Breakfast Morphs into Undercover Body Art Project

Posted on April 24, 2012 Updated on April 24, 2012

As I have stated in the past, Maddie is a spectacular eating machine. She has mastered a wide variety of foods across the eating spectrum. She tears into each bite with an unbridled exuberance that is difficult to properly describe. But there are days when her eating is just for show.

These are the dog days of eating when you don’t discover that the baby wasn’t actually eating until you lift her up. It turns out that our 40-minute eating session this morning was nothing but a mirage. Maddie the illusionist seemingly destroyed multiple chunks of banana, watermelon and bagels. I was sitting right there in front of her watching her place the chunks into her mouth and go to work.

I noticed a few pieces fall by the wayside down into the depths of her lap, but didn’t really give it a second thought. Sometimes there is a little collection of chewed food to pick through after Maddie has been sprung from her chair. I expected some cleanup after our meal today, but I was not prepared for the power and the glory of what Maddie had compiled today.

I removed the high chair table and stopped dead in my tracks. Maddie’s bare legs were camouflaged in this morning’s full array of breakfast. From the waste down, it appeared as if Maddie’s legs were made of fruit and bread. It was like a three layer baby bean dip with exotic watermelon pinks on top, creamy banana in the middle and a flaky crust of wet bagel dough as a base covering her skin.

The watermelon pieces were all chewed down to about the size of raisins and the bananas looked to be straight out of a blender. The bagel doe was not as refined as the rest of the dish, but it was still most impressive. What strikes me is that this was all somehow put together while I sat right in front her while her hands were placed on top of the table.

When I lifted Maddie out of the chair, even more ingredients began spilling out from hidden places all over the floor. It dawned on me that I never got to taste this baby dip, but the grades are in. Maddie scored high marks for execution and presentation and an “A+” for stealth and sneakiness.