Tuesday Tips

Feeding time at the zoo is the biggest pain in my hiney. Not the actual feeding part, but the cleaning up part. You have a few choices when helping a young child learn how to eat. One, sit and fight them bite after bite so you can hold the spoon to minimize the mess. Two, release power of the spoon to your little cherub and prepare yourself mentally for the clean up afterwards.

Here's a few little rules to help you minimize the mess. Rules I obviously do not follow. Please, learn from my mistakes (or...laziness).


Rule #1: DO NOT forget to clean up after dinner, it makes breakfast that much more of a pain to clean up after.

I'm pretty sure she didn't have spaghetti, peas, AND cereal for breakfast.

Doesn't this look like fun????? I love cleaning up after every single meal time!!!! Do you notice the bowl on the floor in the corner? If we don't watch very carefully, all of Mallarys bowls, plates, cups, utensils, and her food end up on the floor after every meal.

(FYI: Technically, the job of cleaning up around the high chair after dinner is one of John's jobs, so if he doesn't do it at night, it is there to greet my in the morning. Fun times I tell you.)

Rule #2: DO NOT bother with a sippy cup at breakfast time. It goes unused and is just one more item to clean up off of the floor when your sweet angel is done eating.

Rule #3: DO NOT enlist the help of your older child no matter how tempting it may be. We are trying to minimize the mess remember?

Though this photo doesn't show it, usually Trevan gets uninterested and the moment I turn my back, Mallary has dipped her hands in the yogurt cup and the yogurt is all over her clothes, her hair, etc.

Rule #4: DO NOT leave snack time unattended. Even if you have to use the bathroom, or are running late and trying to do ten things at one time. Don't do it...

It's my own fault really. I know. This is nothing really to some of the messes I come back to. (Sometimes I let her eat her snacks in the floor, because she can climb out of her high chair, and if I know I will be running back and forth doing laundry, etc., and not able to watch her the whole time, this is easier for me.)

Running low on finger paint? Make your own!
Mallary's secret recipe: take one 100 calorie oreo snack bag, just add water and mix!
(Mixing with your fingers and your feet work best. You know its reached the right consistency when it has covered your clothes)

Rule #5: DO remember how cute they are when you are cleaning up their messes...

It does make it a little easier...