A preemptive no

When I was growing up, the rather rebellious nature of our preacher's son was storied. And he wasn't yet a teenager. He was merely a 2-year-old when I heard of his morning ritual: walking into the middle of his family's living room, with it's huge window looking down a hill onto the church, and screaming "No" whilst he pointed in every direction. Of course, knowing the sometimes cantankerous nature of his father, we all just chalked it up to genetics.

Apparently, this is one of the least charming traits of 2-year-olds everywhere. Danny says "No" on average about 50 times a day. I had hoped that maybe the solution would lie in just not asking him any questions. But that hope was dashed today as I must have looked as if I was going to ask our 2-year-old a question. He looked straight at me, shook his head and just said, "Nope."

Dinner has become a battle to get him to stay seated and actually eat something. Tonight was a multiple time out dinner. The best way to get him to eat is to "take turns" eating as in "Mommy's turn eat" then "Daddy's turn eat." Then he'll eat. Another strategy is to use his constant "no" to our advantage by pretending that you want what's on his plate.

"Can I have that chicken?"

"No. Mine." And in his mouth it goes.

"How 'bout that piece of broccoli? Mommy's really hungry tonight."

"Uh huh. Mine." Pops it in his mouth.

Tonight we got him to eat all his broccoli this way. Normally, I'm a little more my-way-or-the-highway, but I'm finally warming up to subversive tactics.

(Usually, I don't worry too much about how much he eats, but we do have the issue of blood sugar crashes and really, um, interesting poop with him when he eats too little food or too much fruit. Lately, Jim and I feel like a pair of poop chemists trying to get him to eat a balanced diet so he doesn't have poop that gives him a rash. That's something that no one EVER tells you about parenthood.)

Fiona at 5 months

Fiona is eating more solid foods now. Last night and tonight, there just wasn't enough butternut squash in the world for that little girl. She was yelling at me the entire meal last night. I couldn't get it in her fast enough. I had fixed two tablespoons and wound up heating two more tablespoons. Tonight, she downed four tablespoons of squash. Jim reminded me recently that Danny liked the savory foods more than the sweet. She likes the rice cereal if I put breast milk in it, but is so over the bananas and applesauce I had been adding. So tomorrow, it's on to carrots (fresh from my garden!!).

Some other interesting milestone for Fiona: she sits up well enough to sit in the grocery cart next to her brother and takes baths with her brother in the tub. She gets up on hands and knees, but can only move forward if she's on her belly. She can almost get up from her belly to a sitting position.

And, of course, we think that she's just the most beautiful child ever. But forget beauty pageants ... is there a World's Strongest Baby competition I can enter her in?