As children get older, they begin to mimic what you do.  This is no exception to Vanessa - who has taken to copying everything we do at the dinner table.  Start with the tea cup.  She now insists on drinking tea from a proper tea cup and the tea must have tea leaves (she calls them tree leaves).  Next, she insists on using the scissors herself to cut up her food.  It’s a hazard to her and a hazard to the food because the food becomes a horrible mess of whatever that it’s barely recognizable.

Her new toy.  The chopsticks.  Adult chopsticks can be difficult to use at times for children.  They are slippery, too big, too heavy and often become misaligned.  The solution: Chopstick trainers!!  These are very common in asia and are great for kids.  The chopsticks are stuck together at the top by some cartoon with a hinge (thus, enabling perfect alignment), there are 3 holes for your thumb, index and middle finger and the ends of the chopsticks are large stubs that virtually anyone using them will not fail at picking things up.

I’ve taken a picture of Vanessa using these fabuloooous tools (Thomas the Train training chopsticks, bought at SOGO for a whopping $35 HKD) and she’s managed to even pick up slippery salmon.  Gee, maybe I’ll buy a pair for my husband as well - who has yet to master the perfect chopstick hold.