Independence, thy name is Spaghettios!

Scotty and Hannah are SO different. At this age (23 months) Hannah was content to let us do things for her. She didn't mind being fed...in fact, she often will not finish a meal, but if WE feed it to her, she'll finish!

But Scotty...oh, the little man! He is SO independent. He wants to do it all himself! There is no bargaining with him. You can't "load the spoon" for him and let him go from there. You can't guide his hand to make sure he holds it steady and finds the right orifice (notice the red-stained nose). He will have none of this. He wants to do it all himself. We will accomodate him most of the time by giving him easy-to-feed foods like sandwiches, fries, precut meat. But even those now require a fork! And the concentration and effort that goes into each attempt to spear a piece of food often leads to frustration on his part...then joy when he discovers that he can indeed do it by himself.

Morning cereal is a challenge. Since he drinks 8 ounces of milk before sitting down for food, I could just feed it to him dry, I suppose. But, in accordance with the "mommy rule" we MUST put milk in our cereal if we want a spoon (my rule!). I put the very minimum amount I can without it actually being considered dry. I pull that bib all the way up and try to keep the clothing underneath away from the opening. This is, in fact, the BEST bib I have ever owned. Made of vinyl, with a snap-up "pouch", it's easy to clean, catches a LOT of spillage, and is totally leak proof.

But in the end, Mr. Independent always wants one of us...Mama or Dada...and it's comforting to know that even though he wants to do it all, we are still the most important part of his life!