Lunch Update

A while back I posted about how Amor Chiquito was barely eating her lunch. Well, that has changed! Here is the update:

Amor Chiquito was not much of a breakfast person. By the second or third week of school that changed. She now has a bowl of cereal before she leaves every morning.

We learned from one of the teachers that she was, most definitely, eating. She was going for seconds at snack time, in fact!

About a week after I posted here about lunch, Amor Chiquito started wiping out her lunch completely. When she started eating her entire lunch, I was sending a quarter of a homemade waffle and fruit. I was alternating between grapes and strawberries. Here we are, three weeks later, and the kid is still in love with waffles and strawberries! I don't offer waffles at home so that she does not get sick of them. We'll send something else, eventually, but why screw with it if she is loving waffles and strawberries right now?

I used to send water. She was not drinking much. I switched to juice. I sent orange juice for a while. This week, I am sending crangrape juice and water, about a two to one ratio. Four ounces of 100% juice. No juice at home because she has juice in school and at grandma's, of course. It is working beautifully.

If you are curious, she still will not touch meat! Her protein comes from dairy and nuts. Fortunately, we now know that she is not alergic to any nuts.

She ate a real meal, finally!

I know that toddlers go through phases where they are not interested in eating. I don't know why this happens. I just know that it does. I know not eating well for a few days is not going to kill her, but it is hard not to get worried when it has been about ten days.

We just got home from Abuela's. We delivered dinner because my mother just got surgery. Surgery on your left hand (carpal tunnel release) when you are left-handed sucks!

Back to Ari, she asked for rice and actually ate all the rice I gave her. She also had a small bowl of fruit and about half of a Danimal smoothie. I can feel her little, full meatball tummy! Yay! The things parents get excited about!

Today I am parenting a sweet, happy, funny horse!

Amor Chiquito slept mostly ok last night.

She went down for her nap very easily and napped for 2 hours.

Amor Chiquito ate like a horse today! I cannot believe the amount of food that is in that child’s tummy right now!

She was very pleasant most of the time. No sleep deprivation-induced cranckiness.

Lastly, Ari did very well during the early intervention visit. The therapist thinks Amor Chiquito is probably at 21 months as far as language. She is 22 months. So, if Amor Chiquito was evaluated today, she would not qualify for early intervention. How she went from scoring 14 to 21 months in two months is beyond me, but I will not complain!

Thank you God for a great day! These are the days when I think I want another baby!

More of the same, more or less...

Last night was a lot better than Sunday night. Amor Chiquito got up 3 times. The second time it took us about 45 minutes to get her back to sleep. That was still a lot better than Sunday night because she gave us 2 3.5 hour chunks and there were no crying incidents.

The other good thing is that Amor Chiquito slept until 7am, whereas, the past few weeks, she had been waking up around 5:30 and the only way to get her to sleep was to let her nibble herself to sleep on our bed. It seemed, to me, that there was a pattern: if it was dark, she would go back down in her crib; if there was light, she was either up or in bed with us. Abuela installed the shade I bought months ago and so far so good. Seems like it worked like a charm. Let's see what happens tonight. I am cautiously hopeful!

As for her nap and eating, that is a whole other story. It is 3pm and she has not had lunch or napped. I have offered rice, beans, milk, and other things I know she likes right now. Amor Chiquito won't eat. She won't even sit down. Amor Chiquito just takes off and wonders around the kitchen. She is often completely ignoring me. Freakin' terrible two's! I guess I can't reread Love and Logic soon enough!

I really wish I knew why she will eat like a horse some times and other times she just does not care for food, no matter who does what. I also wish I knew why she will often eat great with my mother but not with me. Come on, kid, my food is not that bad!

As for the nap, every time I say it is time to nurse and sleep, she begins naming foods she wants. Of course, when I offer, she won't eat them. The other thing she is doing is running in our bedroom and climbing in our bed. Lastly, when I talk about naptime, she starts to cry. If she manages to get away, she starts playing like nothing ever happened. I guess that is, by definition, being impish.

What next? I don't know. I don't know what else to try. Maybe I'll end up nursing her to sleep on her bedroom floor again. I don't want to send mixed signals, but I don't know what else to do. I am not willing to leave her bedroom and let her scream herself to sleep. I am desperate, but not that desperate.

If you have any suggestions, comment away!

Why does she eat so much better with grandma?

What's that about? So many times, I offer her food and she does not eat much. But she goes to my mother's and she eats like a horse! My mother, of course, is proud as can be! "I don't understand why you say she won't eat." Why do I say it? Because it's the truth! Because I try and try and she shakes her head and says no to almost everything I offer.

I am thrilled that she eats well at my mother's, but she lives here! She needs to eat well here too! What about the days when we do not see my mother?!

If you have any ideas, please share!

Amor Chiquito is Little Ms. Independence, so what works best is to let her feed herself. I do that, but, even then... Help!

Amor Chiquito weighs 23 pounds and 7 ounces. She is in the 25th percentile. So she is at a healthy weight. But I want her to stay at a healthy weight!

Oh, an interesting thing... She is not the traditional picky eater. She eats anything and everything, when she wants to. She eats all different fruits and veggies. Right now, she is in love with broccoli. To each their own! No meat. Self-proclaimed vegetarian! I'm telling you - I don't know where the heck she got that from because Daddy and Mommy are never ever giving up on meat!

Another interesting thing - if she was to decide what her meals would consist of, she would survive on white rice!

I started my summer course today. So I probably won't get to post much the next few weeks. This month will be crazy. I am doing a 14 week course in 5 weeks. Every day, I have lab homework, a lab quiz, multiple chapters to read... A test every week. The kicker: class starts at 8:15 and we're there until 1. Have I mentioned I am not a morning person?! At least it's human biology, an area I am very interested in.

I'll have my diploma soon. That's what I keep telling myself! Once I complete the biology course, I will be one credit away from graduation! Finally!