The spoon recedes...

For about a month now, Elias has been wielding a great, black plastic spoon that came with our espresso machine. It's almost a scoop but more rounded. Anyway, I've noticed over the past two days that he's been getting a little careless with it. Before, he would have sooner been caught dead than without that spoon death-gripped between his little fingers. He's been leaving it lying around, unattended and not even thinking of it. Is his passion for the spoon, the "latte spoon" as he refers to it, on the dwindle? I guess we will see.

I've thought for some time that the spoon really makes sense as a transitional object. It's just so darn functional! He can eat with it, dig with his, catch water in and drink water and mud and other substances from it. He can hold objects in it, it fits in his pocket. He can also touch objects with the spoon first that he's not sure he wants to touch with his fingers (like the doggie next door or mommy's belly- once he rubbed lotion into my beach ball belly with his spoon). I guess the limitation, that I think he's beginning to realize, is that it is often difficult to hold the spoon and climb up/down stairs, or use crayons with the spoon, etc. It just gets in the way. I'm sure it will play itself out in a few weeks.