Letting Go

In spite of the usual state of my house, I am really not a big fan of mess; particularly mess that I can control.  For this reason, I have resisted letting TheBen feed himself...(also, maybe because he's the baby and the baby is not big enough to feed himself.  Even though he will be turning two this year.)  However, we've had a bit of trouble getting Ben to eat enough at dinnertime which results in the 4am cry for warm milk...which is getting really old.  He has always been interested in feeding himself and when he was in daycare they talked about what a great eater he was and how he LOVED to feed himself.  Also, we were very impressed with (cousin) David's ability to feed himself with minimal mess.  So, this morning I decided to try it...if he made a mess it would be okay....that's why we have a perpetually hungry yellow lab around, right?  However I was surprised at how well he did!  Clearly mommy was holding him back all this time...here are the pictures:

When I first gave him the bowl of cereal he mostly just jabbed at it (I think he liked the little splashes of milk it made).  Eventually, however, hunger took over and he got busy...

He preferred the spoon upside down.

Mad self-feeding skills!

When we got close to the end, he couldn't resist dipping his hands in, and cereal became finger food.  Since he was not tipping (or throwing) the bowl, I didn't mind.  Chassie  was a very disappointed puppy though!

He ate a great breakfast and really seemed to enjoy himself...I guess mommy is going to have to let the boy feed himself from now on-sigh.  Whatever keeps the kid happy, right!?