As a closing activity on the first day of our antenatal course, the teacher asked us all to say what characteristic of our partner we hoped our child would have. I think I said Pete’s charm. Pete said my persistence. Looking at Bernard now, I would say we both got what we wanted.
Tonight I cooked a chicken stir-fry with egg fried rice. I rarely think to make chinese-style food so Bernard hasn’t eaten this sort of thing very often. I got chopsticks out for me and Pete, and then on second thoughts, another set for the Small Boy. Plain bamboo ones, less slippy, but I didn’t really think he would use them. I thought he might poke his eye out, that’s all.
But he was very interested, and we showed him what to do. He can’t figure out how to make them work, but he had a bloody good try. And he consistently refused to pick up his fork until we used our forks to scrape up the last of the rice. We loaded the chopsticks for him with bits of chicken and mushroom, and he proudly conveyed the food to his mouth. He kept on trying. The child is persistent. And charming.
After a couple of successful trips to Wagamama, we’ve started doing stir frys at home for Freya…she uses her fingers though… Get yourself into Wagamama as they have chop sticks especially for children which are so easy to use – they are slightly joined at the top – (and easy for me too!).
We went to Wagamama on Sunday and had a great time. I understand what you mean about the childrens’ chopsticks now – they’re a bit like wooden tweezers.
You can make your own trainer chopsticks using a piece of rolled-up card and an elastic band. But it’s beyond my porridge brain to explain how to do it. There’s probably a site somewhere on the intertubing that tells you how.