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Me: "Matthew are you ready for a snack? Would you like some goldfish?"

Matt: "Ah-shish! (goldfish) Peeeeeze. (please) Bowl, bowl!" (he squeezes his tiny hand through the child lock on the cabinet and retrieves one of his little plastic bowls)

Me: "Okay, Matthew...I need you to keep the goldfish in the bowl and stay in the kitchen, okay?"
Matt: "Ah-shish!! (then, head cocked to the side with concerned look) Share...Macy? Share, ah-shish Macy...beeeech?"

Me: "Yes, Matthew, that's right. You shared your goldfish crackers with Macy while we were at the beach."

And this dialogue repeats like an unending chorus all day long. It's funny because he remembers that small instance when we whipped out the goldfish bag one morning at the beach and all the hungry little mouths, including Macy, came crowding around us. I'm not sure why he's singled out Macy. I think he likes saying her name. He does the same thing when he gets out his cars I have on the bookshelf. Only this time it concerns Joshua. He'll say, "cars...shaare, Sha-sha??" The night we got back from the beach Matt had a hard time sharing his toys with Josh who really just wanted to explore them with his mouth. So we had a serious talk about it, and apparently it has stuck with him! Cracks me up.

Yesterday morning Joy watched Matt for me while I went to a Dr.'s appointment. She gave me the full report when I got back, and to my utter astonishment she informed me that Matthew sat at her table (in an actual chair!) and ate from a plate. And he didn't dump out its contents or take it and run or frisbee it to Ava. Wanting to see if he would do the same for me I put him in his booster chair at our dining table the next morning for breakfast. Wouldn't you know it, he actually did well! I had to remind him a few times to keep the plate on the table, but overall it was successful. There's a light finally at the end of the highchair tunnel. I'm not going to get too excited though because he totally backtracked with the self-spoonfeeding thing. He can't be trusted with his own yogurt and spoon in hand, I was wrong. Nonetheless, it was a peek at a more grown-up Matt.