What on Earth?

The rest of our first week of eating went quite well. I suppose "quite well" could be a matter of opinion though. Did the Wee One continue to put food to food near her mouth? Yes! Did we have to spend 20 minutes picking broccoli out of carpet, highchair, hair, ears, noses and fingers? Yes!

Here is what I've learned so far:-

1. Plates don't work. Even plastic plates. Plates are an invitation for disaster. It's like "ooooo look at this mushy stuff, it feels nice in my fingers... Oooo wait a minute, this is solid and I can get a good hold of it and *chuck* launch it!". So for now, back to using an anti-bac spray on the table and putting the food directly there.

2. Size is key! For banana, the bigger the better! Broccoli works best in small tree form, a floret ripped up lengthways. Sweet potato in pinkie sized sticks.

3. On no account say amount! In high school I had a biology teacher who had this phrase all over the lab, it has remained engrained, no sanding over seemingly useless phrases for me. It would appear how much you present is key. Too much is apparently overwhelming and results in more deposits on the floor that near the mouth.

4. Baby Led Weaning is hard!!! And yes, I used a triple exclamation mark there, but it was needed. It's hard in the same way that breastfeeding was hard in the beginning. The constant worry about how much your baby is actually consuming and doubting if you are a fit and proper mother. I'm hoping the edge comes off of these feelings again, just in the same way they did with breastfeeding.

5. When feeding on your own, clean table, hands and then floor. If you miss out hands, when you're on the floor, little hand pulls and mess in your hair and leave little broccoli shaped presents in there for you. Thanks.

6. My life has been reduced quite literally to crap. Every nappy is inspected for remnants of food. Yes, I admit it, I am gross. In fact I can report that I will be going to inspect another nappy as soon as I post this. Broccoli is easy to spot, broccoli is your friend. Sweet potato tries to hide, but it's orange and you can track it down. Banana? I'm not sure enough has been consumed yet, but I've been well warned not to freak when I find "black worms".

I've learned quite a lot in the last week, it's been quite the adventure. It's also been one of the most fun times ever in my life. I used to look forward to a Saturday for going to the pub, spending all day drinking and having fun with Him and then stumbling home at some ungodly hour with a pizza box and some chips. I genuinely looked forward to Saturday there to give 2 lots of dinner to the Wee One. Life changes, and I've come to see at not necessarily that bad a thing.