Monday, May 05, 2008

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Over the weekend, we had two birthday parties to go to- one for a one year old and one for a 40 year old. Pumpkin did great at both, charming strangers and exhausting her parents with her walking skills. Since she is small for her age, people tend to be very impressed by her walking- she is pretty steady on her feet now, and can maneuver small steps up and down.

The babies/toddlers at the one year old's party on Saturday were all from day care, so I was telling them about my finger food woes. Just as I was saying that I could only get Pumpkin to eat chicken except for at restaurants, she toddled past with a partially eaten chicken nugget grasped in her little hand. Needless to say, we bought her some nuggets for at home the next day. Those didn't go over so well. She ate a bit Sunday night, and wanted nothing to do with them tonight. I think (hope) that this is because they are too round, and have to be cut so that she can eat them. I will go out and buy the "right" shaped nuggets soon.

Saturday was apparently a good day for her to experiment with new foods, because she ate some sausage from the lasagna on my plate at dinner, and kept pointing at my plate wanting more. She showed no interest in the toddler ravioli we'd bought for her to try, though. We suspect that it is too slimy.

She will also play with, and think about eating, peas. She likes to pick them out of the bowl and will even occasionally put one in her mouth. She gums it for a while and then spits it out.

Tonight, I tried mac and cheese (well, Annie's Peace Pasta and Parmesan) on her, with some success. Again, she liked to pick the pasta up out of the bowl, or even off of her tray, and would occasionally eat one. She also drank a bit of cow's milk, but it had to be out of my glass, not her cup.

So we've had some progress, and then lost some of it. But I have some ideas about what to try next (straw cups for milk- for me and her!) and for me, that is what I need to stay sane. Similar to when we were working hard on her sleep issues, it helps me to have a plan, even though I sort of suspect that any changes in Pumpkin's behavior will happen according to her plan, and not mine.

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In other Pumpkin news: she stood up on her own for the first time tonight. Up until now, she has needed something (or someone) to lean on to stand up. Tonight, she stood up all by herself. And she thought she was pretty hot stuff when she did this, too.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:56 AM

    Yay for Pumpkin standing up on her own!

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  2. Anonymous11:47 AM

    Actually commenting on your "Food Fight" post...
    I went through nearly the same thing when my daughter transitioned from the infant room to the one year old room at daycare. What I quickly found out was: 1) Peer pressure is a beautiful thing. The daycare allowed her to have bottles for a two-week transition period (sippy cup offered first and bottle only offered if sippy cup refused). She transitioned to sippy cups at daycare without much fuss because she sort of "got" that that's what you do at daycare. At home, she still wants bottles and I'm fine with that. 2) She still doesn't eat much of the food offered at daycare except snacks (carb-type snacks) so I send her with a container full of goldfish crackers, raisins, saltines, etc., whatever snack foods I know she'll eat. If she refuses the food at daycare, they offer her the snacks from her container. I make sure to feed her as much as she'll eat before/after school, including as many bottles as she wants, and she's been no worse for the wear (weight gain is still okay per pediatrician). So, if your daycare is willing to be a little flexible, maybe these ideas will work for you... (don't mean to publish anonymously, just can't remember my google sign-on)

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  3. Anonymous4:19 PM

    Hi Cloud -- just wanted to comment on your food-woes too. I went through this exactly with my son! I was so exasperated... But, on his timing and not mine, he started eating lots of different stuff. Pretty much overnight, he went from barely eating any table foods to eating like a horse. Try not to stress. I stressed SO much and it did me no good. Now in retrospect I so wish I hadn't worried about him. He does what he needs to do in his own good time. Just keep offering a variety of foods. Eventually she'll start to enjoy it...

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  4. Anonymous4:24 PM

    Oh also -- my pediatrician said that most kids start eating well when they see other kids eating. So maybe putting her in the big kid room she'll eventually pick up their eating practices...

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  5. Oh the planning. Plans help us feel in control of things we can't control! Gah. I hope the sleeping and the eating sort themselves out, soon. How worrying.

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  6. Yeah for Pumpkin standing and trying new foods! It won't be long now before she's running around eating everything in site! ;-)

    We're in a bit of an eating regression to go with our sleep regression, but I'm pretty sure it's because of her molars coming in. Hopefully, after that we'll have a good sleeping, good eating baby. Someday, right?

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