Monday evening was the first time we put Jack in his high chair. We got it out of storage a few minutes before dinner, and we were so excited that we didn’t even think to adjust the straps before putting him in it. Poor son. At least it kept his head from bobbing to the side. 
He’s been a regular table guest since he was born. For the past few months, he has sat on my lap and watched us eat, or just nursed contentedly while we dined. He has also sat on my lap numerous times at restaurants, although I haven’t quite gotten up the nerve to breastfeed in public. I find nothing wrong with it….I’m just shy like that. By the time we have our 2nd or 3rd child though, I’ll probably “plop it out” anywhere. Anyway, back to meal times….We feel that including him in every meal gets him accustomed to adult eating styles and habits. Lately, however, he has increased in the use of his “reaching” and “grabbing” skills, and it’s becoming a little too haphazard to have him so close to a hot plate of food. He’s at the point right now where his biggest goal in life seems to be pulling the plate I’m eating from down upon himself. Luckily that hasn’t happened yet though as I’ve been pretty vigilant in stopping any potential accidents.
So, since Jack was introduced to rice cereal this past weekend, we thought it was the perfect time to introduce him to his high chair as well. He seemed to enjoy having his own special spot during dinner time! He also took to eating with a spoon fairly easy – much easier than I expected. Dinner proceeded with me feeding Jack-Evan a spoonful or two of his food (with me and daddy making a HUGE amount of proud-parent praise, of course), then with me eating some of my own food. Conversation took place as usual, with Jack being included as if he were an adult as well. Family meal time is very important to us, and we hope to instill this into him as well. No TV viewing is allowed, candles are always burning, we eat off of “real” plates (pretty blue willow ones), and sometimes I have soft classical music playing. It’s very relaxing for all of us.
As our (adult) meal was winding down, Jack had already finished off his portion of rice cereal and he was just sitting there happily watching us chit chat. At one point, I picked up a toy that I had set on his tray for him – it’s this bright colored clicking thing that has three triangles that twist. It’s really fun actually (little things amuse me). In fact, I think mommy has more fun with it than Jack does (shhhhhhh… don’t tell). But anyway, I had picked it up to show Kevin how cool it was, as I had just gotten it out of storage earlier that day. I didn’t realize at that point that Jack was paying attention to me. Upon finishing showing the toy to Kevin though, I turned around to give it back to Jack and he was watching me with the most curious expression on his face – then he burst out laughing. HARD. Of course that made me laugh, and, realizing the toy is what caused the outburst, I started playing with it and this made Jack laugh even harder. All three of us then spent the next 30 minutes laughing our tushies off. Up until this time, Jack had never shown any interest in engaging playfully with a toy!
Here’s a glimpse into just a few seconds of what life was like at our home Monday evening….
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I love sitting down to dinner with my little family. That’s very important to us as well.
I can’t believe how big Jack is getting! Such personality! We might have to introduce him and Ladybug someday!
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