Haute Cuisine, it's not

This is Giuliana tonight at dinner.

Too bad it was mostly pears tonight, you can't tell in this picture how ABSOLUTELY COVERED IN PEARS SHE IS!!!

I was taking the advice of the Gerber mailer I got today about feeding a baby on the verge of toddlerhood. Wait a minute! On the verge of toddlerhood?!?!?! That's what Gerber said about my tiny little baby! Well, anyway that's what they said about 9-12 month olds, and G will be 9 months next week! So, their advice was to give her a lot of choices at meals and to let her play and smear and throw her food...all in good fun (obviously not good clean fun!) So, I let her have at it.

Now I know it will come as a shock to all of you who think I am uptight about messiness, but this is not so different from how we have been doing most meals. I let G take the reigns with the spoon(s) as often as she likes, which is almost always. I let her have lots of different things and don't force her to eat any one thing. I don't usually encourage finger painting with pears, but, what the hey, I say!

However, G has proved so far to be a "challenging eater," as I like to say. It's not that she is so much "picky" as that she just can't be bothered to eat. She will always take her bottle, that's no problem. But she dines almost exclusively on Cheerios these days. She just isn't interested in most other foods most of the time. And forget about taking food off of a spoon or from Mommy! She clamps her little mouth shut so tight you would need the jaws of life to pry it open. And her new thing is to shake her head back and forth so I have no hope of getting anything anywhere near her mouth. So, I give her the spoon and about half of the time some of it makes it into her mouth. Sigh...John tells me I get too worked up over it and she will eat when she is ready. But it just seems so important. I am really trying to be zen about the whole thing and just relax and let G take the lead. But I am always up for good advice.

Hence, I was pouring over the Gerber mailer that showed up today like it was The Bible! Look at all these pictures of happy babies eating all these healthy foods! Their mothers must be so relaxed and carefree! Is that child actually eating cereal off of a spoon from his mother's hand?? How did she do that??

Double sigh. These are the things that keep me up at night, people. World peace, it's not. Oh, and by the way, Max is a HUGE FAN of the "let the baby fling her dinner everywhere" method of eating! HUGE FAN.

On a less neurotic note, look at this close up.


See anything ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE?? This is the day I have dreamed about (after I have finally fallen asleep from the hours of pondering baby feeding strategies.) I was able to accessorize G! This is her very first hair accessory, a little tiny clip! How freakin' cute is that?!? I have always wanted a little girl so I can play with her hair (shallow and petty, I know, but there it is. Oh, back off! There were other reasons too!) YAY! This totally made my day :)