Eating

Both of our kids eat, but they don't both share the same interest in eating, unfortunately. Marty will enthusiastically eat anything he sees, food or otherwise. Here he is happily chewing on some of his toys.

I understand most children grow out of the oral fixation stage, but with Marty, I have to wonder a little when that will be. He loves grabbing things, but he still loves cramming everything he can into his mouth.

Edie, on the other hand, is hardly interested in eating at all anymore. Mealtimes are a full-on battle every day, which has been frustrating, to say the least. Tamsen got the great idea to get her a dinner plate that encourages her to eat, though. Take a look and you'll see why.

It's a treasure map! She starts at the beginning, eats each square along the trail, and at the end, there's a little treasure chest that she can open up and get her dessert. She really likes it! She asks us every night if she can eat from her treasure plate, and even if she sneaks her dessert out a little early, she usually finishes up every square.

I found out this week that she's reasonably good at writing, which I had no idea. She told me she wanted to write out everyone's name in the family, and after we sounded them out together, she wrote everything down without any help. Pretty impressive!

A quick final story about Marty: Tamsen took him in for a checkup this week and was told that because he weighs so much for his age (the same weight as Edie!), he could probably stand for a little more exercise. That made my eyebrows go up a little, because in my experience, this picture is an accurate depiction of what he looks like from day to day around the house.