Excitement at Dinner

Tonight at dinner, Riley was pointing and grunting and generally getting agitated with us at dinnertime, which he often does when he is trying to ask us for something and we aren't understanding what it is that he needs. After passing him his cup, giving him some more food, turning his high chair away from all distractions, etc. he was really getting angry. The only thing left in the vicinity of where he was pointing was Casey and his fork. Using the very few deductive reasoning skills that I still possess, I grabbed Riley's "big boy" silver fork out of its place in the cabinet designated for our fancy stuff and handed it to him. Much to our delight (and his -- he looked at us like "finally!!!!"), not only did he immediately begin using his fork, but after a few tries, he actually used it correctly! And by correctly I mean that he stabbed the fork into his piece of pork tenderloin, brought the fork to his mouth and got the piece of meat off his fork and into his mouth all without using his hands (well, his hands were on the fork, but I think you know what I meant). Yes, this is a task that we adults take for granted, and yes, he has probably been doing this at "school" for months and we just didn't know it, but still, it was amazing to watch him do this and think about all that is required just to eat with an utensil.

P.S. Let it be noted that apparently eating green beans with a fork is not nearly as easy.