Eating the Puffs

January brought an important milestone for Macie.

With the addition of Puffs to her diet, Macie was finally able to feed herself her very own food.

This is a big deal to a Mommy.

It means that her Little is on the path to eating-independence.

Mommy's don't realize how demanding feeding a Little is until they must do it.

(They can even forget between one Little and the next.)

Someday Mommy won't be required to feed Little every single bite of food that enters her mouth.

Maybe Mommy will be able to finish a meal of her own.

Someday.

But also, 

Feeding that baby, though consuming, is concurrently so fulfilling.

And can feel like the most important thing that Mommy has ever, ever done.

Self feeding is a big, big milestone.

It means -

Little is less and less of a baby every day.

And someday Little won't need Mommy.

Mommyhood can be so paradoxical.

So, I was a little teeny tiny bit sad on this day.

But mostly happy.

Because she was so very happy too.

And so obviously proud of her accomplishment.

Soon she was placing puffs carefully in a bowl, and dumping them back out.

I just can't get over the precision that it takes to get a puff off of a tray and into a mouth.  It amazes me how much a baby learns in their first few months.  It's remarkable, really.

And so's my not-so-Little, Macie Drew.