Big Boy Chair

Max has spent countless hours in his bouncy seat starting the very first day we brought him home from the hospital. It has been by far our most used piece of "baby gear" as it is easy to move and is a safe and secure spot to put Max down while we do grown-up things like shower, cook, eat, and other daily tasks. Our tiny baby is growing up and in the past few weeks has begun expressing his displeasure (to put it mildly) of sitting in his bouncy seat on the floor while we eat dinner. Often, I end up picking him up and eating dinner with him in my lap as it seems to be the only sure fire way for Ben and I to talk and eat dinner in peace (note that this is much more difficult than it sounds as I have to navigate hot forkfuls of food from my plate to my mouth while steering clear of grabby baby hands).

Our inconvenient seating arrangements combined with the knowledge that Max will be starting solids very soon, made us decide to get his booster seat/high chair out of the box! To save space in our small kitchen we opted for a booster seat with a tray that attaches directly to one of our kitchen chairs instead of a traditional highchair. From the moment we put Max in his seat he seemed so happy! He can't sit unassisted just yet so he kind of flopped to one side when he was in the seat (it has straps that go between his legs and around his waist, but not over the shoulders). We ended up putting two rolled up kitchen towels beside him to prop him up side to side, and the tray pushes in far enough that it keeps him from flopping forward.

It was quite clear that Max loved sitting with us at the table and it was the first meal in a long time that was not spent trying to quiet a loud baby. Instead, we were all laughing and having a great time and it truly felt like we were having a family dinner with all three of us around the table.

We gave Max a bowl and spoon to play with while he sat in his chair so he could start getting used to them before we start solids. Unfortunately he kept sticking the spoon too far in his mouth and would gag himself so we took that away and gave him some teething toys to play with instead. He loved trying to eat everything (what else is new? ha!) and banging on his tray with his hands. The next morning at breakfast we tried playing some games where we would hide a toy underneath his bowl and see if he could figure out how to get the toy out. So fun! I can tell we have many fun family meal adventures ahead of us.