No Inhibitions

Occasionally, I am brought to wonder whether we, as a society, tend to ignore obvious solutions to our problems simply because they run afoul of our social mores, manners or customs. I suppose that this tendency for members of a group to edit their behavior results in catch phrases like "thinking outside the box," et cetera.

Case in point: we sat down to dinner tonight to have some tomato soup, crackers and sandwiches (gourmet, I know-- but we did have some pretty killer chicken-lime-cilantro-cotija fajitas for lunch). Ian is a big fan of soup, but his small spoons do not hold much liquid and the large spoons are hard for him to get into his mouth while holding flat. So, he decided to take the straw out of his water and stick it in his soup so that he could eat it faster.

I was about to give him a hard time for taking his straw out of his cup (which we have asked him not to do because it generally results in a mess), when I was struck by the genius of what he was doing. I am proud of him for looking at the straw and seeing more possibilities than I did, but on a more fundamental level, I just get a kick out of him. I hope that he never outgrows the tendency to do something that is fun and smart regardless of whether it is normal!

P.S. When was the last time you saw a two-year-old polish off an entire bowl of soup in less than five minutes? I, for one, am not going to argue with success!