Friday, December 15, 2006

feeding jenna

I'm baby sitting Hunter and Jenna today. When lunch time came it was easy to take care of Hunter. Just make him some pancakes and he's good to go. Now that Jenna is eight months old it takes a little ingenuity to get her fed. Here's how I accomplished it: I put her in her high chair and things went fine for the first ten spoonfuls, her mouth opening like a baby bird's whenever the full spoon of lasagna approached. But the edge was soon gone from her hunger and she looked around for something to play with. She rippped a few leaves from Dorothy's house plant, so I scooted the high chair further away. To get her back to the business of eating I used the time proven method of pretending the spoon is an airplane and her mouth the hanger, and it worked for a second. She turned around and stood up in the chair trying to reach for the plant. I believe for every problem there is a solution, so I removed her from the high chair and set her on my lap and continued to feed her lunch. She pulled a cup of coffee off the table and into my lap. (Fortunately the coffee wasn't hot and our Cocker Spaniel, Lizzie, licked it up off the floor so there's no mess to clean up) I put her back into the chair and tried to feed her more. She had finished half the jar so I called Kelly to see if that was enough. I had to end the phone conversation when Jenna got herself caught in the high chair. She had one foot caught between the slats at the back of the chair and the other between the slats at the side of the chair. It was like solving a puzzle getting her extricated. Then it was time for her formula.

I mixed her formula and sat in the recliner feeding her. She held the bottle with one hand while she pulled my beard, squeezed my nose, and pulled my glasses off with the other hand. I noticed then that both Jenna and I had considerable amounts of lasagna on us. I hope I didn't get any on grandma's chair. Dorothy will be home from work soon and we'll be taking the little ragamuffins home. I think I'll stop by the optometrist's office and see if he can bend my eyeglass frames back into their original shape.

3 comments:

Dawn said...

They will never go back to their original shape - one of the risks of being a grandparent!

lucylocket said...

Grandparents should be issued a third eye and an extra hand when spending time with their grandchildren. Your Jenna and my Levi are only a couple of weeks apart. Levi has started walking since the last time I spent time with him. I wonder if I will be quick enough to keep up with him.

Anonymous said...

charming post; we so rarely hear from baby-sitting grandpas. going to pass this along to the resident one in my space. yours, naomi