Eating Machine!

Daniel is quite the eating machine these days! We can't keep up- really. Let's hope it adds up to some good weight gain for our doctor appointment this week! Daniel eats a great breakfast (he ate almost three bowls of cereal the other day!), a pretty good lunch, snacks almost all afternoon, and then usually a pretty good dinner even after all that. It's the snacks all afternoon that I can't keep up with. It's great...but gosh it feels like all I do is feed him. They say they eat a lot when they're growing and I hope that's true!

Daniel is starting to get pickier about what he eats- especially if he sees something he wants more than what's being offered. So we have to be a little more clever and his meals are now more like mini courses in efforts to get him to eat some different things. Basically, he LOVES meat and beans! Fruits are okay and veggies, ehh. It depends.

The most fun update about eating is that Daniel is actually getting really good at feeding himself using a fork. He has much more control, more patience, holds the fork the right way (with the occasional redirection), and can successfully stab the piece of food I've put in front of him. Of course there are times he will just pick up the piece instead. And even funnier- after all his hard work with the fork, sometimes he will take it off the fork and eat it. Whatever works, buddy! Still needs some practice with spoons, but he's getting better. Daniel also likes to hold his cup on his own too. And another big accomplishment- Daniel started to put his cup together all on his own this week! The other day, we were in the kitchen near where I keep Daniel's bowls and plates and such, and Daniel reached over, picked up his cup and the top of the cup and put them together and tried to drink out of it! I got such a kick out of that. Of course, I got the hint and promptly filled the cup, added the straw, then screwed on the top and gave it right to Daniel. At least he knows how the parts fit together, even if it does still take a few more steps until it's a drink. I'm just amazed at how much he's learning and figuring things out these days!

In the middle picture above- Uncle Brian is holding Daniel and Daniel is eating a frosted sugar cookie complete with rainbow sprinkles (he sure loved those- thank you Grandma Cheryl!)- and the eating machine that he is these days, he doesn't let a crumb fall out- you can see his hand trying to keep the whole bite in! I think Daniel would eat a whole meal of just these sugar cookies- if I let him.