Sticky Fingers

Oliver has this thing with fingers. Like every other newborn, he always held onto fingers with his tiny-strong grasp. But now he finds them funny. We have officially found the cheapest form of amusement of all time. I actually had him belly-laughing the other night, simply by wiggling my fingers in front of his face, a miniature form of "jazz hands," if you will. It seems as though Oliver thought my dancing digits were good enough to take on tour for a stand-up comedy routine. I can just see it: "Hey folks, thanks for coming out. What is the deal with pinkie fingers? I mean, who needs them? Their only purpose is to be there when the ring finger gets too fat for the wedding ring."

Ollie thinks his fingers are kind of funny, too. He's getting really good at picking things up, even itty bitty things. I suppose we'd better start giving him Cheerios for practice. I've delayed this experiece though; I have this absurd fear though that he'll choke. Oh, I know, the kid is drooling enough to disinigrate the measly whole-grain little orb just by touching it, but I keep having this visual that it'll get stuck, I'll need to do CPR, and I'll be the worst mother in the world for giving her kid a Cheerio a day too early.

He'd certainly be bothered less by a Cheerio on his finger than he would if it were dipped in peaches. On days when I'm the Lazy Unattentive Mother and turning more attention to Thursday night television than my 8-month-old trying to master the skill of eating, he gets a lot more food on his face and hands. One mealtime this week, he became impatient with my tardiness in spoon-to-mouth coordination, and took it upon himself to get the fruit to his face. Most of it coated his hand, and as it dried, it made his fingers sticky. He stared at the crusted peaches, and his hands open-closed, open-closed for about 5 minutes.

I wonder if he'll become one of those kids who can't stand the feeling of anything on their hands. You know, the ones who will furrow their brow, distressed, and come running to you as if they were bleeding somewhere, because a bit of glue or cereal or paper has attached itself to their tiny little palms. If he is one of those kids, at least I'll have more material for my touring finger comedy show.

Thanks folks, I'll be here all night.