7 Steps to get over a Skipped Dinner

You might have read before about our cute little dining table where Mara gets her meals most of the time. The table is on two yoga mats to contain the mess, but it relies on the baby to also stay only in that area until we are finished eating. Easier said that done, you would say.

Mara is actually pretty good about it, provided that:
- she is hungry
- the food is tasty / interesting
- you can see interesting stuff out the window while eating
- Mommy or Daddy is around so she can show them the food bits and/or feed them too
- there are no other big distractions, such as other people visiting or a toy begging to be picked up.
Given the above, the baby will regularly stay at the table.
During every meal, Mara forgets a few times and starts to turn away, but when you ask her whether she is all done eating she turns right back to the food.

Two weeks ago, we had an episode when this didn't happen.
I won't state what this says about Mommy's skills at cooking that day, whether or not the food I made may have been less than interesting. Let's just pretend she had eaten more than usual at daycare :-)

That day, Mara 'finished' her meal a lot sooner than usual. She had a few bites, then she decided the Zany Zoo cube looks way too much fun to spend any more time at the table.

I hugged her and asked her about three times if she was really done with eating.

I showed her the food on the table. She threw an stark, emotionless look at it, and turned away again.

I sighed: "All right, we can be done with food now, you can go play!" and cleaned it all up.

Roughly half an hour later, we had stepped out in the back yard. Mara seemed slightly clingy and wanted to be high in someone's arms the whole time. Maybe it was the better view combined with having less energy.
We were just gazing around, when Mara suddenly squirmed and reached toward the ground. I laid her down and watched.

Here's what to do when you've skipped dinner altogether.

Step one: Act like you're not really into the strawberry plant, even though you crawled in that direction as fast as possible.

Step two: As you got there, turn and look far behind you to check for witnesses.

 Step three: You take a second to ponder what you're about to do.

 Step four: You look shadily to the side to check if anyone sees you from there. You ignore the camera, that's not gonna work as proof in any court - it's just an object!

 Step five: You practice your balance for a bit to provide an alibi for why you're here in the first place.

Step six: You grab the strawberry, realizing how much hard work goes into getting food for yourself.

 Step seven: In your wave of emotions, you drop the strawberry on the ground.
You pick it right back up (2 seconds rule is roughly 2 minutes for babies).
You munch at the juicy fruit.