Sporktastic

Photo by Emmy J Photography

We are learning more about Spork each day, and finding him both challenging and delightful!

Spork likes to throw his (considerable) weight around.  He lunges, twists, arches, wrestles, flips, rolls, scoots, and motors.  At the zoo, I handled a feisty beaver.  He was bottom-heavy in the way that Spork is top-heavy; you'd think you had a firm grasp on him, then he'd shift his weight just a tad, and you'd be struggling to keep him from splatting on the sidewalk.  Spork is exactly the same way, and every time I hold him, I think of Buckley the Beaver.

Spork loves to eat.  He chugs his bottles with gusto and gets bottle envy when he spies Tater having her more frequent, smaller beverages.  If in range, he will try to snatch her bottle out of her mouth, so I'm finding ways to feed her when he's not looking.  He makes a funny, "Mmm, mmm," sound after every bite of solids.  2 weeks ago, when I shook some puffs onto his tray, he looked at them quizzically.  Last week, he looked at them frantically, waving his arms around, because he wanted them but couldn't serve himself. This week, he doggedly chases them with his little ham-fists.  He seizes them in his right fist, then uses his left hand to steady his right fist up to his mouth.  Here's where he usually loses his prey right down the bib, but yesterday, he got one puff into his mouth with this technique, and we clapped and startled the heck out of him!  Today I saw a true pincher grasp on a puff or two before he went back to the fist-method.  It won't be long until he can self feed.

Spork adores the Nugget.  In the mornings while I dress Tater, I set Spork in his Exersaucer, hand him a teether, and he and the Nugget play a game of, "Drop it, pick it up," the game that you see all babies engaging their parents in at a restaurant.  Except the difference here is that the Nugget finds this just as thrilling as Spork does, so the game goes on quite awhile.  Today, the Nugget added a new twist - he picked up the dropped teether, backed across the room, then used the teether like a steering wheel to "drive" back to Spork.  All the while, Spork did his very excited pose (arms spread wide and slightly up, flapping a bit) and laughed.  When the Nugget returned his teether, Spork tried to move it as he'd seen the Nugget do.  I think they'll be ganging up on me in no time.