Sunday, February 7, 2010

Mary Learning to Scoop

Mary is currently learning how to use a spoon. She's progressed beyond my putting food on the spoon and leaving the spoon on her plate to manipulate herself. Now she wants to scoop her own food and she is mortally offended if I try to feed her myself.

9 comments:

  1. Impressed! We still can't get Theo to use a spoon in any workable fashion...

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  2. Leo barely even knows how to use a spoon :-) Mary is very advanced! Or Leo is really behind :-)

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  3. You know, I've wondered if my kids have a temperament thing going on and/or if there is some "nurture" involved. John used a spoon very early too and I have video of him at about 16 months old very competently eating cold cereal in milk. Part of it might be that my kids are just fiercely independent in the spoon department. But part of it might be that with both of them I was never much into spoon-feeding. John never even let me stick a spoon in his mouth; Mary did let me, but I just didn't do it much and she moved quickly into finger foods. I did fork-mashed foods, but really very few purees. But you can see how it's a chicken-and-egg mystery.

    Tonight Mary was very excited about the soup for dinner, but she wouldn't let me feed it to her. When I kept trying, she threw the spoon angrily down and screamed at me!

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  4. I love reading about your kids because I swear Theo is a hybrid of your two. Like John, he's a thinker...very deliberate in what he does, very precise, and not super-quick to warm up to people he doesn't know well. But like Mary, he's got the feisty "I can do it" temperament and the climber instincts. So I'm laughing at your description of Mary with the soup because last time my MIL visited, she was trying to help him learn to use a fork, but every time she'd take the fork away to spear a piece of turkey with it, he'd bellow at her and throw a total fit. He wanted to use the fork HIS way, and he'd be darned if she was going to help him with it!

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  5. Quite determined, isn't she? All my kids could use a spoon and fork well by about 14 months, too. Not sure why, but consistently all three of them learned fairly early. I spoon fed all of my kids but gave them their own spoon, too. They all enjoyed trying on their own while I supplemented with bites from my spoon. This lessened the frustration of learning, I think.

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  6. So cute!!! I love it.

    (side question...what brand of bowl is that??? I tried using the suction cup bowls with Emma when she was younger, and she always managed to pull them off! Those look a bit more durable)

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  7. I love the "mortally offended" part. I totally know what you mean!

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  8. Janeane: The photos deceive you. I forget what brand the suction cup bowl is, but Mary can already pull it off the tray. But at least the suction cup buys me seconds so I can reach my hand over and stop Mary from throwing the bowl on the ground.

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