Finger Foods

The advantage to having Luke feed himself? I can actually have a few peaceful bites of lunch myself.

The disadvantage?

The little monster seems pretty proud of himself, so I guess it's worth some mess. I just wasn't expecting quite this much.

This face means, "Hurry and put down some more food quick before
the Empty Tray Scream starts."

Lately we've tried Cheerios, Rice Chex, bread, carrots, bananas, pears, and blueberries.
Can you tell which are the biggest hit? 

I read online that you can help kids pick up slimy foods (like bananas, pears...most fruit, actually) by rolling them in breadcrumbs. We tried that with pears yesterday and it works like a charm, but I don't think we'll repeat the trick soon because we only have Italian breadcrumbs. (Although really, who doesn't love parmesan-oregano-salted pears?) Tried it with flour, too, but we just ended up with an even gloopier mess.

"I love you SO MUCH, mama! Come give me a hug!"

The kid had blueberry under his fingernails, I tell you. (Doesn't this
look like something out of a horror movie?)

When cleanup time came around, it was just too much to try putting him in the bath again--he had already had a bath that morning after peeing through his diaper and all over the crib the night before, and I just didn't have it in me to play the tub game for a second time in three hours. Wet rag worked okay. Despite the monkey's best efforts, the mess did not defeat me!

The "after" picture. "Let's do that again, mom!"

...not today, anyway. Tomorrow may be a different story.