Before Harlow turned one, her milestones were mostly things we couldn't control. When she rolled over, when she sat up, when she started crawling, etc.
Now, I find that when Harlow is ready to cross off new milestones, I am standing in her way. For instance, it didn't really occur to me she was ready to eat with a spoon and fork by herself. Feeding her was working out nicely and kept the floor clean, so why break what isn't broke?
Then Harlow started ripping the spoon out of my hand.
Point taken.
FYI- if you hold onto the spoon too tightly and your baby ends up snatching it from you anyway, there's the potential for a lot more mess than if you just let her have the damn spoon from the get go. (Excuse me, while I wipe the yogurt off my chin.)
Anyway— I thought I'd just give her a spoon to play with, while I kept my own spoon to do the actual feeding.
Nope, Harlow wanted that spoon too.
Okay. So I'll just hold the cup of yogurt so she can dip her spoon in. She'll be eating herself so that should suffice, right?
Nope. Harlow made it clear, through her infamous grunts and shrieks, she would prefer me to place the yogurt cup on the highchair tray, slowly back away and leave her to her own devices.
BUT WON'T SHE JUST KNOCK THE THING TO THE FLOOR AND CREATE A HUGE MESS?!
I'm sorry to break this to you, but this, my friends, is what we signed up for.
To minimize the mess, I ran to get a bowl with a suction cup on the bottom that we used when Mazzy was at the same phase. Only, all those bowls had been through the dishwasher so many times that the suction cups had shriveled. Not only did they no longer suction, they wouldn't even sit flat on the table.
How's that for screwing with a one-year-old on the verge of a new milestone?
It's actually been amazing to watch what Harlow can do when I back off. She makes a mess, but she also is able to get the majority of it in her mouth. And while a lot of food does get on the floor (she takes great joy in taking fistfuls of unwanted items and throwing them very dramatically to the ground), we haven't experienced an entire plate upheaval yet.
Harlow can even poke a fork in a piece of chicken! She's one for twenty but STILL— don't discount the one!
Of course, there are other milestones that her pediatrician tells me she is ready for, but Harlow clearly disagrees. Like transitioning from a bottle to a cup.
"OH HELL NO!!!" Harlow grunts. (I'm an excellent baby grunt translator.)
Last night, I spent a good hour looking through sippy cup options on the Babies”R”Us website. I even asked for starter cup recommendations on my instagram feed. I got over 100 responses— people are very passionate about their sippy cup choices!
One person suggested getting Harlow a cup with her favorite character on it. This sounds like a great idea. If anyone knows where I can buy a sippy cip with Mazzy's picture on it, please let me know.
Here are some of my favorite products (along with some cups my instagram followers recommended) when your baby is ready to self-feed:
1) Camelbak Water Bottle was probably the #1 recommended cup from people swearing bottle straight to straw was the way to go.
2) Boon Bowl with suction and spill catcher.
3) Munchkin Stay-Put assorted suction bowls.
4) Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Sippee Training Cup.
5) OXO utensils.
6) Munchkn Click Lock Sippy Cups to prevent spills.
7) Bounty paper towels. Buy a case. Obviously.
Here's another new development: the past three nights, Harlow has woken up at 4am because she peed through her diaper. YAY! So along with my sippy cups, my suction cup bowls, and a value pack of paper towels from Babies”R”Us, I ordered Pampers Extra Protection Diapers to use at night.
So there you have it.
Feeding herself, ditching the bottle (hopefully) and emptying her bladder with gusto. Just a few of Harlow's latest Milestone Moments.
Oh wait. Did I mention Harlow used the elevator by herself?
What's your baby's latest milestone?
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Check out the amazing Noelle Pikus Pace, U.S. Olympic Skeleton athlete and mother of two, who is teaming up with Pampers and Babies”R”Us to celebrate milestones. Noelle says "moms are in training every minute of every day" which is why she turns to products like Pampers available at Babies”R”Us. Learn more about Noelle’s story at babiesrus.com/noellemilestones.
Harlow just made me watch this video about fifteen times:
SPECIAL BABIES”R”US OFFER: From Friday 1/17 through Monday 1/20, receive $15 off when you buy 2 value boxes of Pampers diapers (78ct. or higher) in store only.
From 1/31/14 – 2/22/14, you can get FREE Pampers wipes (168-192ct, $7.39 value) when you buy any two select P&G items, like Pampers mega packs of diapers & Easy-Ups training pants (28-78ct, reg $18.99) and Bounty 12ct paper towels (reg $19.99).
This post was sponsored by Pampers and Babies”R”Us but all of the thoughts and opinions are my own.
A sippy cup with Mazzy on it wouldn’t be too hard to get. A lot of places will print a photo on a mug, surely someone does them on sippy cups. Failing that (and probably cheaper) why not get some vinyl stickers printed with pictures of Mazzy, or Mazzy and Harlow and put them on the cup you want. . . but probably get extras in case Mazzy wants a acup with a picture on it too.
For a week now, my son has been climbing the stairs by himself(he’ll be 16 months next Saturday) Before he would want one of his parents to hold both of his hands and walk up the steps. Now, he does the climbing without assistant. Which mean I am totally screwed…if I take my eyes off of him for one min, he’ll be 4-5 steps up the stairs already.
I would also recommend buying a piant mat that are being sold at toys r us to put under the easels to catch paint when preschooler paints. But I use it to put under the high hair to catch the food. Well most of the food since some would go flying across the room. This way, it would save the floor, some what.
My son is 14 months old and also started peeing through the diaper at night. We tried the extra protection diapers, but he still went right through those. We tried eliminating liquids at night- didn’t change a thing! So we resorted to diaper booster pads—-also known as what we will all be using when we are 80. Even though we laughed at using a glorified maxi pad on his diaper, it works WONDERS. So if the extra protection diapers don’t work I would highly suggest these–we got the “Tranquility TopLiner Mini Booster Pad Diaper Inserts” (found them on Amazon).
I am going to show those pictures of Harlow feeding herself to my five year old whenever he suggests I feed him because a) he is “too tired” to lift his spoon or b) (more usually) I am offering him a meal not in the pizza or pasta food groups. “Really son? You can’t even manage what this toddler does by herself??!!” He’ll never hear the end of it from his independent self-everything little sister either… Score!
Wipe their own butt, yay! It took five and six years because they didn’t want to maybe get the poopy on their hands.
the tervis website lets you put pictures on mugs! I think it’s time for baby’s first tervis… be careful… it’s a long, slippery, customized, addictive slope.
OMG that video of Harlow killed me, she is such a cutie pie! love her. I’ve never heard of those bowls with suction cups! that’s genius… My son is really passionate about doing everything by himself. I got him those bjorn bibs that trap everything that falls from their mouth (90% of the food in my sons case) and the big plastic mats that you can place underneath the high chair (they have Elmo and Dora), that way you just empty all its contents in the trash can and wipe after she is done eating. My son hated all the sophisticated sippy cups, … he learned with the take & toss sippy cups, I would just put very little water and he learned how to control the flow.
You’re brave to have her feed herself WITHOUT a bib. If I did that, she’s have no clothes suitable to wear in public.
here’s a cute option: http://www.babyfaceband.com/
Muchkin sippy cups LEAK big time after a few months…not little dribbles, but full on faucets of milk. Just saying…Playtex cups are my fave. No leaking due to inside gasket and they have taller insulated versions for when a kid is ready. Just sayin’.
Harlow gets majorly distracted by the bib and usually ends up ripping it off. I should get her a plastic smock that feels more like a shirt or something. Believe me, I would much rather use the bib!
That’s what we used with Mazzy- the take and toss cups. Harlow likes to hold them but doesn’t drink out of them.
Ha! I will check it out!
Oh my god, that will be the day. Do they do a good job though?
I will keep that in mind if the night time diapers don’t work. They worked for Mazzy so hopefully we won’t need the extra step but you never know….
The video is adorable! We don’t bother with clothes during mealtimes (with our 11 month old – trust me – I eat fully clothed). Straight from dinner mess to bath, no pulling food covered clothes over her head!
CafePress actually has photo sippy cups… so there you go! If you spring for it and it doesn’t leak, you’ll have to let us all know!
My son’s newest milestone is saying yes in proper context. He has said no ever since he was 15 months old and he’s 22 months now. It has driven me insane so I make it humorous as much as possible…
Is your name Noah? “no”
Are you white? “no”
Do you like yourself? “no”
All of those are yes’s by the way. Which he now says!
JEEPERS CATS she’s cute!
I still don’t let anyone in my house use Glasses (including myself), everything is plastic and for the boys, has a lid on it.
(I think I have an issue with messes…ahem)
Jacob has started saying “three” instead of “free” and even though they just turned 6 and HOLYGOODGOD they should be saying “three”, I am a little devastated.
I love seeing the girls growing up. JOY!
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Yay for Harlow!
I don’t mean to brag, but my 7 1/2 year old has mastered the milestone of eye rolling wayyy ahead of schedule.
You should have Mazzy drink from the take and toss cup in front of Harlow… since Mazzy is Harlow’s super hero, she might try to imitate her!
We tried the Camelback with our 15month old…. She found out that you can stick your finger in the straw… Which pushes it down into the cup , creating an opportunity to turn the entire cup upside down and dumping liquid onto the couch. The baby loved it and our 3yr old loved to engage in adding to the mess too. So that’s what we found out about the Camelback… Plus it leaks too!!!
Yes to the smock (Kushies makes them in addition to bibs)… we called it a dinner jacket!!
Yes, no skid marks. We also have flushable wipes for them.
Getting out of your kids way, that is totally the hard part! My kids are about the same age as yours. When my 4 year old was probably ready to be potty trained we were too busy moving from TX, to Germany for 2 months, then to upstate NY in temporary housing, yada yada yada. Finally got around to training her after her 3yr birthday since I was just finally getting the hang of two kids. Now, my almost 18 month old son is POTTY TRAINED. 1 year after his sister. I am just in shock. But it’s great. And it was SO MUCH EASIER then G at 3 years old. It has some challenges since he doesn’t talk so much yet and can’t pull his pants on or off. But it’s great. And he looks super cute running around our house half naked with little boy undies on. Now I just have to figure out how to balance the attention…I am always learning 🙂 I love your blog, thanks for the mama relief.
I don’t know if this is helpful or not but my daughter had a hard time with a sippy cup when first transitioning from the bottle but did great with a straw. We used these containers (http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?Prod_ID=RP091206&CatName=Beverage) until she was ready for a sippy cup.
Our latest ones are my Biggest discovering that he is in fact, able to choose things. We disenfranchised him in no uncertain terms though, when he tried to tell me that I was cleaning up his cheerios because he was choosing not to. Red or Blue is one thing, cleaning up or not cleaning up is not. My Littlest has just discovered being impatient. It’s ending on the same note as the choosing thing is. On another note: I have the Tommee Tippee ones, and they work great. I’ve also got the bigger version, the one without handles, and while the spout is different, the top behaves enough like a bottle that I have fooled the Littlest out of being upset. Good luck!
I took a couple of my sons long sleeve shirts (that were particularly unattractive 😉 and cut them down the middle in the back. Easy on and off and feels natural to them. Not as great as the waterproof bibs but at least his good shirts were spared from most stains.
My three-soon-to-be-four year old does not do a great job of wiping himself… to the tune of coming to me later in the day to loudly announce that his butt hurts. He then will proceed to drop trou where ever we happen to be to bend over and show me his butt. Didn’t phase me too badly until he did it at temple one night! Oh!My!Gosh! I died. Well… not technically… the last time someone did that they made a diety out of him… but you know what I mean!