bananas and raisins

"James is a great eater!"
That's what I used to say. Now all of a sudden he turned 13 months and he is picky! I am so against being picky. I was raised to try everything and eat everything on your plate. So when people said, "my toddler will only eat cake, so I give him Pedialyte so he gets in some nutrition" I always rolled my eyes and said, "really?" Haha. I guess my judgements are coming back to bite me.

James thinks he could live on bananas, raisins, a blueberry cereal bar from trader joes, cheese and sometimes crackers. These are the 4-5 things I can get him to eat pleasantly. Anything else he takes 3 bites of and does his sign language for "all done" if I try to give it to him after that he starts crying and turning his face into the back of his highchair. Needless to say eating has become one of my least favorite times.

He is still curious and will walk around asking for a bite of whatever you are eating, but one bite is about all he wants. You get out something sweet though and I swear he has the nose of a dog and can smell sugar! He will come up to you and sign "more" over and over until you give him some..and of course could eat the whole thing saying "mmm". It's actually funny to watch, but also frustrating! I guess it is my fault since I fed him dessert after dessert while pregnant! What can I say..he got his mom's sweet tooth.

I am wondering at what age can you "make" him eat those things he doesn't want to. He's at a weird transition stage between real food and baby food. He really doesn't want baby food, but gets tired of chewing up solids so then he quits. I don't want him to think he can just snack all day and then not eat with us at meals, but he's not at an age yet where he can understand me when I say, "You'll sit there until your plate is clean or you'll eat this for every meal until it's finished." Remember those days? Or was that just my family :)

He has learned to sign "raisin" so he's up to 7 signs now. His version of the sign is so cute. It's just so funny how he wants to be so independent already. He has used a regular cup since 9 months, but I introduced a sippy cup to him the other day when we were in Aurora because it was an easier way to transport milk. Now he LOVES his sippy cup and asks to drink out of it all the time.

He's growing up so fast! I am starting to recognize some of his words and he's making a couple animal sounds too. He says, "nana" for banana, and "da" for daddy.  He can make a kitty, lion, bear, and elephant sound, and for a giraffe I taught him to stick his tongue out (I saw a giraffe on a safari trip in NJ and his tongue was so long and hanging out so when we were reading a book and it came to giraffe that's what I did and he loved it!)

I can't say enough how much I love him and enjoy watching him grow up. I know there will be many more challenges than getting him to eat some protein so I try to remember that and be thankful for each bite he takes! :)