The family table

Now that Matthew is eating table foods we have him join us for all our meals. He sits in his booster seat and we push him up to the table and put little bits of food in front of him. He then usually picks around the veggies and finds whatever bread or fruit. Only when the bread runs out does his try peas or carrots or whatever other veggie he has. And sometimes he just protests when his bread runs out and won't try the veggie. This is so different from Sam. Sam would eagerly eat whatever was placed him front of him for a long time. It wasn't until he was much older than 1 year that he would reject foods. But Matthew is a different story. I think we have the beginnings of a picky eater, but we will try out best to give him plenty of opportunities to develop a palate for a variety of foods.

Anyway, last night (I was going to write about this last evening, but did not for some reason) for dinner (or supper for my family) we sat at the table and I cut up some small bits of chicken and rice casserole for Matthew and placed it before him. He was not interested. Not at all. He didn't touch anything or really even look at it. But he decided to join in our conversation. Matthew would say, "Ah ah ah ah ah ah" and bob his head and upper body up and down. This is a favorite activity of his. I think he likes how his voice sounds different when he bobs up and down, plus he always gets a reaction out of us and especially Sam. It must have been quite a sight to see me and Sam bobbing up and down saying, "Ah ah ah ah ah". For awhile the only conversation was Matthew bobbing and saying "Ah ah ah ah ah", then Sam laughing and bobbing and saying "Ah ah ah ah ah" in return. We all had a lot of laughs and I thought about how much our table conversation had changed since Matthew's joined us.