Two Spoons - the key to a happy meal

Isobel is 8 months old now and wants to be interactive at mealtimes. It is getting harder to negotiate spoonfuls of homemade baby food goodness into her little mouth without Isobel trying to grab the spoon.

I am not one of these Mums who gives her child a toy to play with during mealtimes because that is simply too messy. It's one thing for her hands, face and clothes to get messy - it's another thing entirely for a puree-covered toy to be hurled across the room and land on my carpet. Or curtains. And, not to mention, questionable manners with all that racket at the dinner table. Best to start them off right from the start as far as manners are concerned. No toys at the table.

Besides, our after-meal cleanup routine is already more than enough and includes:
-clean Isobel (all of the time)
-clean the high chair (most of the time)
-clean the floor (sometimes)
-change our clothes, yes mine too! Things can really get out of hand sometimes (depends on what was for lunch and/or our agenda for the rest of the day: see my Beetroot post)

So what to do??? She needs something more as me making funny noises while feeding her is just not working for her any longer....

So I came up with a simple solution: If she wants to pretend like she is feeding herself, give Isobel her own spoon. It has worked a treat for us, she really thinks she is feeding herself, the little spoon goes back and forth from her imaginary bowl on her tray to her mouth and, in between, I get a spoon full of homemade baby food in there once in a while too.

Everyone is happy...