Cheerios

Thus far there is only one food (other than milk of course) to which Asher has shown any partiality. Cheerios. He will now occasionally open his mouth for sweet potatoes, but still eats it with a look of disgust.

Asher gets to eat Cheerios in his high chair, where he also gets to try to feed himself, and also on the floor, where he is fed the Cheerios by us.

When he eats his Cheerios in his high chair, I am reminded of a trip we once took to the Natural Caverns zoo in western Virginia. There we had the opportunity to feed giraffes, including a very young giraffe. When you put the food out for the giraffes, they had learned the trick of laying their tongue on top of your hand, and then once all the food had stuck to their tongue, lapping it up. The baby giraffe had not yet learned this art and would try to wrap her tongue around your hand and lift the entire hand into her mouth. Watching Asher try to feed himself is a similar experience. He grabs the cheerio and then attempts to put his entire fist into his mouth. Sadly, the fist keeps the cheerio nice and secure and away from his mouth. He frequently forgets that the cheerio is there and drops it into his lap.

We immediately learned upon feeding Asher Cheerios while sitting on the floor that Spinx confuses the sound of Asher’s cheerio holder with cat treats. As a result, we now simultaneously feed Asher and Spinx treats. To Asher’s absolute delight, this sometimes brings Spinx in close enough proximity to touch. Since we are feeding Spinx treats, we figure it is also a good opportunity to reinforce Spinx for good behavior around Asher. Spinx is grudgingly learning and is not a big fan of the attention.