You know how they say (you know, THEM) that the more kids you have the earlier they do things? So true. Amanda can do things her siblings never did at her age, and stuff that other kids her age aren't even thinking about. For example, when she wants a drink, she gets a sippy cup and lid and takes it over to the refrigerator to fill with water. When that doesn't work, because she is too short to reach the water dispenser, she brings it to me or one of the kids. How many 15 month olds do you know that do that?
When Andy was little, we were very careful about what we let him eat. Well, except that one time when he was only 10 months old and we fed him some of our Thai food and forgot that it was covered in peanut sauce and peanut sauce has, well, peanuts in it. Luckily he does not have a peanut allergy. But in general, we were careful about what we gave him and tried very hard to make sure that it was healthy. We wanted to instill good eating habits in him and make sure he didn't eat a lot of junk and get fat or have his teeth fall out. So, he was about 2 1/2 or 3 before we gave him french fries. Every time I would run into my friend, Lisa, she would say "Has Andy had french fries yet?". Her daughter ate nothing but french fries, so she couldn't fathom that my kid didn't eat them at all. Looking forward, it worked out pretty well. Of course he likes candy and junk food, but he makes very good food choices and almost always chooses fruit over fries.
Sarah was a different story. She would see Andy eating fries, and therefore she wanted them. She was probably about 18 months when she had her first fries and never turned back. When she has the choice she always picks fries, unless her friends are picking fruit then she goes with them.
Amanda hasn't really had fries. Maybe one or two here or there, but not really. Definitely not before she turned one. But yesterday, she definitely got to try them out. We had to run an errand before Sarah went to therapy and we were running out of time to go home and have lunch. So I went through the Chick-fil-A drive-thru to get us some lunch. I gave Sarah hers in the car and was going to share mine with Amanda when we got to the therapy office. As soon as Sarah got the hot little bag in her hand, Amanda started asking for some food. Now, she can't say any real words, but when she wants something to eat she says, "mum mum mum". I think it's from when we used to give her Mum Mums, the baby rice cakes, all the time, now she thinks that's the word for food. So there she is, looking at Sarah, saying "mum mum mum" over and over again. The food was too hot to give to her, so she just kept saying it. Finally I heard Sarah's hand rustling in the bag and a few seconds later Amanda stopped talking. She finally had her delicious waffle fry. You could tell when she was ready for the next one, because the "mum mum mum" started all over again.
So how's she going to turn out? Is she going to be like Andy, and choose the fruit, or Sarah, and choose the fries? I'm hoping we'll break even and have her somewhere in between, but truly when she eats french fries is the least of my worries. It's the other stuff she's going to do early that really scares me.
No comments:
Post a Comment