Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Messy Girl

So I like my daughter to be clean.  I like her clothes to smell like April Fresh Downey and her hair to smell like baby shampoo.  I don't like seeing dirt under her fingernails and I don't like it when she has dried food on her face.  Her dad feels the same way.  Because of this preference we haven't encouraged Navy to use utensils while eating.  We know that she is going to make a mess and we just don't want her to get dirty.....that sticky, food in your ear kind of dirty. 

But, because she is getting older (18 months on March 4th) we decided that she needs to learn how to eat like a "big girl."  I tried yogurt tonight and when I put the bowl in front of her with a spoon, she cried for several minutes and looked at me as if I had insulted her by not feeding her.  I honestly believe that part of her issue with feeding herself is she does not like being dirty (not sure where she got that from).

Finally her hunger won out and she picked up the spoon and started to eat.  She whined while doing it, though, so I clapped and praised her everytime that spoon touched her mouth and pretty soon she was having a great time. 




1 comment:

  1. I'm impressed. I'm the same way with Tenley while she is eating - I hate when she gets messy. I tried the spoon thing shortly a couple weeks ago and she just banged them on the table and in the food. She certainly doesn't have a problem being messy. Maybe we'll try again in a few weeks. Good job, Navy!

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