Eating with a spoon and fork

Our computer's going to the shop for some work next week, so I'm trying to catch up on blogging. I just wanted to take a paragraph to brag about how well Hazel's doing with her spoon and fork. There have been a few snags, of course.

I'm amazed at how much food a little baby spoon can pick up! Even when she remembers to open her mouth wide, half the food just can't fit. The wonderful bibs that Jan gave us are great at catching said food, but Hazel gets upset when there's food in them and makes me remove the bib. When will she understand my logical explanation of the bib's purpose?

Also, while we've mastered the meaning of the word "scoop" for a spoon and "stab" for a fork, it's difficult to explain that crackers are best picked up with fingers. (I know, "stab" is kind of a violent word, but I could only think of "spear" as an alternative, and that just seemed wrong for a fork. Is there another verb I'm forgetting? I just checked thesaurus.com and the alternatives are all fairly violent as well - impale, puncture, etc. At least I know that website's out there now - is there anything not on the internet?) I know, I should tell her to "comb" with the fork. She tries to comb her hair with it anyway - not sure why. Still, most of the time she's making great progress with utensils.