eat

Goodbye, High Chair

| patmcg

Claire has been recently resisting sitting in her high chair. In the last day or two as we started to put her in her high chair for a meal, she started to specifically ask to sit in a regular chair. “I want to sit there!”, she says, pointing at one of the normal adult chairs. So we tried it out a couple of times, and Claire did just fine. We use one of Kit’s big, thick pathology books as a booster to make things a little easier, but even that is optional. She doesn’t mind reaching up high to grab her food, and she seems to revel in how big and independent she is becoming.

So today, as part of our massive and ongoing cleanup and de-cluttering efforts, we moved the high chair down into the basement “loading zone” area to eventually donate or sell. It’s yet another step to Claire gradually becoming a big kid, and perhaps a fitting way to start off the new year.

Pomodoro Prank

| patmcg

Tonight we all went out to eat at Artuzi’s, which is a quick Italian place nearby. I ordered Claire her own kid-sized penne with pomodoro sauce, because she had enjoyed that in the past when Claire and I ate here with my parents. I could tell Kit was somewhat skeptical about this potentially messy choice, but she did not veto it.

Sitting in the booth next to Kit, Claire initially tried to eat her penne with a fork. But after having the pasta slip off her fork a few times, Claire resorted to using her hands, which quickly became coated in the deep red, oily tomato sauce. At this point, Kit become nervous of Claire ruining her nice sweater shirt, which she was still wearing from work, so she sent Claire to sit next to me across the table from her.

Claire’s messy hands did not bother me, especially since I was not wearing anything fancy, just a t-shirt. This disinterest ended suddenly when Claire reached over and grabbed my white t-shirt with her left hand, leaving five little red dots on my right sleeve, one for each finger. As I recoiled from this intrusion, Claire reached quickly to my front with her right hand, to complete the hugging motion (or pincer movement, depending on how you look at it), leaving five more little red dots on the front of my t-shirt.

At this point, I was a little amused and agitated at the same time. Kit was just laughing. I did manage to lean away from Claire just far enough to keep out of reach of any further tomato sauce attacks. Claire thought it was funny that I was just out of reach and started swinging for me with her little hands, giggling the whole time through her sauce-coated face. “I want to hug Daddy! Hug Daddy! Huuuug!” she said, with a goofy smile on her face. At this point, it was clear that Claire was just having fun and had managed to make a genuine joke out of the situation.

The only real victim of this whole story was, of course, my t-shirt. But don’t worry about the shirt. It made an amazing recovery thanks to some quick on-the-scene dabbing, as directed by Kit, and some liberal use of stain stick later at home.

Popular Kid

| patmcg

With Reese’s family at home taking care of new little baby Davis, Grace has been coming over to our house to watch Claire. Sometimes Grace’s daughter Julianna (sp?) comes over as well, and they have a lot of fun together.

It used to be just me and Muffin (and Daisy in spirit) down in the basement in a quiet house during the day. Now, there are as many of four people upstairs, and various parents and spouses coming and going. I hear the muted sounds of kids stomping around, giggling, and screaming, and the infamous Tigger scooter (from my parents) playing “Camp Town Races” all day above me as I work. Sometimes there are quiet periods when they are playing outside, napping, or watching TV. Reese’s favorite show is Caillou, and of course it is now one of Claire’s favorites by proxy.

When I go upstairs to get a drink or use the bathroom, it is always a very fun, nice scene. Claire is sometimes entertaining Grace and/or Juliana with her words: “Baby! Reesie! Rain! Rain! Mingo! (for flamingo) Kitty! Kitty!”. If Reese is around, she might be sort of playing with him or messing with one of his toys.

Today we had a big thunderstorm in the late afternoon, and we lost power. After everyone left, it was just me and Claire in a quiet, dark house. Kit is on a tough rotation, and we would miss her for dinner. With no way to cook, we went to Moe’s for dinner. We had the usual, a John Coctostan for me, and a Mini Me for Claire. I am a regular, and they guys at Moe’s sort of know Claire too. They also asked about Kit. During all of this, Claire was flirting with one of the really nice Moe’s guys. When we sat down with our quesadillas, he came and sat down with us for a few minutes, mostly to admire Claire.

When we got back home, Claire saw Melissa across the street and said “Lissa! Lissa!”, so we had to go pay her a visit. Claire proudly showed her belly to Melissa and asked about her kitty cat, Marmalade. Kit got home around 7:00 to play and cuddle with Claire a little bit, and to do her bedtime routine.

Somehow Claire already has something of a social life. She has managed to put together a nice cadre of friends, and is never in want of someone to admire her. And just like with the Peachtree Road Race, Claire is also helping to get me into the mix.

The Daily Menu

| patmcg

Here is Claire’s menu these days. This is actually handy just for myself as a quick reference when I feel like there’s nothing for her to eat. Plus it’s taken a while to work out a good eating plan, so I’d like to document this success.

Breakfast
Always starts with whole milk, and on alternating days one of…

  • Whole wheat “baby” oatmeal
  • Frozen whole wheat pancakes

She definitely prefers the “pancakecakes”, as she calls them, and requests them often, even for dinner. It is often the first word out of her mouth in the morning.

Occasionally when I have time in the morning, I cook up a tomato/onion/pepper/cheese omelet instead, which she enjoys. (Hmm, I should try this sometimes for dinners to vary things up.)

She used to eat fruit in the mornings too, especially watermelon, but lately she is not so interested.

Lunch / Dinner
Start with a vegetable, which is pretty much down to one of:

  • Sliced tomato (aka, a ‘mato)
  • Canned green beans
  • Steamed brocolli (which she can actually say well and occasionally requests)
  • Maybe black beans or black eyed peas

At either lunch or dinner, she gets 4 oz full fat yogurt or cottage cheese for the main course.

For the other meal of the day, she gets one of these for her entre:

  • Frozen “Doctor Praeger’s” broccoli or spinach and potato pancake
  • Cheese ravioli or tortellini
  • Sliced deli turkey
  • Rice & beans
  • A quesadilla, aka a “kadeeya!”, such as a frozen one from Sam’s Club, or a”Mini Me” quesadilla from Moe’s if we’re out. I have not perfected the homemade quesadilla yet.
  • Random leftovers from our meals or eating out. If she’s lucky it’s beef brisket, pulled chicken, or something like that, ideally something with some fat and/or protein.

Then a fruit:

  • A chopped up orange, which she usually likes
  • A few strawberries, which she often requests as “strawburdy!”
  • Grapes (sliced up to avoid choking!)
  • Watermelon
  • She’s medium on most other “misc” fruit as everyday fare, but we have had some success with the occasional peach or pear.
  • Bananas are completely avoided since they are constipating, although she knows what they are called and can say “banana” real well.
  • Apples were on our no-eat list until recently, because one of Claire’s doctors told me it was constipating too. That has since been rebuked by another doctor, so we might give them a try.

Finally, a bread:

  • Usually a whole wheat pita
  • Maybe some sort of grainy cracker
  • Occasionally a tortilla or bagel
  • A graham cracker if she’s real lucky (“Cracker! Cracker!”)