Any Suggestions?

After watching Kai eat for only a few mintues (ok, maybe only seconds) the reaction we get from most people is--Wow! He's messy! And they're not kidding, unfortunately. Kai showed little interest in learning to feed himself until a couple of months ago and even since then it's been hit or miss. So, sometimes I feed him and he's relatively clean and a quick eater--and then sometimes he feeds himself. Translated: he plays with his food, throws it off of his highchair, eats a few bites, smears a few bites on his face and hair and then looks at you and says "up!". You'd think that'd mean he wasn't hungry and maybe he wasn't..but there's no pattern or consistency to it. He may not have eaten all day (just played with his food) and at dinner it's still the same play time. But then at 2am he awakes screaming and begging for his milk because his tummy is growling.

Yesterday was a good day in that he actually ate most of what he was playing with. In fact, we had leftovers for lunch because he liked Monday's dinner so much that he actually said "Yummmm" after the first bite. So, here are some pictures of my little eater.


As you can see, I've started stripping him down for his food (this is his pudding desset) as he has almost completely ruined all of his summer clothes with food stains. So, my question for all of you moms out there...How can I teach my little one to eat without making quite the mess? Any miracle suggestions?