16 months old

...and Boden is still mostly following a vegetarian diet. This week I saw a glimmer of hope that his food preferences may be expanding slightly: He ate taco spaghetti at school--not sure exactly what that is, but he generally likes his noodles naked. And he also ate turkey taco meat at home with tortilla strips. Both new foods to his diet! I think I read that foods need to be introduced over thirty some times before they are accepted by kids...we surpassed "thirty some" a long time ago for many foods but we'll keep trying. I didn't like cottage cheese until I was an adult and I'm sure my mom tried to force that on me multiple times.

My Bad Advice

As I was writing an e-mail to my friend, I thought, "This will make a lovely blog post" and then I patted myself on the back for my stellar multi-tasking. *grin*

E-mail to friend:
Subject: Bad advice
...mine, unfortunately. I feel like a bad momma because I told you I gave Boden raisins and that I thought it was okay. I told someone at work in a non-chalant way when she was asking about what Boden eats these days and when I mentioned raisins (among other foods) she was all "Already?! I think it’s a choking hazard?!" Complete with an overexagerated look of undisguised horror. And I was all "He hasn’t gagged on them once and I give him like 5 at a time, all separate so they aren’t one big dried fruit clump" (so take that!). Then she was all “ohhh” in a very disapproving, eyebrows raised kind of way. Grrr. So, I looked up the answer on the all-knowing Internet and the wise pediatricians at the AAP say dried fruit, including raisins, is not okay until age 3 “or older” depending on the ability of your child. Fine. I’m still going to give them to him once in a while if I chop them up, but seriously—3??! So, wanted you to know that I passed on bad advice…again :/

Sliding into tantrum territory

We appear to be entering the phase of temper tantrums. A friend of mine who works with kids with all types of cognitive and social disorders reminded me that this is a good thing--tantrums are completely normal. Fine, they're normal, but I don't have to like them or welcome them.

I was under the impression we were going to have a few "good" months before the "Terrible Twos" hit. But, we've gone straight from throwing food, repeatedly hitting the dogs, and ignoring anyhthing that sounds like the word "no" into tantrum territory. One of Todd's friends warned him that shortly after Boden turned a year old, we'd witness behavior that would make us think "Oh, this is the terrible twos hitting us early"...and then we'd actually hit the terrible twos LATER". So, apparently this is an intro course.

Pick it up.

I say these words about 1,001 times per day. Boden is in a horrible habit of throwing down his sippy cups, toast, crackers, shoes, "monkey", and everything else he runs off with onto the floor wherever. Some things I don't really care about (bad momma) but the food and cups are really annoying to constantly pick up and I don't think it's especially safe for Boden to be toddling about with mouthfuls of choking hazards (fruit, toast, crackers). Of course, the simple way around this is to follow daycare rules and eat and drink only while sitting down. As I was practically chasing Boden around the daycare room this morning with a waffle in his hand gently reminding him that he needs to sit until he's all done, his teacher chimed in something about choking while eating on the run. Yep, I've got a couple bad habits to break. At least he didn't throw his waffle on the floor while I was there. Once again, the daycare way of life has pointed out my lackadaisical parenting skills...sigh.

B is for Blueberry

and Boden, of course, and blue baby buns.

Since Boden only likes a handful (two...maybe three) of fruits--and blueberries top his faves'list--they are on the menu often, which means his diapers often have blue "packages" in them. No biggie--he's getting plenty of fiber and antoxidants, so why not let him have them often, right? Well a couple days ago, during bathtime, Todd and I noticed all these blue packages were turning Boden's li'l buns blue...like Violet in Willy Wonka, except he's turning blue from the bottom up. Oops. Guess we need to cut back a little on the b-berries.

Heh heh, watch this!

Boden loves to play with his food. Luckily, we have dogs who enjoy cleaning up after him cuz this trick loses it's charm after the fifteenth or so time. But it sure makes him chuckle which of course makes me chuckle.

Little Rebel

We've been working on the word "no" and what it means with Boden. It used to mean "turn and smile and continue doing what I'm doing"; now it means "jut my chin out, stick out my bottom lip, and continue doing what I'm doing". On the positive side, we're making progress, I guess--but it seems to be in the wrong direction.

This blatant defiance just seems so uncharacteristic for someone who is supposedly completely malleable at this age. He should be putty in my hands--do what I say; trust that I know best! The first time Boden stuck his lip out, locked eyes with me and proceeded to feed Bueller his banana soaked Cheerio after I told him no, my jaw dropped open. He's too young to reason, he was not into being re-directed into a more positive action, and he clearly knew what he was doing. So, what's my option? I can't give him a time out or have a discussion with him--well, I did try that (Bueller doesn't need organic bananas. He has dog food. This food is for Boden. Are you all done?). But it was followed by another handful of food passed off to a drooly, eagerly waiting Bueller.

What if Boden is a born rebel? Today it's feeding the dogs from his high chair, tomorrow he'll be stealing cars. I can't even place blame on the "wrong crowd" he's been running with. We are his "crowd"...though there is that 3 year old at daycare that seems to have a mean streak. I'll have to have a talk with the daycare lady about that.

Playing IN your food is fun, too.

Working for General Mills has it's perks--like giant vats of Cheerios for your kid to play in. We took Boden to the company picnic really for the sole purpose of dropping him into the Cheerios Dig.

Boden met up with his friend Henry and they attacked the Cheerios together...but with different reactions. Henry screamed and was, for some reason, angry with the Cheerios. Boden was thoughtful, at first, then began rolling around and diving into the o's with gusto. I think the goal was to score some toys that were "hidden" under the cereal, but Boden just grabbed Cheerios and, apparently, stuffed them down his pants, because he continued to drop o's from his being for the next hour or so.

The key is to be one of the first to this event--the less "used" Cheerios your kid encounters, the better.