Man vs Insect

Sometimes, during morning Daddy-time, Daddy needs to go use the bathroom.

When this happens, I strap the boy into his swing for a moment, hand him an appropriate toy, and tell him I'll be right back.

He recently received a small, stuffed green grasshopper as a gift. When somebody with good manual dexterity squeezes it, it chirps. He's not quite there yet, so he's unable to make it chirp, but he sure does give it an effort.

This morning, nature called and I put him in the swing and handed him the grasshopper.

After quickly returning from the bathroom, I walked back in the room and watched him for a moment while I finished off my cup of coffee. He looked at the grasshopper's face and smiled back at it. Then, he turned it around a few times in his hand and spoke to it in baby talk. Again, he looked at the grasshopper's face, probably waiting for some sort of verbal response. Even though the grasshopper remained speechless, the Undaling continued to enjoy his company.

"Hey Buddy. That's a cool toy you have there," I said.

He was surprised to see me. He hasn't figured out the whole object permanence thing yet. He gathered himself and made smalltalk right back at me.

"owwwwwwahhhhhhhoooooooh", replied my son. (I think he was saying "yes, I know")

"Is the grasshopper your favorite playmate, or is Daddy your favorite playmate?"

This question obviously sent him into deep reflection. He continued to gaze at me for a moment while he thought about a response. Then, he looked down at his stuffed toy and studied it again. Soon, he looked back up at me and quickly back down at the grasshopper. He said nothing.

Finally, as the grasshopper and I waited patiently for him to make his choice, he raised the toy to his face and tried to shove the entire thing into his little mouth.

You can interpret this any way you want.

I took it to mean that he wanted to eat the grasshopper in order to get it out of the room, so that he could return to playing with Daddy.

I also concluded that my son is willing to try new and interesting foods. In some cultures, grasshoppers are a delicacy.