Family dinner

I'm totally getting into this new chapter that we're started with Eloise. Eating solids. Her consuming something other than breast milk opens up all sorts of exciting possibilities for us. Of course we're only on rice cereal a couple of times a day and some water here and there, but it's a start and I'm way into it.

For those who know me, you need not be surprised that as soon as we took this turn into the solid food arena, I immediately immersed myself in "all things Eloise eating". So as you can guess, I'm knee deep in high chair research, I'm checking out organic baby food brands (and whether or not I should consider making my own baby food) and......effective immediately (actually it started last night), we are now eating family dinner each night at the table together. I love this tradition. I was raised this way and so was Mike. A childhood tradition I now really appreciate and looking back, I realize what a luxury it was. 

Each night when everyone got home from work or school, we'd sit around the table and eat dinner together. It was a great way to be a family and enjoy each other's company, talk about our day and also - to my parents delight - exercise the necessities of life like being force-fed gross vegetables and learning table manners like saying things such as "may I please be excused?" (don't say "can I please be excused" - that won't fly.) This was the only way we were allowed to leave the table. Serious business around the Reed dinner table:).

Ok, I know what you're thinking....she's only 6 months old. She's not going to be talking for what 18 months? And I realize she barely understands the table is a place for eating let alone all of the other childhood lessons she'll learn, but what better time to start than now?  She may not be eating a full "meal" quite yet but I like the idea of her getting used to dinner time routine and seeing how Mike and I interact with each other. How we have this time together as a family to catch up but also, create a place where she can learn about sitting at the table, eating at the table, some day learning table manners like I did, etc.

So you're wondering....how did it go last night?  Our very first family dinner together? It was a complete disaster. Complete and utter chaos at it's finest but hey, it was a start, right? Lol. Ok, 'complete disaster' is a slight exaggeration but it was nutty. I won't lie. We had the Hippo chair all hooked up, I had our place settings ready to go, had the left overs reheated and it was time to eat. Eloise was going to be enjoying another bowl of rice cereal but this time I mixed it with water (wanted to give that taste a test drive). So together we all sat down to begin our first family tradition - dinner.

1 spoonful in and Eloise spit it out in a flash. Water/rice cereal combo - Denied. I tried a couple more scoops - it was a 'No Go' so I threw it out and went back to the breast milk/cereal combo. I sat back down and tried to give her more and she wasn't interested. No prob. We moved on to toys while Mike and I ate. Then Eloise promptly took every single toy placed in front her and threw them on the ground. Mike and I would rotate picking them up, then we'd place them in front of her and we'd repeat. We're suckers, what can I say? This went on until we both tired of picking up toys and instead just ate and chatted. But her sitting there with no toys, no food and nothing to do wasn't going to last long so we quickly shoveled our food in and did a "1, 2, 3 break" and family dinner was done. Exactly 11 minutes after it started. Like I said, it's a start, right?? Lol.

Mike's out of town for the rest of the week so I'm going to give "family dinner" another run tonight just the two of us. A couple more go-s at this exercise and she'll love it. Of course she will! Well, maybe I'm getting a little too excited about something she won't completely comprehend for a long time but I like it and I'm going to keep at it. Someday she'll look back at these family dinners and really appreciate them. Just like me, she'll probably realize this when she's 34 years old with her own baby. Hilarious.

Random pics from yesterday morning pre-Drs appt.