My son the earthworm

AwesomeCloud has started to eat dirt off the floor.

It started with a stray Cheerio. A stray, soggy Cheerio that had fallen off his high chair tray this morning. Later, I saw him pick a mote of dirt off the floor and put it in his mouth. "Haha, that'll teach you," I said, and fed him some real food to get the yucky taste out of his mouth.

Next time he was on the floor, I saw him grab for a leaf fragment. In it went. "Ack," I said, but it was gone too quickly for me to do anything about it. Besides, it was just a tiny leaf. It's... um... fiber. Yeah.

I scooted him into the living room, which I'd already swept, but he was sly and managed to find a bit of bark. I was able to dig that one out of his mouth. "No, don't eat that," I scolded him. "Yucky. Don't eat things off the floor." (Not that he has nearly enough English/cognitive skills to have a clue what I said. I'm sure tone of voice was the only thing that affected him.)

His face scrunched up and he began to cry, but I ignored him. I was too busy frantically sweep sweep sweeping every square centimeter of floor space I could find.

Please tell me this phase will be short. I'd like to skip ahead to the part where we laugh about it and are grateful it's over.

In other news, I'm really pushing AwesomeCloud's sippy cup skills and walking skills. He is humorously bad at both, but we keep trying. Fortunately, he's interested in both.

I confess I made an error last night. We recently bought a child development book recommended by our pediatrician, and last night I read all the 1-2 year milestones. OMG I'm such a bad mother. A terrible, horrible, neglectful baaaaad mother.

Didn't I swear off books? I'll swear them off again. No more books! The baby will grow and learn in his own way, and he has the parents he has, and if we're doing anything spectacularly wrong, we'll figure it out in due time. A parent who is fraught with guilt and self-loathing is worse than a parent who is blissfully unaware of what the experts say.

No more books. I am only allowing myself to read non-child-related books from now on. Like, there's one on the shelf that's been catching my eye called "Physics Demystified." That is a good choice. I bet "Physics Demystified" hardly mentions child development at all.