Eureka!

OK, so...I'm telling you, this is QQ's M.O.. She did it with the walking, with the vocalizations, with the sign language. She's now done it with the eating solid foods. She gets up the courage to try it once. Then she files it away in her brain somewhere to incubate. We see no action on the surface for weeks, even months. Then one day, when she's good and ready: BOOM! She's going full throttle.
Remember way back before San Francisco when she scarfed down half my dinner (and dessert) out of the blue at a very, very fancy French restaurant? Well, since then? Nothing but a few cheerios and cheese puffs. Not a bite from one of our plates, no further interest whatsoever in adult food....UNTIL...........

OK, this is how it happened. First, I was under the weather, so she and M. went out to pick up some food from the best and most authentic Asian joint in Denver. They make spot-on Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai, and not the "gringo" kind, either. Very much the real deal, elegant, complex, and the spicy dishes are hot enough to blow the top of your head off, even for "heat" addicts like us. The menu is about eight pages long - I don't know how they do it. But their green beans with lemongrass, coconut and hot chili are quite possibly the world's most perfect food, closely followed by the "Waterfall beef, Thai style". I can't even begin to describe that one, but it's sheer heaven.
Anyway, M and Q walked in the door with a big heaping box-full of takeout, and started doling out plates. I was on the couch for the day, so M brought me a big bowl, and I was ready to dig in...when suddenly QQ appeared out of nowhere, stretching her neck and opening her mouth wide like a little bird in the direction of my spork.
Oh, really????
I thought she was just faking us out (she's done it before), so I laughed at her, elbowed her away gently, and tried once again to eat my food. But every time I raised the spork, she was between me and my mouthful in a heartbeat.
Finally, I fished out a tiny bit of rice and sauce with my fingers, trying to avoid the red chilis, and held it out to her. I fully expected her to smack it away with an "I was only kidding" chuckle. But the little baby-bird mouth stayed wide open and, lo and behold, she actually seemed to be eating it!
She ate five big mouthfuls in quick succession before it dawned on me what was happening. I scrambled up off the couch, yelling for M. to find a bowl and set up her highchair quick, scooped her up and swooped her into the kitchen before she could changer her mind.
Once placed in her highchair with a bowl in front of her, things got even more surprising. Because here's the thing - she's never eaten from a bowl with a spoon before. Never even tried. What you see here is pure mimicry. While she was able to mime scooping up the food and lifting it to her mouth quite accurately, she really had never done this before, so was not able to complete the action by actually eating the spoonfull of food she was holding.
In the end, we fed her with our fingers, with her throwing a lot of it on the floor and, very occasionally, feeding herself with her own fingers. She ate quite a bit, with us giggling and cooing and clapping ourselves silly with glee the whole time.
I know that, to the average parent, this would not be all that exciting. Not exactly world-shattering. Especially when it's an 18-month-old toddler. But I think it might actually be more of a thrill ride for us adoptive parents, just due to the sheer level of glee and amazement that comes with a breakthrough like this.
Time and again we heaped her little dish, and time and again she cleared it.
Now and then, if we didn't fill fast enough, she'd just go in head-first.
Plate-lickin' good.
I've gotta give credit where credit is due....
...the girl knows how to pick her restaurants. Nothing but the best for this kiddo.