Bug

Miss Orneriness

You might think everything is peaches and cream here in Baby Bugville with all the smiling cutie patootie pictures I post all the time. It is not so. Baby Bug is not all smiles and soft chubby cheeks. She is very very ornery. She has a streak of obstinance the size of a stinky skunk tail running right through her. Her German relatives on both sides would be very proud. She is MISS Orneriness herself. If there was a contest for baby will power, she would win hands down. Thankfully, she has a cheerful disposition most of the time so the orneriness is tolerable. But boy do I have a lot of work ahead of me. I don’t even like to think about the subject of discipline. It gives me a headache.

This week Baby Bug decided that she no longer wants to eat baby food. She doesn’t even have any teeth yet but she insists that she is a toddler and can eat all of her food with her hands. She likes to feed herself. She has pincer fingers and she can use them. She likes rice crispies and little pieces of cheese and bits of banana. All that other mushy stuff is for babies. She’s too big for pureed beets and green beans and yams. Oh no! Yams are not coming near her lips. If they do, then she spits them out with the wrath of an angry mule. I have made the mistake of feeding her while wearing white two times. If she can reach the bowl that I am holding, she will dump it on the floor with a satisfying splat.

They should make a video game with the object of the game to get the spoon of baby food into the baby’s mouth. As you progress through the levels of difficulty you could battle the waving arms, the spitting, the sneezing and of course the twisting around in her highchair and grabbing at everything. Sometimes I feel like I’m playing miniature golf and I’m trying to putt my ball into the very last hole where the windmill arms keep whipping in front of the hole and getting in my way. I’m definitely honing my skills in the patience department.

The eating strike was not all Baby Bug had in her bag of naughty tricks this week. She also decided that she was too big for naps too. I had just finally gotten into the rhythm of two naps a day (it was sooooo nice) and then one day she up and decided that two 15 minute snoozes, while riding in the car, was plenty of shut eye. She says, “I’m already beautiful, I don’t need beauty sleep.” HA! She does need it. She turned into willful flippy worm baby who refused to nurse, who refused to let me change her diaper AND refused to even smile at her Daddy who usually brings grins from ear to ear. Hail to the Queen of Grump.

Phew!

Thankfully after a dreadful two days, she seems to have returned to the angel baby that she was before. I finally gave up on the food war and let her starve. Not really starve. I just offered her food and when she refused it, I washed it down the drain with a little tear running down my cheek because I worked so hard to make those little cubes of frozen baby food. Letting her win worked like a charm. After missing a few meals, she nursed heartily and ate all of her dinner last night and breakfast this morning. And currently she’s taking a very nice long nap which is why I am finally having a minute to post this blog.

25 Comments

  • Jennifer

    This is all giving me a good giggle. I’d probably be laughing a lot more if I wasn’t going through it myself. Must be the age. I’m given those exact same expressions in the highchair. The pureed stuff isn’t as popular as it used to be, that’s for sure. All of a sudden the Zwiebck toast that was the alltime favorite is hated and I where do I get the nerve to put it on her tray? We’re toothless as well but I’m shocked at what my babe is willing to gum.

    Good for you for regaining control. Sometimes it’s hard for me to make a stand like that, but it’s worth it in the end.

    I still like to think that Baby Bug is all smiles and chubby cheeks though :P

  • Felix

    All the fussiness could mean that teeth are on the way. Baby Felix was not herself for a few days and then, all of a sudden, she had two teeth!

  • kate

    stu had fun seeing miss ornery yesterday! she is quite
    a cute little rascal- next time you need a latte to the
    rescue you just let us know! :) kate and stu

  • Wendy

    Yup, sounds normal. Just when you think you’ve gotten them figured out they go and change up the game. My guess is some teeth are on the way, too. Both my kids would suddenly not sleep and not eat and boom…teeth!!

  • CrankMama

    Ahhh yes…. the stubborn child. I know her well (I have 3 daughters)… The upside is those naps (when they happen) are like balm to the soul.

    Keep up the good work!

  • Saartje

    If you want to add more variety to her finger food repertoire, try cutting small pieces of watermelon. At least, that was a favorite to my Bitty Bug at that stage.

  • Melissa

    You do realize that she looks just as cute cranky, right? She kills me.
    Such a precious doodlebug. She also appears to have the arms we all dream of having. Baby bug, I am jealous of your perfectly toned baby arms. You put Linda Hamilton (a la Terminator 2) to shame! ;)

  • MamaBear

    I kept laughing at your story, pretty witty. I love this part: “she spits them out with the wrath of an angry mule.”
    My baby this week (6.5 mo) decided that she no longer likes the formula, only the baby food (cereal with fruit). Who can blame her, really, the special hypoallergenic formula she is on tastes badly, but she’s allergic to regular one. So she’d refuse a bottle, but she gobbles up the wheat cereal with fruit. She’s been pretty picky with types of baby food- only pears and plums will be eaten, sometimes apple sauce, but never green beans or peas. So I bought all the organiz pears and prunes they have at the local chain stores… left empty shelves. I wasn’t sure what to do about not drinking the formula, so I just ingored it, but mixed some with the cereal. Hopefully she goes back to drinking more of formula soon, right now she will drink mabye 1/4 or 1/2 bottle.
    Didn’t we want our baby’s “Personality” to emerge? Well now I guess it did!

  • Isabella's mom

    You know, any time I found myself looking at Isabella and saying, What is Wrong with you? – she almost every time was not feeling well. Patience, patience. I think you did exactly the right thing. What a great mom you are!

  • Daisy Mae

    Holy cow, where did you get that pic of my daughter? sure she is 25 now, but that was HER at that age, I swear.

    You didn’t have TV on did you? I was thinking that maybe Baby Bug saw an episode of Maury where the guests have 7 month old babies that eat fried chicken and hamburgers. ect. Maybe that gave her ideas, eh?

    Good luck with that!

  • Carrie

    She sounds like MisterE. He won’t eat anything if he can’t pick it up himself, though lately I have been able to get some fruit and yogurt down him. Instead of buying the baby yogurt I’ve been mixing in my fruit ice cubes with organic whole milk yogurt and it’s way cheaper and is clearing up my freezer. These babies can be so stubborn!

  • american girl

    Ha! It must be the age–Cate will eat just about anything you give her (as her size will attest), but she may well moan and groan through it all. And we’ve had nursing strikes, too. Those are about enough to send me over the edge. And yet, she continues to thrive (as is Baby Bug, I’m sure!). I guess we all have our “off” days…why should babies be any different?

    What really gets to me is the whining, whining, whining every time she can’t see me. Good grief, child, I’m just around the corner, not leaving YOU on the STREET corner. Although maybe I’d like to. Sometimes.

  • Marissa

    I love these photos. I think this should be the next spy cam slideshow! At least the one where she looks supremely frustrated – it’s cracking me up for some reason. The poster-child of frustration!

  • BeachMama

    Sounds to me like she may be getting her first tooth or two. Keep checking out her gums, they may pop through any day now. Or she could have just been having a bad couple of days, but a new tooth sounds so much better.

    Not sure if you have heard of this before, but I used “Camillia” for teething. It is a homeopathic remedy that doesn’t numb the mouth and it worked like a charm for my little guy.

  • JustMe

    Uhm… I really hate to nitpick something another parent does… please don’t think I’m doing so…. Just wanted to let you know that I read somewhere to avoid giving babes beets because they are high in nitrates….. I’m sure some is fine just not a lot…. but you know best, you are the mom, and they are thousands of articles of what to and not to do and most of them are contradictory….

  • josephine

    I read that also. She’s old enough that she can have them in moderation. I read that it’s dangerous when they are younger than 6 months. Same thing goes for carrots. And not all root vegetables have high nitrates, just some depending on where they were grown… I don’t know the specifics on the beets I bought at my grocery store but I’m taking the risk.

  • Tammy

    I hear you. James decided that he didn’t like baby food as well at about 7.5 months..I think that it was a texture thing because I am the same way and he is not picky about taste as much as he about how something feels. Anyway…he transitioned over to table food in about two weeks and it worked fine. It takes a little thought to figure out how to give them food they can eat. Your approach was great!

  • carrien

    Try giving her the spoon. Yes she will make a gigantic mess, and it will not end up in her mouth, but while she holds her spoon you can sneak an awful lot into her mouth with a different one. It worked on my two. They just wanted to feed themselves and mush wasn’t the problem, just not controlling it.