Testing the limits of the carpet cleaner

Cutie Pie has started a new battle of wills. It's anybodies guess when he will abruptly end a meal by throwing his tray across the room.

As you can see, Cutie Pie has discovered an interesting quirk of our otherwise perfect highchair. It has a clear plastic tray that nests on top of the pretty wooden tray. This way the baby eats off the plastic, washable part but the chair still looks nice and matches the dining room furniture. This feature was important to me when we bought the chair because our house is small and there was no where to store a high chair. The baby's chair was going to be right out there 24/7 and I wanted it to blend in with the rest of the decor. I have since given up on such illusions, as you can probably tell if you look back at the pictures of my living room covered with a garish baby mat and littered with toys.

I am open to suggestions on how to manage this messy dilemma. We bought one of those booster seats that pull right up to the table but he throws his little baby plates and bowls around the room with reckless abandon so I prefer to use the highchair where he can eat off the tray. At least the tray is big and easy to catch before it hits the floor.

This whole thing started as a protest by Cutie Pie when we didn't feed him fast enough. Cutie Pie prefers to scoop all his food up in one handful and shove it in his mouth, often choking in the process. To avoid having to use CPR at every meal, we had to be more careful about giving him small bites and pacing him through the meal. However, sometimes Cutie Pie eats those bites in a matter of seconds. If you mistakenly turn your attention to your own plate, you are in trouble. I've had to learn to eat with one hand holding down Cutie Pie's tray and the other hand cutting up Cutie Pie sized bites. If only I had three hands so I could feed myself!

http://theadventuresofcutiepie.blogspot.com/