It is faster then I could believe. My wise friend Sock Hoon is indeed wise! The masak masak toys did wonders. The kid has managed to self feed herself half a bowl of porridge for the past two days.

She is associating the spoon with eating more often then playing now. Less pat pat splash splash, more dig dig feed feed. Well, much of the food still ended up on the chair, her face and the floor. The crime scene was messy and dirty as expected. But! I took the wise advice from my wise friend Sock Hoon again, and lay newspaper below her feeding chair. Caught all the stray food and it very much reduce the pain and agony I will experience whenever she spilled the porridge.

I can actually watch the TV while she got busy with the food, what a luxury! By the way, I learnt that watery porridge is really a big no no for this training. I must remember to make it thicker so she can scoop them easily. Less spillage too. And also, praises and clapping hands is mandatory to encourage this attention seeker to continue the hard work.

I bought another set of those “masak masak” toys for Yauyau. The instructions said “small parts, for age 3 and older”. But I am kiasu, I am anxious to start training her to self feed, so I am going to take the suggestion from my wise friend Sock Hoon.

She wisely advised me to get the kid some kiddy pots, pans, bowls, spoons and things like that. If the kid is showing sign to self feed, she can use these toys to practice her hand eye coordination. If the kid is not showing any interest to self feed, these can be used to stimulate her interest.

Children nowadays are so blessed. These toys come in such huge varieties and variations. There are tea sets, dinner sets, sushi sets, fish and chips, all sorts of condiments, can drinks, the whole range of cutleries and utensils. You can even get a mini kitchen with built in stove, hood, knobs, and oven and get the kids to cook along side while you whip up a meal. I got a rather big box set which comes with a toaster and water flask. The toaster can actually spring the toy bread up and the water flask is functional.

I tried getting the kid to play copy cat by using those spoons to feed myself cheerios. Managed to gather some information on her latest status in self feeding interest.

1. She is not ready yet, only mildly interested. She gets impatient fast and use her hands to grab the food from the spoon. Self feeding: hands’ style.
2. When she does use the spoon, she uses it as a toy and pats the food with it. The porridge went splashing all over.
3. She enjoyed pouring water from the teapot to the teacup and drank from it. Not very good hand coordination with the pouring yet and need more practice.

By the way, I think she is a right handed. She uses her right hand most of the time. Great, save me the trouble of having to train her in that aspect. Oh, don’t bash me, I am not against using the left arm, but it will be too troublesome for her to do calligraphy in future if she is a leftie.

It is in the girlie genes again, digging out some of my accessories and putting it on her head, and then dashes off to the big mirror to admire herself. Does she already has the concept of looking good, or it is just plain amusement to see some funny things on her head?

But I am also starting to get worry that my amused reactions might be prompting her too much. Should I continue encouraging such “fashion” experimentations or should I divert her attention somewhere else to prevent the developing of excessive vanity?