Food fight

I think this may be my fault. 

I taught Ari to throw stuff.  It started with small plastic balls.  "Throw it to mama," I would say repeatedly as I showed him how to toss the ball over and over and over again.  He would cock his head and look at me as if I was playing a game with myself.  In fact, I was.  I thought he would never learn.  And then, finally, a few weeks ago, he threw me the ball!  I was so proud.  (Okay, more of myself than of Ari.  Persistence is key.)

With the ball down, he mastered throwing his own shoes.  And hats.  And paper off the coffee table. 

And, before and after every nap, he practices his new skill by tossing everything out of his crib.  The 4 stuffed animal blanket loveys.  One by one.  And the 6 binkies.  One by one.  If you enter his room before he throws everything out, you see this:

 or this

If you enter his room after the contents of his crib have all been grounded, you see this:

And, if you gather the items while he's still in his crib, you look up and see this:

Now, I admit I egg him on by laying down on the ground beneath his crib and letting him throw the items on my head and tummy and arms and legs.  And I toss them back up to him and he does it again.  And again.  It's fun.  He cracks up. 

But as they say, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt dirty.  And that's exactly the situation I have now.

Ya see, Ari throws something else.  He throws food.  He picks it up, he looks me in the eye, I say "no", and then he takes his little hand, moves it to the right of his highchair, and drops it on the ground.  Sometimes, he gets really ambitious and picks up big handfuls of food.  Or, if he's really aggressive, he manages to sweep all of the food off the tray in one quick movement of his wrist.  It's pretty remarkable.  And it's frustrating.

Need a visual?  Bye bye chicken nugget.

Then picture me reprimanding him.  "Ari, we do not throw food.  We eat food.  Next time, I will take it away."

And then he gives me this look.  I can read his mind.  "WTF Mom, you taught me to throw sh*t and now I get in trouble?"

Kid's got a point.