Sticky Fingers

When Fiona first started feeding herself, her food wound up all over the place (no surprise). As she gained motor control and became more aware of her body, she started noticing that food was winding up where she didn't want it (mainly her fingers and face). At first, we helped out by wiping her off when she complained, and later we let her know she could use her own napkin.

Eventually Fiona noticed that sometimes when you eat with your fingers you can't get everything wiped off with just a napkin. Since we didn't want to have to hose her off after every bite of, say, pizza, we explained to her that it's okay to eat with sticky fingers sometimes. Even Mommy and Daddy get sticky fingers sometimes when they eat food, and we wait to wash until the meal is over.

If you've been around a toddler (parrot) you can figure out what happened next. Fiona now spends entire meals swaying "Mommy and Daddy sticky fingers." "Sometimes" doesn't seem to be a concept she's quite grasped.

And we're trying to figure out how to tell her that we're not going to scoop up every stray piece of pasta that might fall on the floor during a meal to put it back on her plate. Without causing a mid-meal temper tantrum.