Puppy dog eyes

JD is fascinated by food, not by infant food, but by grown up food. His eyes fill with wonder whenever he watches me eat. Although I enjoy his undivided attention, after a while, I start to feel a little awkward. Most of us have had a dog or cat sit next to our chairs while we eat, looking at us with those pleading eyes, hoping for just a scrap of food. In my less mature days (i.e., last week), I sometimes taunted the poor beasts—starved of human food—by reaching out with the food as though I was going to share and then popping it into my mouth and chewing like I was eating my last meal on death row. It's mean; I know. Many times, though, I fall victim to the forlorn eyes and drop a small piece of food for the anxious mutt or suddenly affectionate cat.

When it comes to the toothless wonder, however, I can't exactly chuck a grape in his direction, or give him a bite of pepperoni pizza, or let him take a sip of my white chocolate latte. Instead, I do what I did at lunch today. I showed him each piece of food, repeated its name several times, and over-pronounced the words. "See this? It's a grape . . . grape . . . graaaaaape." Then I took a bite, made the "mmmm" sound, and rubbed my stomach. He smiled with delight with each bite. But he kept staring, and his eyes were so big and blue, and curious. I could almost feel the saliva filling up in his tiny mouth. It was more like a string of drool soaking his shirt, actually, but you get the idea. So I don't know whether I'm teaching him about eating and the words for different foods, or just torturing the poor boy. As of now, his vocabulary consists of "ooooo, thhhhbt, puh, and buh," so he's not giving me any clues. Whatever the case may be, watching me eat keeps him from crying, and that's a good thing. Hopefully these pictures from our lunch today convey a little of what I'm trying to describe here.

On another note, we enjoyed some play time after lunch. On days like today, when he's content to be strapped in to his baby papasan chair, I'm content to keep him there and carry the chair to wherever I am. He got giggly when I lifted the chair quickly, so I made a video of his giggles. Enjoy.