Both my husband and I have major joint breakdown. We are swallowing as much pain killer as is possible in order to keep functioning physically but not so much that we mentally are zonked out! I think we are both in line for ankle and knee replacements and so we are playing lottery as to whose name is drawn out of the NHS hat first for a joint upgrade.
In the mean time our son gets more and more determined, I love it but at the same time I find myself having to make quick decisions made in the blink of an eye and also am constantly having to make sure I stay at least five steps ahead of his game, I am sure this is something any parent can identify with. However what does one do when ones 10 month old has a stronger grip than you and there is a battle of who gets to hold the spoon to feed child?
Day one of Christopher's new found grip ability we had plastic spoons all over our dining room, I tried to grab the spoon back and couldn't get him to release it so I went to the cutlery drawer and got another, he saw a new spoon and dropped old one on floor and then grabbed the new one and so the process went on. My assistant "Canine Partner" dog was on over time work, picking spoons up left right and centre,bringing them to me with a huge wag at each spoon presented,meanwhile Christopher tried to grab her tail at the same time. Thank goodness for a dishwasher or I would have had an awful lot of washing up to do at the end of meal time.
So husband and I went to that trusty mental drawing board in our head. His first thought was that we need to be tougher, giving him a spoon to play with whilst using our own one to shovel food into child very quickly. However we ended up with about 16 spoons on the floor and a very busy dog. So back to re thinking, a hole is going to be drilled into the top of one plastic spoon and then string thread through the hole. The string would be long enough to be tied to the side to the high chair but also enough for our son to be able to play with spoon, bring it to his mouth etc. Meanwhile we use our own spoon to get food down him.
Dad is over tomorrow so he can get drilling a spoon and we'll try this hole in spoon system out and let you know if it is a solution. In the meantime, I gave our little cherub some finger food toast,this was fantastic, kept him very busy and very happy, he loves being able to manage things himself and I so understand how he feels.
Something I find very difficult and heart wrenching,is not to give him too much help with getting things in his close vicinity. As a child who has struggled all my life to do things independently and not seem "different" I feel for any child when they are trying to reach something or do something and can't quite manage to. I have felt that a lot of my life but I have had to learn how I might do something differently as my family have always encouraged me to try to do something on my own. I often find myself helping Christopher get something that he is trying desperately to get that isn't far from his reach. My husband tells me off as he rightly says that our son won't learn how to move, reach etc if I keep passing what he wants to him. I don't know how to switch this feeling I have off, I wish I could, I just have been that child for too many years of my life that has tried to get things, if I dropped things on the floor I had to learn to pick things up with my feet, or use a coat hanger, that was until Yasmin, my assistant dog came along. Wish I had Yasmin when I was a child but equally maybe I would have a house bulging with NHS aids every where and be a very different person to who I am today.
I'm hoping Yasmin doesn't get too helpful for Christopher, I fear she may, she already picks up toys and wonders if she should give them to me or him!
