Eating lessons

Ellie has been eating out of a spoon for just over a month now, and there are a few things I have noticed during that time.

1. Every baby is different. Of course! Joshua pretty much just started eating... just like that! He gobbled up whatever I gave him, and I kind of scoffed at the books that said my baby was likely to only eat a teaspoon or two at first. Ellie is my dainty little girl; well, she is dainty in the amount that she eats, but maybe not so dainty in the way that she gets food all over everything in the process!
2. Forget the bib. At least for now, there is really no point in using a bib when Ellie eats. Sure, it might protect the front of her outfit for awhile, but it is no match for my little girl! Even though I am the one holding the spoon, Ellie somehow manages to get food on her hands, her feet, and her arms. Of course, when you are a baby, anything that is on your hands will get everywhere else. Therefore, by the end of her meal that is usually less than 1/4 cup of mush, her bib is soaked with food, there is crusted rice mush deep in the folds of her neck, in her hair, and on the chair around her. Oh, Ellie! So I find that removing her clothes and fashioning a "bib" for the chair out of a receiving blanket is the way to go for now!
3. How quickly we forget and move into toddler mode! Joshua didn't take his first bites very long ago, but I am amazed at how much I have forgotten about the beginning stages of eating! I puree the food a LOT longer than I had to for Joshua when I stopped making it. Ellie's bites hardly seem like bites at all because they are so tiny, and everything is an experiment... from the amount of food I prepare to watching her reaction to different flavors to the position and chair we use at mealtime. It also takes a LONG time to feed a learning baby! I have said good-bye to leisurely quiet meals for awhile, but I have to allow Ellie to eat at her leisure, for sure! I catch myself ending the meal at times because I am just tired of being patient rather than because she seems like she is finished! (But don't worry, I am getting more patient and feeding her more food!)