Rebelling against neatness

We have always felt lucky that Maddie has been a clean baby. She's hardly ever had blowouts and was not apt to spit up. Most days, Maddie only wore one outfit. She hasn't needed the veritable fashion show that most babies we know seem to need. Lately, however, Maddie has rebelled against neatness. She has become a very messy kid, and how!

As Maddie crawls full speed ahead, over and around everything and anything that may get in her way, her shoes, pants, and hands attract more dirt and grime than I thought possible. While out playing at a local coffee shop yesterday, Maddie's hands turned a lovely shade of dark gray from crawling around for a mere hour! It's amazing. So, I keep lots of baby wipes and purell on hand for quick clean ups. As for any dirt that collects on her pants and shoes, well, we all just have to live with that.

The real source of Maddie's messiness is eating. Maddie has always been a good eater, for which Eric and I have felt very fortunate. Lately, however, Maddie has been rejecting our attempts at feeding her. At first we were concerned she was becoming a picky eater. After a day or two of trying different tactics to get her to eat, we came to realize that Maddie wasn't rejecting the food, she was rejecting the spoon. She was still very interested in eating, and, in fact, wanted the food, but wanted to do it herself. Since discovering Maddie's move towards eating independence, we have tried to compromise between letting her feed herself and making sure she gets an adequate amount of food in her mouth. Our tactics range from giving her Cheerios and then going for a "sneak attack" when she's trying to get a Cheerio in her mouth to letting her have her own spoon and some food on her try and then trying to get some food in any way we can. Most of her meals now end up looking something like this: