« Weekend of firsts | Main | I'm not pregnant »
March 09, 2005
I know it's bad...
...but I had to laugh.
I was trying to feed Gus some dinner tonight, a little couscous with ground turkey and mushrooms and peas, yumminess.
He takes an initial bite.
I try for another.
First Gus turns his head to the left. My spoon follows, peas hanging precariously, threatening to roll off onto the table.
Gus turns his head right, and this time clinches his eyes shut and shakes his head.
At this point you have to tell yourself, in case you haven't understood the signals, that the boy does NOT want your food. I'm very careful about not forcing food on him because that just seems like the quick way to many years of food battles. So far he hasn't starved and I've only had to feed him bagel at 1:30 in the morning once in his life due to a lackluster dinner showing.
(I'm not making this up: Gus wakes up, is hysterical, starts signing 'downstairs'. I take him downstairs. Why thwart language usage? He points to the kitchen, then to the fridge, then to the bagels inside. He got half of a half and was happy. He fell asleep right after. But I digress...)
So after the signals, I put the spoon I was using next to his spoon (two spoons/forks at a meal prevents spoon tug-of-war, which is a nasty game to play). Gus took his spoon, and placed it in the bowl. He next took my spoon, and placed it in his bowl. He then picked up the entire bowl, and held it out for me to take.
As soon as I took it, he looked me dead in the eyes and blew a raspberry.
It's official, folks: I have a toddler, and I love, love, love it.
Today he said his friend Maya's name again and again and again. And yesterday he was going through his list of signs. He's saying something that sounds a lot like 'funny', and really humors himself on telling us little stories, which we naturally find very entertaining and exciting, even if we have no idea what's really being expressed (if only we knew!). He kind of 'asks' before he climbs the stairs...it's almost like I get a one-minute warning in the form of pointing and staring at the stairs before full commencement, but I've got to watch him. Gus still loves to help cook, and gets really upset when I have to put him down for any length of time during the creation of any meal. I'm sure I won't win the 'safe mom of the year' award, but I'm thankful he's at least curious and now says 'hot' and mimics my blowing on food.
Overall, he's just charming the heck out of me.
Posted by janna at March 9, 2005 10:49 PM