Food!!

This child loves her food. She gobbles up everything we put in her mouth. She stares in fascination at every bite I put in my mouth.

Feeding her is something else.

She is going to be a creature of habit. I say this because she does the same thing every time we feed her, with every bite.

She starts by yelling at the spoon. She throws her arms out to her sides and yells at the spoon before I get the food in her mouth.

She chews. (At 5 months, she chews!) As she chews, she brings her hands up and rubs her head; starting behind her ears, going up and over her head, over her eyes and nose, and stopping in her mouth.

As soon as I hold the next spoonful up, she starts over.

This results in cereal (or oatmeal or carrots) transferring from her mouth to her hands to her hair, ear, eyebrows, eyelashes, and entire face. It's ridiculous.

You can't really see it in the picture, but her face is literally covered in cereal, with a fine layer of carrots on top of it. It's in her eyelashes, in her nose, and in her ears. It's like a face mask. Her hands are covered, her chair is covered, and my hands are covered from her grabbing them on the way to her mouth.

Mom has said she used to have to put me and the highchair in the shower after I ate. I'm beginning to see why!

The First of Many

Well, here we are. Welcome to Best and Better Still! As you can tell, it is still under construction. The banner obviously doesn't match the background. I can't get any banners to actually stretch all the way across the top of the page. And I'm not sure if I like the giraffe banner or the pink background better. I'll get there.

This post is called the first of many. Partly because it is the first post here at BABS. Partly because its the first day back to school for teachers. Kids start Monday. But also because today was Cate's first day at daycare.

I will freely admit, I was a mess. Last night I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to get everything I just knew Cate could not live without today. This included extra formula, 2 (!) pacifiers, a bunny lovie, a blanket (even though she never uses them), 4 sets of clothes, and a gazillion diapers. I like to be prepared. :)

I did well this morning, I think. I dropped her off, got to school (only a couple blocks away), and made it allllll the way to my classroom before I broke down and sobbed. And that only lasted for a minute or so.

It was so much harder leaving her at daycare than it was leaving her with family at my house. Luckily, the day care is an in-home provided by the parent of a former student of mine. So at least I know she can keep kids alive. But still. I got to spend a grand total of 2 hours with my daughter today. Daycare wore her out. She was asleep by 7:20 tonight.

On the bright side, only 184 more days to go until summer vacation, and I can have her all day again. Not that I'm counting.