When Mom's Away,

in yogurt we play.

As a dad of an only child, I sometimes wonder if I'm treating my daughter too gingerly. Am I babying her too much? Too much coddling, not enough challenging?

I've noticed that my tendency is to spoon my daughter's food for her, partly because it's faster, partly because she stays cleaner, and frankly it's partly a control thing. This morning, however, Gwendolyn and I were on our own with no agenda for the morning. So I decided to give my daughter some learning independence, in the form of her own bowl of yogurt and granola with a spoon.

We know that she likes to try to spoon for herself when we are holding the bowl, so I figured she'd get some practice spooning for herself while holding her own bowl.

I was half right. She did use the spoon with enthusiasm, but mostly to mimic my stirring--and it turned out more like tapping the spoon in the bottom of the bowl. She had fun with it, but didn't get a lot of meal out of the deal. When she got hungry, she returned to the old faithfuls:

And the Old Faithfuls mean getting yogurt and granola everywhere. I don't know what it feels like to have granola in the folds of my eyelids, but my daughter does. It can't be too horrible, if she makes a face like this:

Let's hear it for Saturday mornings!

~emrys