We're going to start with a very happy Matthew. Yes, it was 6PM and he was still awake. He took a late afternoon nap which gave him some energy to happily press on past his normal bedtime. Which was fortunate because he joined us for dinner tonight. He sat in his booster seat at the table with us, feeding himself tidbits of whatever food I put on his tray. Yes, he was eating table food. Yes, he was feeding himself. The child who didn't like anything but milk a month ago is now eating with us at the table. Matthew had been happily eating pureed foods and baby cereal until we visited my family in Iowa and Grandma Sue fed him bits of pancake which he ate with gusto. That emboldened me to try more "solid" foods with the kid. Meaning foods that had some substance and texture to them, rather than pureed stuff.
So earlier this week I gave Matthew some fork-mashed pears. He loved them and had no problem mashing them with his gums and getting them down his throat. Then I decided to see if he could feed himself and I broke up pieces of rice chex and placed them on his tray. He relatively easily grabbed the bits with a pincer grasp (thumb and pointer finger) and put them in his mouth. I mixed up some pureed sweet potatoes thickened with baby cereal and he really wasn't interested. He wanted to feed himself. Yesterday he tried some oatmeal muffin. Again, no problem. So tonight he tried some crescent roll and peas. The peas were a bit of a problem as they kept on rolling around and were difficult to grasp, but other than that, the kid is now eating with us at the table. Big change from a month ago.
Fast-forward to 7PM. Matthew was in bed and I was reading Sam some books before he went to bed. My handy husband was putting up tile in our kitchen for a backsplash. When I finished readings a few books I told Sam it was time for bed, time to see BaaBaa. When it comes to bedtime (and I guess most other activities) Sam has strong parental preferences. He prefers Mommy to Daddy in almost every area, including putting him to bed. Jason and I take turns putting him to bed, but on Jason's nights Sam generally cries for Mommy and thrashes about. He's been doing this for as long as I can remember and although at times he doesn't cry, but goes more willingly, he always asks for Mommy. Until tonight. We finished the books and Sam went over to Jason, hugged his legs as he was placing some tile on the wall and said, "Carry" which means that he wants Jason to take him to bed. This is the first time this has ever happened. I was shocked and Jason was confused. I said, "Sam wants you to take him to bed." Unfortunately, Jason's hands were all goobered up the thinset for the tile and he couldn't take him. Poor Sam. He didn't thrash about and cry when I took him up to bed instead, but it was a sad moment for me as he couldn't go with Jason.
Anyway, Sam got dressed then we read some more stories. We got a book with lots of animals in it for Christmas from Ken and Cheri (actually Matthew got the book, but Sam is enjoying it too) and read that. It's a large book, when opened up it's probably 2 feet across and about 1 foot tall. And there are like 20 different animals on each page. We talk about them and occasionally, Sam finds an animal he really likes. So he opens his arms wide and leans over the book and hugs it, saying, "I love prairie dogs!" or whatever animal he fancies at the time. His other favorites tonight were a mouse, deer and ...I can't remember what else. It was rather cute, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment