Table manners. Sort of.

1. She went through a phase a couple of months back where she tossed everything over the side if she didn't want it. I would have to try to catch it in my hand to teach her to give it to me, or to put it in the little cup holder area of her tray as a special place for undesirable morsels. It mostly worked, although stuff still goes over, particularly when she REALLY doesn't want it and is tying to be emphatic (No, Mommy, I really don't want any of the orange stuff. Really! *toss*), or when we're at a restaurant and she's all done and bored but the rest of us are still eating.

2. Spoons. No real development on this front. She's always been good with taking a loaded spoon and navigating it into her mouth if she's sufficiently interested in what's on it. Sometimes she gets too excited about having a spoon and wants to wave it about in celebratory fashion before putting it in her mouth. That doesn't work so well. Can't get her to try the whole dipping-and-scooping procedure herself, though she does like to take the handle end and bash things with it pestle-style. I think they should make a kayak-paddle type spoon with scoops at both ends.

3. Plates and bowls. I've been giving them to her with a few pieces of this and that on them, hoping that eventually the novelty will wear off and she'll get on with eating off of them. She doesn't knock them onto the floor or anything dramatic like you see in paper towel commercials, but she is far too interested in them as objects and wants to pick them up and turn them over and so on. Still working on this, in other words.

4. Forks.  Haven't tried it yet, but as soon as I see a plausible toddler fork, I'll give it a go. Why not?

5. When she's getting full and/or bored, she tends to pick up pieces of food, get them most of the way to her mouth, and then drop them in her lap. Very little ends up on the floor, lots in her lap and in the chair. And it's harder to tell when she's getting full, because stuff keeps disappearing. I keep telling her she can leave it if she doesn't want it, but I suppose that won't be a useful instruction until she can understand what I'm saying.