Please, Mum, I want some more!

To keep Rachel occupied during our supper we often give her food-related items to keep her entertained, such as a sippy cup or a fresh food feeder. She trusts that something yummy will come out of these things. The sippy cup is bound to have water inside, her personal favorite (I've never seen anyone get so excited about water) and the feeder will usually have apples or peas or carrots or some other healthy treat. She loves to try to feed herself, however, she rarely can get these tools in her mouth the right way. She sucks on the bottom of the cup, the handle of her feeder, the wrong end of the spoon...but she is persistent and with a little help she's able to get enough food-taste in her mouth to keep her happy while we eat.

Sometimes we even feed her during our mealtime, but Rachel is quite demanding so this proves rather difficult. She loves eating and so constantly asks for more, giving us very little time to feed ourselves. For example, my family babysat Rachel while we went to the temple this morning. My mom had to mix her up three bowls of cereal to satisfy her. If we do choose to feed her while we're eating we usually do a tag-team approach so that we have hope of getting a little bit of food in our own tummies.

This evening I wasn't feeding Rachel fast enough for her taste. I had given her some frozen peas in her feeder, which she enjoyed smashing on her sore gums, and was digging them out to smash them some more before feeding them to her. She kept whining to me so I started taking a pea at a time and smashing it and then giving it to her.

Once she was full (or entertained) enough to have a little patience with me, she started singing in between each pea-smashing session.

"Ah, muh, ah, muh, ah, nuh, muh, nuh, muh..." she'd go.

I think that translate as, "Come on, get in my mouth, peas, peas! Come on, get in my mouth!"

You can see her gearing up to say her ems and ens in this picture. Pictures 2 and 4 are "m" and picture 7 is an "n." The others are just some pictures that I took because I just can't get enough of my own baby...


She's also starting to open her mouth for the spoon. I was teasing her at dinner, airplaning the spoon toward her mouth with nothing on it. She didn't really appreciate that she didn't get a consistent reward for opening her mouth and eventually grabbed the spoon and chastised me with a high pitched wail.

So I gave her a pea. She's spoiled.