Chicken Noodle

During meal time, Silas is a champ at blowing raspberries and/or turning his head away just as the spoon is about to land in his mouth and/or grabbing the spoon (in his vice-like grip) and wrenching it from my hand to wave it (and everything on it) around above his head. Therefore, by the time we are finished with a meal, his chicken noodle is generally all over him, all over me, all over the floor. It is one of the single most frustrating tasks of my day. He is so easily distracted that I find myself chasing his swiveling head around with a spoon full of drippy goop for twenty minutes imploring him to take a bite. He almost always finishes the entire jar, but that is only because I have (miraculously) learned to be patient enough to chase him around and make him eat.

I love food. Michael loves food. Have you seen pictures of Silas? He clearly loves food. He's a chunk-a-lunk. So, I don't understand all this making me work to feed him business. When he's hungry, he goes from zero to FEED ME NOW in a matter of seconds. Screaming and stomping and acting a damn fool. He sees the jar of baby food and a spoon and shrieks with delight (unless I've forgotten a bib and walk past him with aforementioned jar and spoon, at which point he wails even louder in his demanding little way). Each time I sit down to feed him, I think this will go smoothly. He will cooperate. The mess will be minimal. I put positive vibes out in the atmosphere. I try to minimize distractions. I talk to him about what we're doing and do the whole airplane/choo-choo train thing. Never works. Always the same frustrating mess of a meal.

Perhaps it's because baby food is disgusting, and I'm not mentioning any names (ahem, mom and Auntie, ahem), but someone(s) have been sneaking Silas french fries and mashed potatoes and only God knows what else. So, I've come to the conclusion that I am being punished because he knows there is something better in this world to eat than chicken noodle, and I persist in making him eat it.

P.S. No, he doesn't eat only chicken noodle. It's just my favorite baby food name.