Turbo tot's wake

A quick, 20-minute cleanup every night reveals a lot about what Dan's been up to all day. Last night, several of my spices turned up on my nightly jaunt. The turmeric was on top of the entertainment center, the sage was on the baker's rack. Good, I thought, he can reach only the S through Z spices. The rest of my spices are still safely alphabetized. There was a grilled cheese crouton stuck to a cat's toy, several balls hiding beneath the kick in the kitchen, and all the animals from Noah's Ark marching two-by-two across the play mat side-by-side with little farmers and policemen. A little anachronistic, but we'll go with it.

We've been rocketed into full blown toddlerhood. At this time last year, we were adjusting to a newborn, a complete stranger and shock. Right now, I feel just as much like a fish out of water as I did then. I wonder how long it will take to adjust to the new normal. After his birth, it felt like three months before I could meet his ever changing needs. In short, I accepted fluidity as the norm.

So I've been reading about toddlers, their eating habits, temperaments, sleep and nutrition needs. It's actually hard to find good nutrition information for toddlers as most "experts" assume that you've weaned your child and are giving him milk. We're not doing that. Cow's milk is for baby cows and besides, pasteurization is such a bastardization that the end product no longer resembles milk. I grew up on raw milk and didn't die. Obviously, we can't find raw milk, but cultured dairy products are much better, so that's what he gets. Because we can find out so much about our food, breast feeding throws me off a little bit now. It's the uncertainty. Let's face it, there are no nutrition labels on booby juice. And on the days that Dan decides to eat only fruits and vegetables and a few handfuls of goldfish crackers, I wonder, is he getting enough calories?

The conventional wisdom on toddlers' eating habits is that they usually eat more in the morning and early afternoon than they will at dinner time. Dan's eating habits have become strange to us. Sometimes he throws down food and other times he throws his food on the floor. Right now he seems to be on a carb and meat strike. He'll eat only fruit and vegetables. Not a bad problem to have, but I worry he's not getting enough iron or calcium or fiber in his diet. He's happy, though, and moving around quicker every day.

And we finally got around to childproofing the china cabinet. Dan is pretty ticked off about that.