Chopsticks, Or A Fork In the Road

You have been doing pretty good with self-feeding. When we have mealtime you are craving more and more independence to feed yourself. You are graduating from fingers to utensils. It is cool to watch you with your little spoon and fork. You hold the very end of the utensil and make the long journey from the plate to your mouth. It is a hit and miss situation. Sometimes the food falls off the spoon long before it gets to the target. The dog circles your high chair like a shark on a feeding frenzy. He has taken on a bit of weight lately and leaves his kibble in the bowl in favor of your food dropped overboard from the high chair. On the occasion that you do get a mouthful, you chew it up heartily. Usually it is just a morsel. We let you try and do as much as possible before we intervene. If you arent ready for us to help, you refuse. We have learned that and eat our own dinner and let you continue to do it for yourself. Sometimes you take the opposite end of the spoon or fork and stab your food with it like a spear. I think you might have better success with a pair of chopsticks.

Illustrious

We love to read to you, and every couple of weeks I have been checking out a bunch of books from the public library. They have a great children's room. The children's books have such vivid illustrations in them. I was amazed at them. It has been a long time since I have read books with pictures, and I found them to be like works of art. The whole page is usually filled from corner to corner with beautiful illustrations: Colorful jungle scenes that look like a tropical paradise, serene cerrulean blue water in books about sea creatures, pictures of farmyard animals done in primary colors, and even eye-catching books about winter. There are textured books, with rough, smooth, soft, shiny, bumpy textured things to touch. There are books that have tongue twisting rymes too. When we read we sometimes act out the story or read in dramatic voices. From my lap you imitate as we do these things. Of course, you like some of the books better than others and we read them over and over and over again. And then again. And then one more time.