And so it begins. This morning Ana refused to eat any of her yogurt if I was the one feeding it to her. She desperately wanted to feed herself. Independence or some other such nonsense. So I, somewhat reluctantly, handed her a spoon and then the yogurt. A look of sheer delight covered her face as she slowly dipped the spoon into the yogurt, did a little shake (which I assume is her attempt at stirring) and slowly brought the spoon to her mouth. You could see just how proud she was written all over her tiny face. So I let her keep eating.


She did fine for awhile. And then as she began to get full and shoveling food into her face was no longer such an urgent mission, she became a little, shall we say, “lax” in her self-feeding. As I was watching her lose focus, I tried to gently remind her to “use your spoon.” Wanting me to understand she got the message she cheekily replied, “OOoon! OOoon!”


Promptly after that the spoon was immediately forgotten. Seems she has already developed an ability to tune me out entirely. She reached directly into the container with her tiny fist.


She pulled our her hand and realizing it was covered in yogurt, proceeded to lick yogurt off her fingers. Well, it may be messy (very, VERY messy), but at least she is feeding herself, right?


(Pictures were not taken today, but collected from previous dates to illustrate my point. As you can see, this is a regular occurrence.)

Today while I was cooking in the kitchen, Ana was playing in the dining room on the iMac box. Ever since we got the new computer she has claimed the box as her own. She knocks it over and either climbs on it (it still has the packing materials inside so it is very sturdy) or sets toys on top of it. Sometimes she even does both. Today she was collecting kitchen stuff (cups, bowls, spoons, etc.) from her bag of toys and sneaking the occasional item from the kitchen cabinets and gathering them on top of the box. I was periodically checking on her to make sure she wasn’t getting into anything she wasn’t suppose to or doing anything dangerous when I realized what she was doing: I watched her “stir” inside a cup with a spoon, pause, lift out the spoon, and take a “taste.”


I watched her do this a couple times, with different cups and bowls, before she noticed me. When she realized I was watching, a huge grin spread across her face and she quickly walked over with her spoon to offer me a “bite.” I giggled and graciously accepted. Seeing my delight in sharing her “food” Ana went back to her cup and scooped up another bite to share with her mama.

I am so excited to see the wheels of her imagination set in motion!