Spooner

Petra has been doing this thing for the past month or so where she demands my coffee cup and spoon. She will not accept a substitute mug and spoon. She will not accept just the spoon, so I can finish my coffee in peace. No, it must be both, and they must be mine.

I’ve been drinking my coffee really fast lately.

Then a weird thing happened yesterday. Petra refused to eat all day. She did not want Cheerios. She did not want banana. She did not want pureed pumpkin or yogurt or pretzels or anything that she normally eats. We put her in her high chair, put the bib on her, and tried to coax her into eating…anything. When Petra doesn’t want a certain food, she doesn’t just turn her head away. No, she throws it.

It was a messy day.

She was miserable. She demanded that we hold her every minute. She did not sleep.

We were getting worried. I put her in her high chair to try to feed her just a little. She clamped her lips tight against the approaching spoon and gave me a glare. Then she grabbed the spoon from me and fed herself. We had given her a spoon before to see if she would do this, and she always threw it back at us. I guess she decided she was ready.

She ate and ate and ate. She emptied the bowl and signed (! first time!) for “more.” When she slowed down, I figured she was done and took her to get undressed for her bath. Once I got her shirt off, she started screaming and signing “more more more more more more!”

Some of it even got into her mouth.

As my dad said, after spending a week with her, “Petra’s going to grow up into one of those girls who doesn’t take any crap from anybody.” She certainly knows her mind. I am NOT looking forward to the “terrible twos” with this one, and Lord help us when she’s a teenager.

In other news, I got to eat my dinner this evening several feet away from both of my children who FED THEMSELVES. Happy day!