Molly has generally been eating well the last few weeks. But on her daily note at school today, we got a reminder of what things had been like for so long, when Molly often did not care to have anything to do with food. Here is her daily note.
Under “For Lunch I ate”, you can see that she ate nothing at all, declining noodles, beans, and apple sauce. She apparently did help herself to a bit of water, though, so at least she was hydrated.
Molly is all about the orange.
Tonight for dinner, she had macaroni & cheese, mashed carrots, and orange slices. I didn’t realize until the end that everything she was eating was the same glorious orange color. Well, okay, fortunately the milk was white.
To top it off, I then realized that she was wearing an orange shirt, as was I.
A couple of months ago, during the more spring-like growing season, Grammy brought some lettuce seeds up here to plant with Claire. They planted the seeds in a container in the back yard, and before long, the lettuce was off and growing.
Now that it is hot and dry, the lettuce is just starting to wilt and die back. So last night I asked Claire if she would like to try eating some of her home-grown lettuce with dinner. She said yes, and was pretty excited about it. So I went outside and cut some lettuce off to serve up as a basic lettuce salad with our ravioli. It looked pretty nice, actually. I even made a big deal about how fresh the lettuce was. “Fresh lettuce, coming up!” Claire is not a big salad eater, and not really into salad dressing, so she just went for a tentative bite of the stem.
From the look of her face, the lettuce did go down so well for Claire. Even after adding dressing and croutons.
At first I thought Claire just wasn’t used to the (rather mild) taste lettuce, but when I tried some myself, I had to admit it was really bitter. Even with a generous amount of ranch dressing and croutons, the bitterness still fought its way through. It tasted like something you’re not supposed to eat. I hope I haven’t ruined Claire on salads!
Anyways, it was great to grown some of our own food, and I am glad the lettuce survived this far. Maybe next year we’ll try tomatoes or oranges or something. Or hot dogs. Oh wait, now that would really ruin her on hot dogs.
Molly had her 18-month well check today. Mainly, we were interested to see if her body was actually growing. Last time we had her weighed at the doctors’ office, during a visit for a cold back in January, she had not put on a single ounce over the few weeks since her 15-month check. She was stuck at 18 pounds. If we did not see any movement on her weight this time, we might have to start with the blood tests, which besides being a troubling sign, might get ugly, based on past experience.
We did not go in with great expectations, either. Molly had been on another “down cycle” with her eating lately, apparently due to a cold and/or teething, both of which seem to badly suppress her appetite. She is often hostile to the very idea of food. Most mornings when I set her down for breakfast, Molly looks like this:
Back to the well check…we had some cautiously good news. Molly now weighed in at 18 pounds and 12 ounces. She’s small, but definitely growing, and the doctor was happy about that. Coupled with a lot of walking and talking, the doctor was pretty encouraged with the way Molly was coming along. After all, Molly also looks like this once we get her away from the high chair:
Tonight we had our least romantic Valentine’s dinner ever.
Valentine’s Day fell on a Monday this year, which is unromantic right off the bat. But Kit and I were not going to be defeated that easily. We had roses, a nice dinner ready to heat up, and even a heart-shaped cookie for dessert, thanks to Kit. That was about the best we could do on a weeknight with the kids.
Molly was in a fussy mood, maybe from teething. To avoid a continuous gale of sobbing, I held her while preparing dinner with one arm, something that I thought was a thing of the past with our newly semi-independent toddler. Claire, for her part, was happy and enthusiastic about Valentines Day after exchanging Valentines at school, and contented herself to watching Arthur while I cooked. Kit was stuck in traffic as I cooked, but she managed to get home right about when dinner was ready. At this point, Molly was showing some interest in food, such as trying to say “more” while pointing at the bananas on the counter. Maybe she was fussy from hunger? It would actually be good to see Molly hungry (todo link to not eating / weight). We optimistically sat everyone down at the table, Molly took two bites of food, and then the screaming started.
The screaming stopped and started in fits, but the general trend was louder, more piercing screams as time went on. There was also the food throwing to accompany the screaming. Molly managed to bat away the food we offered her (even the bananas), with the food hitting the floor even before it reached her high chair table. We got her out of the high chair and tried sitting her on our lap to eat. That did not help. She only got more irritated, and the shrieking continued.
Eventually, I took her outside for some fresh air (for the both of us!). That did the trick. Once we exited the back door, she almost instantly stopped crying and started smiling. As Molly and I hung around the backyard in peace, Kit and Claire enjoyed their romantic dinner together. I could se them through the window just having a nice dinner. After about 10 minutes, I brought Molly back inside for another try at eating. The crying and screaming started the minute we came back inside. So Kit grabbed Molly and headed outside while I sat in on Claire’s romantic dinner.
With the nice weather, everyone in a good mood, and a little time on our hands today, we decided to go out for lunch South Austin style. We went to the South Congress Ave. trailers to eat. It was a little awkward feeding Molly out among the wind and crowds on a picnic table, but everyone had a good time, as you can see.
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Her birthday party will be coming up this weekend.
Tonight, Molly, Claire, Kit, and Kit’s parents went to dinner at Magnolia Cafe. Unfortunately, I missed this one because I was off trying to catch up on work, thanks to the generous grandparent coverage.
Apparently Kit was eating a salad with Molly in her lap (uh oh!). Kit was trying to keep Molly out of her salad, especially since it had a big red heap of salsa on top. When Kit turned away for just a second to talk to Claire (or something like that) Molly jumped on the opportunity and grabbed as much salsa as she could hold in her little baby hand. And of course, being a baby, Molly immediately stuck the salsa right into her mouth. This is a baby who had thus far subsisted solely on milk, baby formula, and mashed vegetables and fruits. The idea of “spicy” or even “seasoned” was completely new to her.
Fortunately, Molly took fairly well to the odd mixture. She did not cry. She simply looked bemused and carried on with things. We can safely say that this was Molly’s very first taste of salsa or anything even remotely interesting for that matter.
McG Kids 