Mood music: U2 - "One"
Is it getting better...? Yes, thank you Bono, it is.
The daily struggle of getting our little princess to ingest solid foods is moving towards reconciliation, but it's still a labor of love. Not only is it a battle with her, lady high-queen of the high-chair, but it is a battle with yourself- a battle to remain cheery and playful in the face of mounting frustration. And in the face of a baby growing ever sassier before your eyes.
I was, I thought, fully prepared I knowing that my little daughter would at some point become a sassy little thing- "All little girls are," people have told me since we found out we were having one. But I figured perhaps this wouldn't be the case until maybe she learned the word "No!" or "I want that!" Well the seeds of sass have apparently already been planted, and roots are forming- well before verbal acuity has reared its head. One needs only to bring a spoon close to K.'s lips and watch her willfully clamp her lips shut and dramatically turn her head aside, to glimpse the future of what attitude may lay in store for us.
On a couple of occurrences, I have seen her actually swat the spoon out of my wife's hand. Arguments can of course be made that she still may not complete understand exactly what she's doing- but coupled with the stare-down duel that followed between the queen and her minion- it makes me wonder. And then two seconds later it's all smiles and giggles from the chair, and her mouth opens just ever so slightly, so you swoop in with the spoon- only to be greeted with "lips of steel," as I like to call them. The same lips of steel we are met with when she doesn't want the bottle, but much messier and stickier. The same lips of steel that fly wide open when it's time to take her yummy medicine, the same lips of steel that welcome the thumb with ease during feeding- so they do work...
But it is getting better. Once you can sneak some food into her royal mouth, she generally relents- realizing that we're not feeding her cat food- and keeps the drawbridge open for the waiting feeding implement. But she'll let us know she's done- even if we do try and push the envelope still, "Just one more bite..." You know who usually wins.
Never let them (her) see you sweat, is a good motto to go on. Once she sees that frustration build up on your face- feeding time is over. And try, against insurmountable odds, not to laugh when she sasses it up- I know someday very soon it won't be cute at all, but right now it's really friggin' adorable.
Hopefully she turns into that kid who after giving us food-related grief as little one, becomes a very good eater in her later kid years- very much like one of my nephews. Until then we'll fight the good fight (the food fight?)- trying to keep the sass down to a minimum, and the solids down the gullet!
2 comments:
hmmm.... the girl knows what she wants! i think it's fantastic. doesn't jessica seinfeld have a book about how to make entire meals around your kids' picky eating thus tricking them into consuming vegetables?
yeah- her trick is to puree the veggies and bake them into things or the like... but unfortunately the puree is all k's eating at this point, so there no place to hide it!
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