Apparently, Eating is Secondary

Everything goes much smoother in my mind…like mealtime, for example. 

In my mind, I would place healthy and tasty food for my daughter on her tray in the high chair, and she would obediently (and cleanly) just pick up the food and eat it.  She would take a drink when she was thirsty, and place it back down once the thirst was satisfied.  Food and milk would never touch the floor, she would be in a pleasant mood, and our hair would always be clean at the end of each meal.

Apparently, this is NOT the case with a growing, curious, on-the-go 14 month old!

Let me be the first to say that so far, my daughter has been a GREAT eater.  She will eat anything, from zucchini, to eggplant, to meatballs and sloppy joes!  And usually, she eats quite a bit.  But lately, eating seems to be secondary once she hits the high chair.

Sure, she’ll eat here and there….but not before she holds the green bean up in the air to show it to everyone, then puts in her mouth (still holding on to it), only to pull it out, re-examine it (in case it actually wasn’t a green bean like she had just proclaimed), then squeeze it to make sure it  mushes up like a green bean, then shake her hands in excitement when she sees that it is in fact a green bean, only for that poor little green bean to end up on the floor, in her hair, on the high chair, and splattered across her face.

And that’s only a green bean.

Any great tricks to get your budding toddlers to actually eat their food?  It’s not that she is picky (yet, at least), it’s that she is much more interested in making a mess and requiring a bath after meal time than she is in actually eating it.