Tuesday, October 1, 2013

She IS My Day...

     We've recently started introducing finger foods to Tessa. At first, all she would do with the little pieces was pick them up and smush them in her hands. She's now figured out that she needs to put the pieces in her mouth and chew them. It's a bit of a process, but she's slowly getting the hang of feeding herself.

     I'm beginning to realize that meal times in our house are about to get much, much longer.


     When we were feeding her strictly purees, she didn't seem to be all that interested in spoon-feeding herself, so one of us would just feed her and most of the time, it would be fairly quick (she loves her food!!). Now that we've added finger foods, we want to make sure that she learns how to feed herself. Sometimes it's frustrating to watch her struggle to pick up the little pieces one. at. a. time and try (sometimes unsuccessfully) to get them into her mouth. Watching her eat often takes a great deal of patience and self-control on my part - all I want to do is just pick up the pieces and put them in her mouth for her and speed the whole process along a bit.


     This morning, as she was trying her hardest to pick up slippery pieces of cooked apple, I sat there watching her and, again, found myself wanting to "help". Then I stopped, wondering what on earth the big hurry was. Why do I feel such a need to rush this? What do I have to get to that's so important? Laundry? Dishes? Facebook??? Time is already flying by way too fast - why on earth would I want to speed through this precious moment and skip over this opportunity to watch my baby learn and grow right before my eyes?

     It reminded me of a blog post I read a while back (and can't remember where I read it now - I apologize to the writer that I can't give you credit) that said something like this: my child is not an interruption to my day - SHE IS MY DAY. I am so blessed to be able to have a year off work to spend with my daughter - SHE is the priority. Yes, the pace of life changes greatly when there's a baby in the picture; I don't always get things done as quickly as I used to (and sometimes things don't get done at all). But I'm so thankful for the way she is slowing me down and forcing me to just sit and watch and enjoy the little moments. I don't want to miss a single one. Everything else can wait.

12 comments:

  1. I love this! What a great reminder. I try to make myself slow down to just enjoy the day to day with my toddler instead of stressing out about getting things done. It is much easier now that she takes one 3 hours nap every afternoon. I can run around and get everything done during that time and then just hang out with her the rest of the day.

    p.s. She is super cute! :)

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    1. Thanks Becky! (I tried emailing you a reply but I think you're a no-reply blogger - hopefully you see this!)

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    2. This is going to sound totally idiotic, but what is a no-reply blogger? I am totally new to this and haven't yet figured out how to change some of the default settings on blogspot.

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  2. Great post, Nancy! Those finger foods can be frustrating to watch in the beginning, you just want to do it for them! ha ha

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    1. Thanks Tawnya! Yes, it's so hard to just sit and watch...but it's what I need to do!

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  3. Love this! And it's so true! I used to really focus on the next task, instead of what was going on at the moment. Mya taught me to appreciate the now, and savor each little moment! Funny how we're the parents, but find THEM teaching US so much, huh? ;)

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  4. Nancy, I found that by putting only a few piece of food in front of Palmer and spacing them out on the tray, she is able to pick them up better with her pinchers, one by one, and isn't overwhelmed with the amount of food in front of her to play with. I find it works well, and she isn't smushing the food in her hands quite as much! :)

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  5. Thanks for joining Time for Mom this week!

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    1. Thanks Krystal - and thank YOU for hosting! :)

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  6. We just recently started letting our daughter have finger foods as well and I totally hear you on the wanting to just help them because it takes so long lol. I also came to the realization that I just need to relax, she will eventually get faster but she is just figuring the whole thing out and eating slower is probably better on her little stomach anyhow :)

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    1. Hey Crystal! I know what you mean...it's so important that they learn on their own, and you're right, eating slower is probably better!
      Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting! :)

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