What Would Mandy Pepperidge Say?

That boy is a P-I-G PIG! We need to have a serious discussion about table manners and toddlers, and how those are two things that do NOT belong in the same sentence, paragraph...you name it.

We have been blessed with a great eater (knock on wood). We are not the people who, at this point, have to worry about if our child is eating enough. It's really not a problem. I suppose we could be concerned about fluid intake, but we don't need to be...he's hydrated.

The issue are the sports of food flinging, bowl dumping and cup dropping. Sports for which my child is on track for a berth on the United States Olympic Team. With meals, he usually dives in and eats. And then somewhere along the way, he will casually drop a piece on the floor. Followed by dramatically drinking from his cup, which is then also dropped on the floor. This is IMMEDIATELY followed by a crazy swipe of the hand and more food on the floor, at which point Jason and I are now diving across the table to pop off his tray and end the food olympics.

I visited school to secretly observe his lunch time to see if he was saving this amazing behavior for home or if he was treating his teachers and classmates to these theatrics. He did not disappoint. Today's lunch was chicken and dumplings, green beans and strawberries. He loves and will eat all these items with vigor. At school they have progressed to giving them food on paper plates, in bowls and with a plastic spoon...which is pure entertainment by the way. When I arrived and peered in the window, my child was holding an empty bowl of chicken and dumplings over his head with a sippy cup of milk laying on the floor next to him. Eight children at the table, seven cups on the table, one on the floor. Nice.

Then his teacher offered him additional chicken and dumplings. Which he ceremoniously lifted off the table and would have so dumped on his head had she not wisely snatched it from his mischievous hand. Seriously. My child' s table manners are a nightmare. We are doing everything we are supposed to be doing and it continues. I guess he's not the only one and that when I looked he was the only one that had the cup on the floor but there are five of them that do that. And only one of them actually uses the spoon. But I didn't see anyone else starting the food fight at Faber. All that was missing was a square of Jell-o to inhale.

On the upside, today he said please for the first time. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.

Intolerable Cruelty

I think Jackson has a corn something. Intolerance or allergy. I don't know. Thursday night he threw up all over himself and his crib, so we held him out of school Friday and I stayed home with him since I had the day off. He drank a little pedialyte, ate a few saltines, a lot of banana, and almost a jar of banana peach oatmeal before crashing for a nap in the morning.

Then at lunch he had formula (not much) and I attempted some of his favorites...melon, shells and cheese, sweet potatoes, hummus (yes he loves hummus) but when we wouldn't eat any of those, I gave him some of the new Jumbo Rice Krispies, which he's been having this week (and loves) and hoped he would do better at snack time.

He didn't. It was a fight to get him to eat his bottle, which he eventually finished 5 of 6 ounces of. He didn't really want melon or any bread. But of course he wanted more of the Rice Krispies and took a bite of corn muffin. I finally got him to eat yogurt before we went to our doctor's appointment to have his ears checked, which came back negative. Then we came home and he drank his bottle, but was too exhausted to have any dinner so he went to bed at 6:30.

At about 10:30 I heard him waking up and being loud, so I went in there to check on him and picked him up to re-settle him in bed and heard his stomach rumble and he started to wretch. So I took him to the sink and he puked up some yellow gunk that looked like...well it looked like corn muffin batter actually...about 1-2 tablespoons worth.

My mom had mentioned to me that I was allergic to citrus, soy and corn when I was little, so I thought about any foods that we had recently introduced. Well, the Jumbo Rice Krispies...which it turns out aren't just rice. They also have corn. And he ate a LOT of them the last couple days. And some corn muffins that I made him because he seemed to like them before and there were no issues and we've been trying to diversify his menu options lately.

This morning, Jason gave him his bottle, which he pounded and promptly threw up all over the place. I guess his tummy was still mad about Jumbo Corn Krispies. But then he was all about saltines and bananas again (he ate like half a banana), and hasn't shown any side effects or threw up since then. The doctor's office opens in about three minutes...I guess I'll call and see what they have to say.

Slacker Mom

I've been a total slacker lately on the blog due mostly to travel, work and illness in the house. But on this, the eve of my son's 10 month birthday, I feel it's high time for some updates!

He is Mr. Cruise. He has also learned to throw, and plays a baby version of catch where he attempts to throw to his dad, who then rolls it back to him. My perfect eater has become a little finicky from time to time, which is what I deserve given that I am THE pickiest eater on earth. At least I can say, "I don't want that" whereas he can't tell me until I've opened the jar, he's taken a bite, and isn't feeling it. I'm hoping it's a phase.

Jackson is getting good at feeding himself. Today it was carrots and potatoes, and some weird freeze dried yogurt pieces. He did well. He also likes to try to feed me cheerios, and he now tries to fake me out and offer it and then pull it away. I do not know where he learned this game as that's even too evil for me to pull on a 10 month old.

This weekend I had another taste of single parenting as Jason went skiing. I was home basically alone with him from Thursday until this afternoon. Sally O'Malley came up and was a temporary babysitter so I could run to the store quickly instead of deliberately, which was great. But I do wonder how single parents do it. I guess you just do it...you don't have another choice.

He likes to crawl places he shouldn't. Like the kitchen. It's not 100% ready for primetime just yet. It's a work in progress...just like everything else. :)

The Baby Gourmet

So we're still on jarred foods for most of what Jackson is eating solids-wise. He can now feed himself cheerios and eat various foods...well mostly carbs...but also bananas, etc. We haven't had the fortitude to attempt anything too crazy yet.

I kind of was getting sick of feeding him the same stuff all the time. Turkey and vegetables. Chicken and sweet potatoes. Beef with carrots and corn. Rice and lentils. That was basically our dinner time rotation. So I got online to see what Earth's Best had out there, and I discover their Gourmet line and their Antioxidant line. I figured, what the hell, let's go for it.

Result? Jackson is becoming a food snob. Wednesday night he had "Tender Beef with Spinach" and yesterday at school he had "Chicken and Mango Risotto" and then when we tried good old Turkey and Vegetables? Negative. Breakfast? Banana and Mango antioxidant blend. Yes. Done. I am very glad he likes some different foods...he is already doing way better than mom is on the food experimentation...maybe I'll get ambitious this weekend.

Self Service

We've been experimenting with Jackson and finger foods for a little while now. He has always been interested enough to push them around his tray, and usually will pick them up. He has been known to use the pincer from time to time. But when he actually decided he wanted to put the foods into his mouth, usually he would grab them with his fist, put his whole fist in his mouth, and attempt to put the food in that way. Then he would take the fist out and the food would drop for either us to clean it up or for Buffy the Dog to eat.

Tonight at dinner at grandma and grandpa's house, he successfully transferred food from tray to hand to mouth, chewed it up, and swallowed it. Hooray!

Chew This

Hooray for chewing! Last night we were all sitting on the floor watching that game, and we let Jackson go to town on a teething biscuit during our dinner. He finally did actually go to town and actually gnawed on it to the point that it required chewing. He never got anything to the point of swallowing, but it did lead me to try some more finger foods today.

We have been putting Cheerios on his tray for like two weeks, and while he can pick things up using his thumb and finger, he doesn't have a lot of interest in putting such things in his mouth. Jason has a banana basically every morning, so today I took a slice and cut it into little Jackson-sized pieces. He played with them, but again wasn't super-motivated to eat them. Which surprises me, because he puts literally EVERYTHING into his mouth. I have an exercise ball in the basement which is two feet tall and all he does is try and take bites out of it, so I find it odd that he won't put something clearly sized for his mouth actually into his mouth.

So after a few minutes of watching him push banana pieces around, I held one out for him to try. He kept it in his mouth and chewed on it for, oh, five minutes or so and then swallowed it without incident. Then did it one more time before he had enough. In any case, the little monkey seemed to like the bananas and hopefully we can start progressing him to chunkier foods and he will enjoy it. Really I just want him to feed himself one so we can cheer that he did that and move on.

He's gone three straight nights without his 10 pm bottle, so it looks like we're doing okay there. He does wake up a little bit at like 3 am, which I think he did before but now I'm just extra-sensitive hearing-wise because I'm jumpy about him maybe wanting food. We'll see. He's for sure eating in the mornings like an absolute champion.

Foooooooooooooooooooooood

It is so entertaining attempting new foods with Jackson. He is on to stage two foods, so he has been trying some combinations. He was loving sweet peas and rice. He has loved all the fun fruit combinations.

However no reaction was as outstanding as the "Summer Vegetable Dinner" we tried tonight. He hated it. I mean he HATED it. The look on his face when he first tasted might as well have said "summer vegetable crap" as his father just described it. Jason tasted it and said it tasted like Elmer's paste. Jackson agreed. He was a trooper and ate about seven spoonfuls. We followed it up with apples and blueberries, which he is much more fond of.

Right now he is going crazy in the Jumperoo and Jason is making him laugh simply by laughing in Jackson's face and swaying around in front of him. When Jackson gives a big belly laugh there are few things more awesome in this world. Does anyone know if jumping and jumping and jumping in a jumperoo is bad because if it is, we're in trouble. He loves it like a fat kid loves cake. The photo above...is from Jackson's 6 month birthday! Hooray JC Penney!