Conversation at the Family Dinner Table
Since Bean and I both started school last week, we have started having family dinners around the dinner table together. Before, we weren’t on a very good schedule and so Bean usually ate first before Chris got home and then Chris and I would eat after Bean had gone to bed. Now though, we all come home around the same time and so we all sit down to eat together. I love it. It gives us time to see each other face to face and it also gives us a chance to work with Bean on self-feeding.
I don’t know about anyone else, but the self-feeding at our house is quite the ordeal. Bean makes the biggest mess, mostly because he won’t stop throwing things! And spaghetti noodles in tomato sauce launched across my dining room is not pleasant. We used to take away his utensils when he started making messes, but we’re changing our tactic here lately. I don’t think he was learning anything by us just removing everything from him. So now, we let him make the mess while we correct him or show him the right way. And sitting down to dinner together actually seems to help, too. I think seeing us eat the correct way helps him learn.
Besides all that, eating together is just…well…entertaining.
Case and Point: Tonight’s Dinner Conversation
Chris: How was your day?
Me: It was long, but good. My classes were really talkative today, but I think it was just because it was Monday. How was your day?
Chris: It was good. I have to meet the AC guy at work tomorrow morning, so I’ll be leaving the house with you guys.
Me: Oh, okay.
Chris: Bean, how was your day?
Right on cue, Bean picks up his entire plate of applesauce of spaghetti and dumps it straight onto his head before we can stop him.
Bean: Mooooore! Mooooore!
11 Comments
Tabitha (From Single to Married)
Love it! That Bean sure knows how to add to the conversation! 🙂
Nate's Mom
Ok…I feel better about things now. There was a picture of Bean eating with a plate in front of him. I showed it to my husband and said, “Holy crap! Bean eats off of a plate instead of the high chair tray like Nate does! Gosh. Nate would just take that plate and throw it. Look at Bean! Such a polite young man. Eating off of an movable plate….” Our pediatrician told me that we should just cover the walls and floors and let Nate at it to learn how to eat with silverware etc. I think the pediatrician should come to my house three times a day to clean up the mess. (I’ll be nice and clean up snacks…)
Kat @ Living Like the Kings
aww I know you’re probably not looking at it that way since you’re the one that has to clean it up but that’s so stinkin’ cute.
cavegirl
he is very eloquent for such a young man 🙂 have you covered your entire room in plastic bags yet? would make clean up so much easier
Mariposa
Haha! I’m glad that you are able to have dinner together as a family. I think it’s important. Especially when the kids get older. 🙂
Kendra
Where is the picture??? That would be great for when the girlfriends start coming around.
Christina C.
Lol! How funny (from the outside)! So glad to have the Brown’s back, missed your blogging!
Mindee@ourfrontdoor
I hate to tell you this, but I’m still working on “self-feeding” with my teenagers who seem to feel that utensils are optional, talking while eating is acceptable and messes will clean themselves up.
Kim
Granted my girls are 8 and 10 now, so my memory may be foggy. Also, I am guessing the “parental guidelines” may have changed again too, so please take with a grain of salt. I found it was easier to have one goal at a time. I.e. if your goal is to remove yourself from the equation and have Bean feed himself, at under 18 months, he really doesn’t need a plate or utensils. I just put food out on my girls high chair or booster seat tray and let them stuff it in their mouths. If they were eating something like yogurt or applesauce, then that was the only thing there, no veggies or spaghetti or what have you. I would sit closer and help with guiding the utensil to the mouth if necessary and catching the bowl before it went flying. Maybe there’s too much for Bean to figure out at once? I guess I never had the ability to do too many different things at once with my kids. Anyway, good luck. I found it was always best to do bath right after dinner too. Especially on spaghetti night. There was always a lot of sauce in the hair. The dogs always knew to station themselves under the kids’ chair. They still do actually. My kids are still messy, but luckily they don’t expect me to feed them. I think kids just don’t see the mess and they just don’t care about it. I figure by the time they are in Jr. High or High School, maybe there will be peer pressure to not be so gross. Good luck, sorry to have written a novel here.
Megan @ Red Dirt and Crazy
Oh Lordy…my OCD would have gone into OVERDRIVE!! Your such a good mom!
We have just started trying to use a plate more. Mostly because I’m sick to death of cleaning the high chair tray. However…it still gets used as a plate quite frequently. Especially when she acts like she is getting ready to send it flying.
Ahhh the joys!
🙂
Megan
Diurla
Bean is at such a funny age and not to mention he’s ridiculously adorable!