Eat your booty

I got back from Japan yesterday morning, and the little man and I got to spend most of the day together. Zachary already seemed different than when I had left - even more interactive, playing, and verbal. He also now has a fifth tooth coming in (bottom right-of-center, for the inquiring grandparental minds). He was singing for mommy this week while I was gone:


A somewhat new food in Zachary's cuisine since I got back is what Trader Joe's used to call Pirate's Booty (really? a Wikipedia entry? What doesn't that thing cover?!), but recently replaced by their own brand of (suspiciously still maritime/treasure chest-themed) 'Unburied Treasure White Cheddar Corn Puffs'. He loves them as a snack or at dinner time, though he still hasn't quite figured out the whole "biting off a piece" concept, and stuffs them into his mouth whole.

This leads us into a review of his current dietary state in general, which is an occasional concern, such as on our recent trips to NY and LA (where we went to fruit markets or grocery stores to stock up on Zachary-friendly cuisine). Apparently any hint or mention of a child being a 'picky eater' is taboo and actively discouraged by the child care folks in the know -- at our otherwise consistently supportive parent-baby sessions, Meh was actually chided at the final graduating class a few weeks ago for even suggesting such a thing within earshot of Zachary. Wha? Anyway, here's my current understanding of his eating standards:

1. Finger foods must be consciously grabbed by Zachary. Anything placed in his hand or inadvertently dragged/brushed in passing is unacceptable and elicits hand shaking until the item is flung in a random direction.
2. Items must not be sticky or gummy, since this may lead to violations of #1. ("Wet" appears to be okay, since his favorites include fruits.)
3. Spoon-fed items must be accompanied by live entertainment (and occasionally by a second spoon that he must hold). The choo-choo train and Jaws theme are his favorite delivery mediums.
4. Items with complex textures are not generally acceptable. This has been proven thus far by pizza, waffles, and quesadillas that included more than just cheese and a hint of carrots.
5. Items must more or less fit in his mouth whole; biting off a piece is unacceptable. (There was a hilarious example last week where I gave him a rectangular Japanese rice wafer we'd gotten. He insisted that it must be eaten in vertical orientation, so he was getting frustrated and having issues trying to chew it while it propped his mouth open.)

Of course all we can do is continue to offer these other foods; as our doctor reminded us, it's pretty uncommon for a child who has been consistently offered foods to starve. And Zachary certainly is doing fabulously with the foods that he does like; tonight he ate about a half of a quesadilla, a small bunch of grapes, a few mommy-picked blackberries, a handful of pirate's booty, apple sauce, and one and a half rice cakes. Korby got the honor of eating the rejected pizza and late quesadilla and grape bits; I think he's looking forward to mealtime more than Zachary is.

Today, Zachary took 3 quick little steps in a row! He was cruising around and then holding onto mommy, and she backed up - he responded by walking back over to her and grabbing her skirt. I tried to replicate it with daddy, but he preferred to just keep crawling towards me, which was its own brand of fun entertainment for the little man; we had a few chase daddy around the kitchen sessions this afternoon while mommy was at work.