The Best Eater in the House!

The new best eater in the house.  He can put away 3, 4, even 5 different foods (in not insignificant quantities!) at a time.  He hasn't found any foods that he rejects, AND he's good at feeding himself.  (Okay, okay... maybe he can't use a spoon yet - but he has an awfully good pincher grip for finger foods!)

Baby, I adore you.

*Philosophical rant about poor eaters ahead:*

Those older children?  They continue to exasperate me!  Lincoln wants whatever he sees, but loses interest after about 2 bites.  (He used to be a better eater.) I am trying to cure him of his extreme attachment to milk, milk, and more milk.  I'm not sure I'm winning.  Bentley, Jake, and Viva?  Bentley still wins pickiest eater but that may just be because he is openly vocal about how disturbing he finds the idea of eating most foods.  I think Viva may be almost as bad as him but she just wages a quieter resistance.  :)  Jake eats a few more foods than his siblings, but I wouldn't call him a lover of new cuisines.

Obviously the common link between all these dysfunctional eaters is me, the mother!  But I'm pretty sure I'm not interested in forcing children to sit at the table and gag down food until the plate is gone.  So I continue to aim for tolerance, and not allowing myself to express TOO much sarcasm when they do, on random occasions, try a new food and express amazement that it's not awful.  :)  We eat lots of nuts and veggies around here, along with drinking copious amounts of milk.  Last week we went through 5 gallons.  I told Matt about this and he laughed at my amazement - claiming that teenage boys will go through even more (which, I imagine, is true).

Anyway.  I'd rather have children that don't like to eat than children that don't like to read.  So I think I'll count myself lucky that this is my battle - it's irksome but not incredibly significant to me.  As long as they're eating enough foods to get the nutrients they need and grow?  I suppose variety can suffer.  I've read children like to focus on food because it's one area they can control - it's very hard to force a person to eat.

And perhaps they'll grow out of it.  Haha!