Gratuitously Cute Toddler Story

The trip to Seattle went really, really well. Pumpkin did great on both the airplane rides, slept better than she does at home (we're thinking of moving to a hotel), and generally seemed to love her weekend. I'll write more about that (and what I think we did right and wrong on this trip) later.

For now, I'll just share a gratuitously cute toddler story:

One of Pumpkin's best signs is for cracker. This is probably because crackers are her favorite food, but is too difficult a word for her to say just yet. The sign, for those who don't know, is made by knocking on your left elbow with your right fist. You're supposed to bend your arm into a vertical position. Pumpkin doesn't do this- she just holds her arm horizontally and knocks on it with her other fist. Still, it is clear what she wants.

Today, we tried to give her some of the pork fried rice we were eating for dinner. We put some on her tray. She poked at it, and then looked at me and signed "cracker". We put some in a bowl for her, and gave her the fork she uses, hoping this would interest her. No dice. She looked up at us with her big blue eyes and signed "cracker". We offered her the toast we had also put on the table, which she often eats with a fair amount of gusto. Nope. She just repeated the sign for cracker. We tried several more times to get her to show some interest in the food she had in front of her, and each time, she looked at us very intently and signed "cracker".

I was torn- on the one hand, we want her to learn to eat other foods. On the other hand, we want her to learn that she can communicate with us via methods other than screaming and crying. In the end, I caved, and got her a cracker. Which she ate, and then looked at me, and signed "cracker".

I think I need to look for high nutrition cracker recipes....