Utencil Use ... Or Something Like It

Have you ever noticed how, throughout childhood, kids learn and then unlearn skills. They grow and then regress. They are so proud of a new accomplished skill, then only days/months/years later they shun that skill.

My oldest is only 4, so that is the extent of my experience on this. But tonight I saw two of my girls on opposite ends of a learned skill:

My 4-year-old would rather eat with her fingers, but obliges me by "using her spoon", i.e. scooping her food onto the spoon with her fingers so that she can eat it off the spoon like I've requested.
My 1-1/2 year old excitedly stabs her food with the fork that is usually denied her, only to pull the food off with her fingers to stuff it in her mouth.
My youngest is the only one who used her fork as it is intended tonight. (Though notice this doesn't equate to clean hands and face.)

1 for 3 ain't bad in baseball, but how does .333 translate in my world of Mommy-hood? ... Don't answer that.