Messy Mister, Messy Missy!

So, over the last week, we've been experimenting with some bigger kid food. It's time for the babies to start chewing small pieces of well-cooked food. We started with the 3rd foods in the jar, but for some reason, that really weirded them both out. They would choke on the small pieces, because they were unsure what to do with them. But they chew toys and teethe on stuff constantly. So, I decided to go about this backwards. I started to give them small pieces of macaroni (dad only makes it every other day, so we have quite a lot of it around), just placed on their high chair trays. They immediately went to picking it up and putting it in their mouths. They chewed and swallowed. All good! We also tried pieces of egg noodles from the beef tips with noodles that I made on Sunday, as well as some cooked carrot, potato and chicken pieces that were from my chicken and dumplings. All of these foods went over very well. When they picked the items up and decided to eat them on their own, there was no choking. So, after having them practice chewing for a few days...we went back to the jarred food with little pieces. They did MUCH better. Once they realized that there was something chewable, they knew to chew. I also gave them their first teething biscuits the other day, and they LOVED those. Now, all of this food experimentation is VERY messy. So messy, in fact, that their dad can hardly stand it. He has issues with messiness. I don't like that they are covered from top to bottom in food, either, but I know that it is part of the developmental process, and therefore, must be endured. Plus, there's always the bathtub. So, here are some pictures of Alec and Emma covered in food. Alec is sporting his "scrunchie" face. He wrinkles up his nose and purses his lips and huffs and puffs, usually to make a point. It's pretty funny. You can imagine how fun it was for me to clean all of this up... them, and the highchair.