showing off...

yesterday was thanksgiving lunch at james' daycare.  since the parents were invited, you know me and the hubs had to go.  we used to visit james at least once a week (sometimes two or three times!!!) during our lunch break when he was in the infant wing.  now that he's moved up to the big boy wing, he eats lunch around 11 o'clock and goes down for one nap directly following his meal.  this one nap falls right at our lunch time so we can't go visit often.  don't get me wrong, we still go there.  sometimes we just want to see him sleep.  sometimes we just want to say hi to his morning teacher.  sometimes we go and he's crying because he doesn't want to fall asleep so i get to rock him.  his teacher says that james often falls asleep before he can finish his lunch so that they must wake him up and make him walk around the classroom so he can continue to eat.  he really still likes to take two naps but tolerates one, i guess.
so, when we got to his daycare for our feast, james was the only one not in his chair.  he was climbing up the stairs to the slide and ready to go down until he saw me and then came over.  they said he looked tired so they were waiting until his food was ready to strap him in.  the daycare does a good job of combining kid friendly foods with healthy choices as well.  now, it's not an organic menu but we don't eat all organic menu at home so i cannot complain.  of course we like to eat as organic as possible, but it's just not what actually happens everyday. 
yesterday's menu was turkey, of course, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes with apple sauce for dessert.  they let the kids feel themselves and they give them a spoon to attempt to use hold.  at home, we let james feed himself some items but we do not give him as much freedom. 

this is why:

he was a mess.  obviously. just shy of hosing him down, he got a "bath" with a warm wash cloth.  he made a mess on the floor and it was just plain embarrassing.  i noticed other kids were messy but not this kind of messy.  the only saving grace is that the teachers were so kind and were quick to james' defense and said that he must be showing off for us because he's never that messy.  well, then.  thank you for the show, messy baby james.  i hope that our next thanksgiving dinner has more food in belly, less as paint.

oh, and i'm glad they put the full body bib on him yesterday.  several kids had them on and i thought they were ridiculous.  kids never surprise me.  and the dark spot on his ear isn't food.  they were making turkeys with stamps earlier.  i haven't seen the masterpiece yet but apparently it was messy too.  but no, the blue-ish, purple, red-ish spot on his forehead isn't stamp ink.  it's the remnants of the attack yesterday.