oh, fork!

this was the first time fletcher was given a fork to use during supper. he inspected it. hit it against his tray. felt the prongs of it. and stared at it. he wasn't sure what to think of it. i put it in his hand, held his hand, and stabbed at a piece of meat. he thought it was the funniest thing. once the meat was on the fork, he just kept trying to stab other pieces. i obviously needed to show him how to put it to his mouth and bite it off. i gave up. too many steps to teach a toddler how to use a fork. he picks up everything else so quickly, except for something he sees everyday.

it didn't go so well. i let him try it out for a few minutes while i ate my supper. since it wasn't working out, i took it away from him. apparently that was the wrong thing to do. he screamed for the rest of supper and refused to eat his.
lesson learned...have more time to teach the kid how to do/use something new...let him eat first, then try with the remaining bites of his supper....P.A.T.I.E.N.C.E!!!