Mealtime With (An Almost) Toddler

Parker is an excellent eater and has been since he was introduced to solids when he was almost six months old. At first we bought a few jars of baby food, however we quickly learned that Parker preferred eating "real" food i.e. whatever we were eating, which we were totally a-ok with. Not only did this mean less meal planning, but when we were out and about it was easy to feed Parker whatever we were having (for the most part).

Now that Parker is eleven months old, mealtime has become a little bit stickier trickier. Parker prefers to feed himself which inevitably means that not only does his highchair require a complete wipe down after meals, so does Parker. I may not be able to prevent him from using his fingers as combs to spread his food throughout his hair, however I can try to keep his clothes a little cleaner. We try to use a plastic bib at every meal. I find plastic bibs are much easier to clean and afterwards you just hang them to dry. However, lately Parker seems to think that bib wearing is a game and that he must tear it off as soon as possible. Well today I had an Ah ha! moment. In our bib stash, I found some bibs that had snaps rather than velcro and taadaa...problem solved, well for this meal at least. I had bought a "Mystery Bag" from Baby Heist awhile back and within the bag of goodies were these plastic bibs from Smart Kids Play Garden. The bibs I received seemed a little girlish but for now, they work for us!

So after conquering the bib situation, it got me thinking about other items that we use to help make mealtime (with an almost) toddler a little easier. So here's a list of my top favs:

Parker @ Lunch - Prima Pappa high chair, The Little Lasso & Munchkin Click Lock

(1) Plastic bibs with snap closure - also if you can get one that is a catch-all, most of the food that doesn't end up in the mouths (or hair) will catch into the bottom of the bib.

 (2) KitchenAid Chopper - We didn't buy a food chopper that was meant specifically for babies because hey, we like to eat too! We received our KitchenAid Chopper as a wedding gift and we.are.in.love! It's easy to use for chopping and pureeing foods and I absolutely love the colour. 

(3) The Little Lasso - this was another goody from my Mystery Bag and I am soooo happy that we have one. I like this product so much that I purchased a second one to keep in our diaper bag. Parker loves to drink from a cup but he definitely has more fun throwing it onto the floor. With The Little Lasso attached to his highchair he can still throw his cup but it doesn't land on the ground which also means that our dog Maxx doesn't think to start licking it (yuk I know, but he is a dog). Little lasso's are great to attach to your stroller too!

 (4) High chair - We are currently using a Peg Perego Prima Pappa high chair that we bought used from an online garage sale site on Facebook for $50.00. I used a portable high chair while we were in Florida and it worked great, however while at home, I prefer Parker to have his own seat and keeping his mess to the washable tray. If we were to splurge and buy a NEW (gasp!) high chair I may go with the "Flair" from boon.

 (6) Munchkin Click Lock Trainer Cup - We have many different types of sippy cups however my favourite type is the Munchkin Click Lock. These cups have a tight seal and are SPILL PROOF!! Munchkin evens backs this up with a 100% replacement guarantee!

(7) A little organization goes a long way. We have three shelves in our kitchen devoted all to the little man. It may seem like a lot, but we like to have a place for everything. The photo below is of Parker's food shelf which is where we keep his cereal, cookies, Mum-Mums etc. We also keep our chopper and his lunch bag on the shelf. We keep a spoon, a bowl, a bib and some snacks in his lunch bag at all times - this helps to reduce the amount of time it takes to get Parker ready for outings.

(8) Baby Cubes - What you don't see on this shelf is a stack of Baby Cubes. Baby cubes are the perfect size for keeping leftovers for for little ones in the fridge.

Parker's Food Shelf

Below is a photo of Parker's cupboard. We bought bins from the dollar store - one is for his bottles and sippy cups and the other is for his utensils. We also keep extra Mum-Mums and Arrowroot crackers on this shelf.  We use a Tupperware for extra bibs and another bin for all of his bowls, plates and to-go containers. On the inside of the door we used two hooks to hang a couple of his bibs for easy access.

Parker's Mealtime Accessories

Hanging Bibs

(9) Boon Grass Countertop Drying Rack - I prefer to wash all of the babies dishes by hand and rather than stacking them in the sink, the Grass Drying Rack from Boon is perfect and I think it's very stylish (they now have a white version called "winter" ~ eek!). We also bought the Twig which is a great accessory to add more drying space for the smaller accessories.

(10) Munchkin Deluxe Bottle Brush - We have two of these brushes, one for Parker and one for us. These brushes are excellent for cleaning bottles and nipples - inside the handle is a nipple cleaning brush. Again, love the colours and we've been using these brushes for at least six months and have yet to show any ware

Boon Grass & Munchkin Deluxe Bottle Brush

Now the real test will be dinner time -will Parker still be wearing his "snappy" bib by the end of the meal??