Thursday, November 17, 2005

Evolution of Dining With Zara

Here is how dining with Zara has evolved. 0 to 5th month When we had dinner, we let her sit in her infant carrier with some interesting things to examine. She was happy. 5th to 6th month She'd started solids, and able to sit supported. When we had dinner, we put her in the high chair, one hand supporting her back, the other spooned food to our own mouth and hers. We gave her something interesting to hold, she would bang the something on the table or chair noisily, and she was happy. 7th month She's able to sit on her own. We just had to give her some sound making toys, or something extremely interesting to occupy her during dinner time. She would sit in the high chair making music by banging the items on the table or chair, or dropping them on the floor (to hear what sound they could make). We had to take turns to eat, because feeding her, controlling the noise she was making (when other diners threw us glances) picking up the things she dropped was a full time job! 8th - 9th month She started cruising. She was not keen to sit still. If she had to, she would be dropping things on purpose, fretting to get out of the chair, or kept demanding for things beyond her reach (like the mobile phone, soya sauce bottle we placed out of her reach on purpose)! We had to take turns to eat. Feeding her, picking up things she dropped, as well as pushing things further away from her reach was a very full time job and require a higher skill level(I wish I was an octupus)! 10th month She started walking, and climbing. Trying to keep her seated on the high chair is a big chore. She's not that interested in her food, preferred to be on the floor walking. If we had to keep her in her chair, she would try to climb out of it, danger was not a concept she understood. Definitely, there's no way we could have a peaceful meal together. We had to take turns to bring her for walks, or if she still had not finished eating, we had to use 1 hand to force her down on her chair, and the other hand to spoon food into her mouth as well as push things out of her reach. 11th month She started having a keen interest to participate during meal times. She would sit in her chair, demands for her own set of cutlery (if none, she'll just climb out of the chair skillfully and grab the nearest set), and then using the fork, spoon or chopstick she will reach for other people's plate. She will also use her hand to grab rice from neighboring plates. So, to prevent her for robbing people's food, we let her have her own plate and spoon and put some rice in her plate. While we're feeding her her actual food, she'll pick up and push lumps of rice into her own mouth with her hand. Sometimes, even offering her food to us (which we have to pretend to eat or she'll get crossed). We could finally eat together again as a family. The after dinner mess however is another problem. This is an exaggerated pic (not her), but it's close to how she looks like after dinner... I wonder what is in store for us for the coming months.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amigo...who is that kid? walau...eh...mine wan not much different at that age lar.
anyway...I forgot how it was like, too busy to taking care the duo, I forgot a lot of things.

Sue said...

same same la, but just really have to make it clear that they must sit in the highchair, or else will be chasing after them with the spoon in your hand next time

Helen said...

The dirty phase will pass dun worry. lol

Hee hee I dun mind looking at pictures of messy Zara after dinner!! Fun and amusing for us but frustating for you. lol

King's wife said...

i was going to ask..how come dun look like her and why u buy a boy's shirt for her?
aiyo, so blur...

btw, who IS that kid?

Anonymous said...

Now I remember, I draw a comic about feeding the twins before--
http://www.mariahlc.com/blog/?p=83

blurblur said...

Hahahahaha...i can't help but LOL when i saw the pic..:D

Wow, another milestone, self feeding:) More "fun" on the way, Zara's mama...;p

Babe_KL said...

to prevent my boi from getting up any high chairs during meal time at restaurants, i got a portable seat wid a belt on it which can be attached to any normal chairs wid backing. so glad i did as dat chair had trained my boi to sit thru all meals from start till end. he will only start fretting when he's done wid his food. you might wanna get one too ;-)

Egghead said...

that last pic is the result of the SLR?? damn chun! nice catching of the moment also :)

Allyfeel said...

Woh...hahaha, Zara made all that mess? Mommy susah lo. Later if she starts playing masak masak lagi teruk.

Lazymama said...

Mine also same! :P But I dare not let her eat to the extent like the picture you posted at home, me no maid leh!

ZMM said...

maria,
Saw your post on feeding. It's amazing how you can handle 2 of them together.
After all these training, no wonder now you can multi task so well. :P

sue,
yeah, if feeding is done by me, I'll make sure of that, but my maid nowadays seems to like to place her in front of the TV. She just opens her mouth when she sees the spoon coming while her eyes glue to the TV.. I don't like it, but she's taking more TV meals nowadays.

king's wife,
someone sent the photo to me, don't know who's the parents.

yl,
got rotan or not? I'm worried I'll have to resort to that.

dinah,
yeah. But that is not Zara hor? Just in case you thought she/he was.

blurblur,
more fun, more mess. But that baby in the photo is not Zara hor.

babe_kl,
we have that also, but if you strap her down, she would scream and shout, and fling e.thing within sight. So have to remove the strap. :-(

egghead,
your flu medication must have muddled your eye sight. That is not Zara la.

allyfeel,
that photo is not Zara. Don't know whose kid is that.

jefferene,
me got maid also I won't let her eat until like that. I kept wiping her all the time if got rice went astray.

Twin said...

wah that kid is messing. that will never happen to my kids. i can't stand the mess. That's why when we are out for a meal, our table will have the most babywipes and tissues .. hehehe. Mommy and Daddy wipe table chairs and babies. Yeah hygiene freak. :)

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