A, eating with her spoon
A & G turned 10 months yesterday and we have been moving away from me feeding them mush food. We use a combination of Baby Led Weaning and Montessori. I have committed to providing more opportunities for A & G to feed themselves mushy foods.What a mess and noisy affair as they like to make clucking and sucking noises when they eat. For breakfast they have either porridge, omelet, bircher muesli and/or toast. For snacks, they have one of the following Cruskett with avocado, crackers and cheese, yogurt and fruit. I try to have seasonal fruit available for them. At they moment they love strawberries. But the strawberry must be whole and the green leafy part must be left on the strawberry or they will not eat it.
Lunch usually starts with finger food followed by a mush meal which I was feeding to them (if they were in the mood for me to feed them), if not more finger food.
Dinner is served at the table as a family (recent change). Mainly finger food, with a side serve of vegetables or salad. They like salads, its very interesting to look at, bits of the salad taste familar, like carrots, pear, and sweet potatoes.
In the last week I have made an concerted effort to have dinner ready for everyone at an appointed time (hence the slow cooker.) Dinner is served at the big table and everyone eats together. It has been a process of trial and error to find the right time to eat as a family. So far 5:30 pm is working for us.
A is a professional at using a spoon and whilst most of it ends up on her or on the floor she enjoys her food (see picture). G on the other hand is still waving her spoon around, her preference is to use her hands and when it comes to mush food, she either dumps it on the ground or wears it.
When I see how much mess two little people can created, I tell myself, long after the mess has been cleared we will only have memories and photos to show for these moments.
