth before it falls off the spoon and into her lap. Tonight I watched her pick up the finger foods on her tray and try to put them onto the spoon before she ate them...that was really cute! The pictures below are from one the of first times Caroline went to "Spoon School."