eating time

I try hard not to be one of those mother's who's always comparing her child with other children her age. I figure that Bridget will pick up new skills at her own pace and it's okay if other kids do it first. After all, she isn't developmentally disabled. She will pick these things up eventually. Although I have to admit that when I saw an eight-month-old feeding herself cereal in church almost three months ago, I felt an eensy bit competitive. I wondered, Hey, could Bridget do that? She was almost eight months, after all, but hadn't had any cheerios up to that point.

Turns out, she couldn't. Bridget has been content to let me feed her up until now, and most days that's fine with me. She tends to eat more that way than she would otherwise, I suspect. But Friday night, instead of just playing with the cereal treats I put on her high chair tray (those Gerber Graduates things), she suddenly popped one in her mouth. Or tried to. Those treats tend to get a little sticky when they've been in her damp palm (they dissolve easily, thus the stickiness) and when she tried to put it in her mouth it stuck to her hand. She hasn't quite got the thumb/pointer finger grasp down yet, although she always pushes the cereal pieces around with her pointer finger on her tray. Even with her difficulties, she didn't give up. She tried it several more times, and since then has been picking things up off the floor and popping them into her mouth. Here we go. Now I've got to look for choking hazards. :)

Since Bridget finally decided to start feeding herself her cereal, I decided yesterday that I'll encourage her to hold her own bottle (and then soon--I hope--transition to a sippy cup). She likes to grab it and play with it when it's gone, even putting it in her mouth in hopes of getting more, but whenever I would try to give it to her full she'd just cry until I popped it into her mouth. Yesterday I decided to let her get going and then let go and see what she would do. The first time she cried. Then I let her drink a little more, put her hand on the bottle, and pulled mine away as it was still in her mouth. She held on and started tipping it up herself! She was doing the same thing again today, but she won't do a full bottle yet. I know, though, that when she can and will feed herself her full bottle, daycare Auntie will be happy! (She's got a kid a few months younger than Bridget now in addition to the older ones, so Bridget feeding herself would be a big help.)

I'm both looking forward to Bridget feeding herself and dreading it, though. I can't believe how fast this almost-eleven-months (on Saturday) has gone! I'm just treasuring every moment that I can and loving being a mommy.