All Done

As a mom I have many roles that I play each day, and with a toddler on of the more difficult ones is the job of translator. Many words sounds the same, so we have tried to make this job a little easier with the use of baby sign language. We have not given Eli very many signs, since he does have a pretty extensive vocabulary for a 15-month-old, but the most helpful ones relate to eating. After Eli is finished eating (which, by the way, occurs several times throughout the day), we ask him if he is "all done." This usually is a long process, because one of the joys of feeding yourself is also getting to play with your food. In fact, this is generally one of the first signals to me that Eli is getting full. So I will ask him several times, "Are you all done?" I will occasionally receive an emphatic "all done" sign. More often than not, though, he ignores me completely and continues to play with his food. Lately he has come up with a more unique way of telling me that he is finished... any food left on his tray gets dropped on the floor. It is as if he is so full that he can not stand the sight of his food any more and has to get as far away from it as he can.

This is where it comes in handy to have a dog... whom we should have named Hoover.