A silver lining?

It was time for lunch and although my frustration with breakfast was long gone, I was still dreading everything about the pending meal time. I debated whether or not to make my own lunch. Before, when LB was eating really well, I would make my own lunch and we'd sit and eat together. Well, mostly Lily would eat because I still have to shovel purees in her mouth, but you get the happy little picture.
I decided against it, hoping that since it was already past noon that LB would be hungry and willing to eat for me. I was wrong. There was the shaking of the head, hands in front of the face, and frantic hands rubbing all over her face (she just started this and it's kind of annoying!) So I threw up my hands, super close to tears or yelling or screaming or all of the above, and I said to myself alright, I'll make my own lunch and Lily can just suck it up and sit here while I eat.  A voice in the back of my mind saying, yeah! That'll teach her....right? 
As I was getting the makings of my sandwich out I spotted cubed cheese and thought, what the heck, might as well give her something to play with in the hopes that at least 5% of it will make it into her mouth and of that 5%, 1% will make it into her belly. So I cut the already small cube of cheese up even smaller and laid them on her tray. She looked down at the cheese, back up at me, pointed and said "cheese!" (She's a genius, I'm telling you.) She then proceeded to shovel two small hunks in her mouth. My mouth just hung open.
I then kept one eye on LB and another on making my sandwich (it's a mom thing) and thought, again to myself, that I would just hard boil up some eggs because at least that has protein and all kinds of nutrients and she's eaten it before. In the meantime though I added tiny pieces of each: whole wheat cracker, whole grain bread with avocado spread, 2 goldfish, graham cracker piece, pretzel crisp with hummus and lastly, some hard boiled egg. Whew.
It turned out to be a mess. but a fun mess! She tried everything once. She just shoveled piece after piece into her mouth. I can already tell we have a tiny problem with chewing and swallowing on time but really, that's so minor (haha...) But she did it! She ate more than she would've had I just given up completely.
She seemed to really like the hummus and she's a fan of eggs. My mind just raced with all the ways you can make egg...that could be the ticket!
She still drank about 12oz of milk and has no sip-eat-sip concept - she just packs her mouth full, either waits for it to melt in her mouth, I try to put something puree-ish in her mouth to moisten things up to make it easier to swallow or I hand her her milk with the full knowledge beforehand that I know she'll chug the whole 8oz in a flash. Maybe that'll be just a cute quirk.

So. I'm hopeful. I am trying not to get too excited but I'm also trying to soak up the fact that my daughter can eat some finger foods and the fact that she wants to is even more amazing and makes me want to hope for more.

I'll keep ya updated and you keep us in your thoughts and prayers! It's tough work!!