The Monkey's Many Talents

The monkey has invented an ingenious way of letting us know he's done eating. It doesn't involve sign language, or a special word, or even a unique sound. Instead, when he's in his high chair and has decided he's done eating, whether it's cereal, or chili, or a cup of juice, he simply holds it up in the air and throws it across the room. The other day he got the dregs of his soup bowl to shoot halfway across the kitchen, casting splatters six feet up the wall. Today I caught a half eaten bowl of eggs just as he began to wind up for a throw. We tell him and tell him to let us know when he's done, and he even knows to use the sign "down" when he wants to get out of his chair, but if we don't watch him like a hawk, we end up on our knees wiping pineapple and cottage cheese, or yogurt and bananas, or a half eaten hamburger up off the carpet.