Baby Champuru has developed an affinity for spoons lately.  I gave her a disposable plastic baby spoon, a plastic measuring cup, and a plate to play with and she has been pretending to cook.  She also uses her stacking cups as bowls to serve us meals.  She will stir her pretend soup in the measuring cup, then pour some into a stacking cup and proceed to feed it to her dolls.  Or me.  Whomever looks hungrier at the time.

During mealtime, she has been asking to hold the spoon.  Everyone knows that: toddler + food + spoon = BIG MESS. So I had been previously hesitant to let her control the spoon.  Last week, I gave her the spoon as she was eating Cheerios.  Her baby doll was sitting next to her on the high chair.  Using the spoon, she picked up two Cheerios and proceeded to feed it to the doll.  I was surprised by her coordination and took note of this.  Perhaps it was time to allow her to try feeding herself?

On Sunday, I finally decided to let her attempt to feed herself.  I know it’s good for her development and I can always clean up.  I’m always cleaning anyway. What’s the difference, right?  With a bowl of yogurt before her, I handed her the spoon and she gleefully shoveled a spoonful of yogurt  into her mouth. She stopped and looked at me, as if to gauge my reaction. I gave her a huge smile and burst out enthusiastically, “you did it! Good job! You’re feeding yourself! Mommy is SO proud of you!” She gave me the biggest smile ever. She accomplished something and she knew it.  It was a great moment.

Today, I discovered that Baby Champuru has created her own word for spoon and it’s “money.”

I don’t know why or how it came to be, but whenever she wants a spoon, she says “money.”  Oddly enough, when I refer to the object as a spoon she knows exactly what I’m talking about.  But when she verbalizes it, she says “money.”  I keep correcting her, but she refuses to call it by any other name.

Is that weird or what?