can you baby a baby?

At Elijah's 9 months check-up, the doctor asked if his pincer grasp was developing. Well, it wasn't. Why? It's simple, he never gets a chance to practice! All food is delivered straight into his mouth in order to minimize the mess we'll have to clean up. Having come home we made a new resolution: cheerios for breakfast from this point on. Three days later the pincer grasp was in place, and two more days later he was able to put them in his mouth.

A few days ago, I gave Elijah a bunch of cheerios for lunch, about ten. The first one went straight into his mouth. While he was chewing it, he placed another one into the cup holder. A few minutes later, about a third of the cheerios were eaten, and the rest securely stored in the cup holder. I pulled them all out, and he proceeded to do the same. Again, when they were all either eaten or put in the cup holder, I pulled them out. The picture below is the third round of this process. (BTW, don't be fooled by the cute innocent look here. The child is as willful as... well, his parents...)


Having been satisfied with the pincer grasp progress, we once again relaxed and continued to work hard on keeping our lives as sterile as we possibly can. But exactly a week ago, we once again became concerned with his development. The new resolution was: finger foods at every meal. Elijah loved it! All that independence! He quickly got the idea that anything placed on the tray is meant to be put in the mouth (unlike things found on the floor, which we are still working on). The first day he happily played with the food he wasn't chewing at the moment, but the next day he immediately stuffed his mouth so full that food was falling out and he couldn't even chew it. That pattern continued for a few days, but he eventually figured it out. Now he seems to prefer finger foods to being spoon-fed.

Seeing how quickly he is catching on, we are wondering if we baby him too much. Perhaps he'd be ready for college by now if we weren't taking away all his opportunities for growth? :) So, we braced ourselves and accepted the fact that life is going to get really messy, and bought a spill mat. As soon as we get a few baby plates, Elijah will be allowed to wield a... SPOON!