Little Eater.

If Parenthood has taught me anything, it's:

1) Expect the unexpected

2) Things won't always turn out the way you think they should

Those are probably the same. But it made sense to separate them in my mind. Anyway.

So, when Cub reached the ripe old age of nine months, we began feeding him table food. I kind of have this small complex about meat in a jar, and I wasn't thrilled with the idea of Cub consuming something that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, so we decided to just give him some of the meat that we were eating. So, we began starting his meals with a fruit and/or veggie (in baby food form) and then simply giving him what we were eating. I thought this would be a challenge, but oh my goodness, this child has a VORACIOUS APPETITE. This morning I made breakfast burritos with egg whites, cheese, whole wheat tortillas, and pico de gallo. That child consumed almost an entire burrito (sans pico) and is looking at me right now like, "What? That's it?"

And he's skinny. Tiny skinny. I cannot figure out for the life of me where all of this food is going. His little tummy IS bulging out just a tad, which is all kinds of adorable, but still. A few nights ago at the mall he ate more of my gyro than I did. Including the tomatoes. 

The Pediatrician says to let him be the judge of when he's finished, so that's what we're doing, and so far he hasn't shown signs of a tummy ache. Good grief! Our goal with all of this was to not create a picky eater, but, as I mentioned above, things don't always turn out the way we think they should and tomorrow he might refuse everything we give him. For now, we're loving it!

Of course, this comes with understandable boundaries. We understand that we can only control what he eats when he is with us, and we've accepted that. When he's with friends or relatives, they can do what they want. When he's with us, it's whole wheat or whole grain breads only, no sugar, very very very limited fried food (Chick-fil-A nuggets are pressure cooked, right?), no junk food (chips, etc.), and absolutely, under no circumstances, nothing in his sippy cup besides milk or juice. There is nothing grosser than babies and toddlers downing pop. They have their whole lives to decide to drink that. I would prefer that Cub's teeth come in white, not black!

And that's my spiel this morning.

Gotta run--he's eyeing the bananas!