Throwing Food Is Fun!
In a bid to frustrate us parents and make us realize who is really running this operation, the baby has started throwing her food on the floor during mealtime. This is no ordinary lack-of-motor-skill display, it’s a full-on, boundary-pushing battle of wills. On Sunday night, I’m feeding her dinner, when she looks me in the eye and slowly moves her pea-grasping hand over to the edge of her tray. The pea is dangling above the floor, and she drops it, never breaking eye contact with me. I laugh, because, you know, she’s a genius. After a few more peas bite it, my amusement turns to indignant motherliness. How dare she flaunt this behavior in my face! I’m telling her NO and she won’t listen! The nerve!
Every meal since that one has turned into a mini-battle. As soon as she starts dropping food to the floor, we feed it to her with a spoon or end the meal entirely, depending on how much she’s had to eat. The fact that I’m surprised by her willfullness is the real comedy in this scenario. Between her father and I, she’s got a quadruple dose of independent, authority-despising genes. The student has become the master in a matter of 13 months.