Attitude

So Chloe is a very good baby. She is usually very easy to deal with. She rarely cries and is usually always happy. I'm sure it's because I'm usually always paying attention to her. And in all honesty, I should probably be encouraging her to play on her own more often, but I figure that can wait until she can get around better and I'm not constantly having to worry about what she's putting in her mouth, where she's going, etc.

She does cry when I walk away from her. No matter what. If she's by herself, she won't stop crying until I come back over there with her, and then she's fine. And it's not like she really wants me to hold her or anything, she just wants to know that I'm right there. And that doesn't really bother me.

Now if she's with someone else, and I walk away, she starts crying, but she'll stop after a few seconds as long as the person gets her attention. And then she won't start crying again until she sees me. And that doesn't bother me either, I think it just shows healthly attachment, as she's ok after a couple seconds.

Now here is what bothers me...

The girl LOVES food. Not baby food so much, but people food. And if she sees it, she thinks she has to have it. And the child will SCREAM until she gets it. And scream unless she CONSTANTLY gets it. Almost a full out temper tantrum. Like if she doesn't get it, she'll start flailing her arms and legs and everything. The problem is that usually it's my food. So if I try to eat it, it doesn't make her happy. And this goes well beyond the typical I'm hungry cry. She's not even hungry a lot of the time, she just wants it. And wants nobody else to get it. It's the kind of cry where it starts out as kind of grunt, then when she doesn't get the food, it turns into an ear piercing scream. Like she knows that I will give her a mouth full just to quiet her down.

At this point, I usually have to fight with myself over two thoughts:

1) On Oct 2, she's be nine months old. She can't possibly be old enough to think that if she throws a fit, she's more likely to get what she wants. She just knows that she wants food and connects screaming at the top of her lungs as a way to get it. (But if that's the truth, why doesn't she do that with everything???) At this point, is this really a battle that I should pick?

2) At what point do you start teaching her what behaviors are acceptable? If she sees that this works to get her food, I'm never going to be able to eat and she'll always get my food. So what I've been doing is if she starts the fake screaming thing, I stick her pacifier in her mouth instead of food. Then I wait until she's stopped screaming before I give her anymore. If after awhile she doesn't stop screaming, she just doesn't get anymore. (I don't starve her obviously, I'm talking about supplemental feeding here)

So my questions is this... at nine months, do babies have the ability to make logical reasoning connections??? I've been trying to work on no with her, but she doesn't really listen...redirection seems to be the way to go, but when we are eating, I really don't have that option. Thoughts???

I can already tell this girl is going to be a handful:)