Mar 27, 2009

'DO NOT WIPE ME'

One of Jake's favorite meals is spaghetti. He LOVES it and insists on eating it all by himself, with no help from anyone. God forbid you try to feed it to him from a spoon ... he has to use his hands. In the picture below, he's just polished off a tray full of it.



But his LEAST favorite part of the meal comes afterward. He
is not a fan of the traditional -- and necessary -- wiping ceremony. He knows it's coming, and you can see his eyebrows magically contorting into some odd angle that only he knows how to achieve. They look like the flippers in a pinball machine.

Worried, he is. Worried that I am about to come at him with a damp paper towel: his nemesis. His right arm is already raising in a defensive move.



Then he starts the famed Bob-and-Weave, in which he ducks his head and tries to move his hands out of reach. His eyes are focused 10 feet behind me, on freedom.



When he realizes that resistance is futile, he just resorts to the tried-and-true Complete Come-apart.



And it is VERY HARD to clean a child who is that upset and moving around that much. On this day, he might have left the kitchen with a follicle of spaghetti between his fingers and a touch of meat sauce in his hair.


We might lay off spaghetti for a couple of weeks. I can only take so much of this.

5 comments:

Sarah T. said...

None of you boys liked the wipedown. Jakey most of all? I might need to see video.

Katherine @ Grass Stains said...

I'll see if I can get video. (I'm sure my other readers will be THRILLED to see video of this.)

Sarah T. said...

You don't have to post it, you can just email it to me. Either is acceptable (to me.)

purejoy said...

who knows how one makes it to a blog. seriously, i sometimes don't know. but here i am and i saw your pathetic little guy crankin about getting hosed off after a messy meal.
idea. . .
i used a baby washcloth the nice soft yummy ones. i used nice warm water, so it wasn't so shocking. and the washclothness made it a better picker upper than a papertowel.
no two ways about it. the papertowel gets cold quickly and lacks the uumph to get the crusties off. you may even want to let him play with it since you don't have to worry about him eating it.
i'd love to hear if this helps. it worked wonders for my kids!
how's that for some nice, unsolicited advice?? sorry, i just couldn't help it.
have a blessed week!

Katherine @ Grass Stains said...

Purejoy, Welcome! I've enjoyed knowing that you're here, and I've also seen you comment on Patrice's blog. Eventually we'll just claim you as family! Thanks for the tip about the washcloth; I've done that from time to time but am too lazy to add to my laundry most of the time. (Selfish much?) Ha!

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