Most of these are just of Ella at the pool, but if you look closely she has a Cheerio in her hand in some of them.
So, Ellasen has been having a little trouble picking up food...actually no that isn't the trouble at all, she can pick up the food just fine, it is getting the food from her hand to her mouth that seems to be causing the issue. It is sort of a catch 22 because the food she eats has to be small enough so that she doesn' t choke on it, but big enough for her to pick up and hang onto for the long journey to her mouth. I have tried lots of different techniques. If I put a pile of puffs or Cheerios on her tray she just gathers them all up in her hands and makes little fists and the food just gets all sweaty and sticky. Keep in mind Ella is perfectly content to have me feed her. She doesn't have that "me do it" mentality yet. She is totally happy with me feeding her puff after puff directly into her mouth without her doing any work. I must say if the situation were reversed I'm not sure how motivated I would be either. While we were at the pool this past weekend waiting for daddy to bring lunch, I was feeding Ella some Cheerios and decided that she really has to start doing this herself sometime. So instead of putting them into her mouth I held one Cheerio out for her to grab. Something must have clicked because we had success with no less than 6 Cheerios. Yes, there were about 20 left under her chair for the birds to enjoy, but success none the less! We are well on our way to independent eating!
