Finger Lickin' Good

Wyatt went crazy with a teething biscuit while I unloaded the dishwasher and this is what I saw when I looked up... he REALLY likes those things. He would suck on it for a while and then bang it like a drumstick against the highchair tray for a while.

Wyatt has had a major oral fixation as of late and has taken to heart the saying "finger lickin' good". He also likes the sayings "window lickin' good", "refrigerator lickin' good", "shoe lickin' good" and "washing machine lickin' good". Of course he does this while making dramatic sound effects to make these incidences even more hilarious.

I have started giving Wyatt finger foods to practice getting food into his own mouth and he has caught on pretty quickly. At first he made what I call Monkey Hands, where he'd bring his hand to his mouth as if he was holding a hot dog instead of bringing the fingers into the mouth, leading with the tips. In the beginning he would consistently use the sideways hand and the food would end up stuck to the side of his face instead of in his mouth.

For a while he even abandoned using his hands and would just lower his face onto the tray or table like bobbing for apples. (He is going to be great at this game someday).

He LOVES feeding himself but has no concept of swallowing. If I put five treats on his tray he will just shove them all in at once and collect them in his checks as if he were a squirrel collecting nuts for the winter. His cheeks are full as it is so you wouldn't notice that his mouth was full if it wasn't for the food showing when he smiles.

We took Wyatt to the park in our neighborhood a couple of days ago for his first time on the slide (in my lap) and on the swings. He was indifferent with the slide (maybe because we descended about 1 inch an hour) but had fun in the swings. I think we'll be spending a lot of time there in the future. We also took a trip to the RV Show in Puyallup yesterday and are now dreaming of RVing with the family someday.