The Proof in the Instant Pudding

One of my earliest memories of arts and crafts included a lunch table in a cafeteria and chocolate pudding.  We were actually encouraged to draw pictures in it with our fingers, right there on the table.  It was pretty much the best thing that could ever happen to a five-year-old.

I've thought about doing this with Oliver, but the plan was quickly aborted.  He's not even two; give him permission to play in pudding, and he's likely to use every other food as fingerpaint.  He'll wonder why Mommy and Daddy are getting all hot and bothered when he expresses his toddler angst in spaghetti sauce swirled into Picaso suns. 

Wanting to care for my family in the form of food last weekend, I opened the pantry and got inspired to make pudding from scratch.  As in, acutally whisking milk into powder instead of peeling back the safety seal of a SnackPack.  I would feed my child pudding, I decided, and he would be just as happy as if he was instructed to run his fingers through it like fingerpaint. 

Have I learned nothing?  There is no difference between fingerpainting with food and eating it when you are 21 months old.