First Halloween

My wife had to work today. I came home a bit early to relieve Grandma, and I got dinner started after she left, Violet watching comfortably from the carrier on my chest. Once the food was simmering, I brought her over to the couch and put her in her small highchair. It sits on the couch, and it’s a perfect spot for her to be while I read to her. She’ll sit in my lap for lift-the-flap books and one or two of her favorites, but if I want her to sit for other books, she has to be in her chair. I broke open a new bottle of puffs – strawberry and beet flavored! – and sprinkled a handful on the tray. As I read, she snacked, and at a certain point, she held one out to me. I lowered my head and opened my mouth slightly, and she clumsily, but gently, placed it in my mouth. She does this with my wife and me when we sit at the kitchen table with her. Violet will eat a puff, then hold one out to my wife, then one to me, then one for herself, and so on (She’s usually egalitarian in her distribution of the puffs, but I suspect she gives herself more than she hands out). Tonight, she went back and forth as I read Mouse’s First Halloween to her, alternating her attention between the book and her puffs, feeding herself and feeding me. Then, she held out a puff to the other side of her chair. The side where no one was sitting. The side across from me, where my wife would usually be. She held the puff out, waiting…waiting…

                                               ------------------------

We also tried out two costumes today...

344 days old