This week was something of a first for Mum – she trekked in to Botany for an artisan baking course, leaving Puff and Dad at home to handle the evening routine. It all went perfectly, despite a few “mummummums” from Puff near bedtime, and some looking around, and then Mum and Dad feasted on the bread that mum had made.
But enough about parents.
This week marked Puff’s first trip to university, to visit Dad at his new work. Given the cold weather, we didn’t have a chance to pose him in front of any landmarks, but here he is sitting in a chair in a uni cafe.
We had a few trips to cafes over the weekend. After a whirlwind tour of the markets at Warwick Farm (we arrived at 11:45am, and they close at 12pm) where lots of stallholders told his dad how cute young Puff was (and asked “how old is he” – they always ask that, for some reason), we stopped for a nap at home, then headed over to Birchgrove to meet another baby.
This is the first time I’ve seen Puff interact with a baby much smaller than him: he was very curious, though didn’t try to hurt baby M, despite getting a little too close to the baby M’s eyes for Dad’s liking.
It seems like our days of being able to sit in a cafe while Puff plays contentedly with a teaspoon are drawing to a close. He remains quiet while he’s eating, but with the meal finished, a spoon only seems to hold his attention for a few minutes, before it’s thrown on the ground.
He’s also making leaps and bounds in feeding himself. Given a peeled piece of pear (say, an eighth of a pear), he will put it into his mouth, snap off a third of it and drop it down on the tray, then put the two thirds piece in his mouth and snap off half, chewing furiously. This gives him a third of a piece in one hand, and a third on the tray. This latter third he will pick up with his spare hand, and then try to cram more pear into his mouth with both hands. Only a few crumbs remain at the end.
The next step will be, of course, feeding himself with some table manners, and, indeed, with utensils, but this may have to wait a little longer.