We celebrated Father’s Day this evening. Words were few and far between. My dad, Jenn, and I spent the evening around a little table at the local Mellow Mushroom, fixated on Penelope. My dad commented on how well behaved she was. That’s encouraging. I was never around young children, never felt comfortable around them, as though they were porcelain and my hands iron.
We were going to order spaghetti for Penelope. She loves noodles and marinara sauce. Jenn asked to see the kids menu.The waitress pointed at the paper place mat in front of Penelope. There were 5 choices, all but 1 had cheese. Since Penelope is still battling her cold we are avoiding dairy. Pretzel twists and apple slices it was. As I started to cut one of the twists up, Penelope grabbed the last one and showed me what a waste of time it was to cut up her food. Twist in hand she placed it in her mouth, taking an age appropriate bite, and chewing while looking all around.
Next I placed some marinara from the plastic container on to her plate but she paid it no mind. Before she finished the first pretzel I showed her how to dip it in the marinara. She followed my lead. Her bites from the pretzel became smaller. She realized she had been missing out and only had so much pretzel with which to dip. The piece got tiny. We wondered how small it could get. Finally she ate all of her pretzel and turned to the only thing left on her plate; the apple slices. Her meal had turned into a bizarre Fun Dip, the marinara now as tasty as flavored sugar.
Tonight may also have held a great discovery. Or a one time fluke. When we put Penelope down her crying began immediately. After a few minutes I noticed she was rubbing her ear. I placed a small amount of lotion on my finger and began to massage her ear. She stopped crying! After 5 minutes of rubbing her ears she was asleep. Its early days so there is no telling whether the ear massage has the ability to work repeatedly.
