Taking matters into his own hands

For those of you just tuning in, Hyrum is a bit of an odd duck. He shows absolutely no interest in something until he suddenly really wants to do it ... and does it. Having recently mastered button pushing (which he practices with great joy daily on the television - I'm SO glad we don't have cable) and sticking out his tongue, he has decided it is high time he took feeding into his own hands.



Thankfully, there's a spoon in those hands. Joy, in an attempt to get him to respond a bit more at meal times, had recently started placing the food on a spoon near his mouth, and then waiting for him to mouth his forward to eat it. This seemed to require even more patience on her part than her earlier methods, and more of his, of which there is but little. It seems to have sparked a reaction though, as Joy called out to me from working in the other room to come and see. With delight I saw and grabbed and the camera. This is the best of the videos I took - he was about at the end of his meal.

Over the last week, he has continued to feed himself (though he's just as happy to let us help also). He puts green beans in by himself. He spoons in his own cereals. He hefts my old iron cup to drink from (which I refill about 5 drops at a time because he still has a high tendency for spillage if he grabs with the wrong hand). Aside from spilled milk, he is a surprisingly clean eater, losing relatively little to the floor or his shirt. Here he is showing off his clean hands and only lightly smudged face after feeding himself the entire meal. Frau Maske would never know he was my son*....

He still loves water containers (glasses, jars, bottles) and will sit enthralled trying to open them.
He likes strawberries and will eat unwanted grains if I coat them in some freshly squozen strawberries. Oh, and today at church, he stuck chalk in his mouth. ... I think he liked it.

So now he can feed himself. Go, Hyrum!

*I don't know what it was, but I was really accident prone at Frau Maske's. I dropped food on her carpet or tablecloth nearly every meal, often multiple times. It was so bad my companion would role play eating out with me to help me practice not spilling.