The Toddler Zone

Lately we are running into more of the quirky/puzzling/entertaining/frustrating behavior toddlers are famous for.


In keeping with his general mellow attitude, Spencer has always been mostly willing to eat whatever we offered him, usually in surprising amounts. Not so anymore. Things he once loved now are ignored. Food once rejected is now preferred. To my knowledge, the only food (I use the term loosely) he has never rejected is Doritos. At many meals he seems to eat almost nothing at all. And then a day out the blue will come when he eats EVERY MORSEL he can lay grimy little hands on.


He is also going through some new separation/stranger anxiety stuff. Again, this is something that we haven't seen much from him before. But he has started being quite vocal about stating his preference for mom and dad, mostly mom. In the past he has, if anything, been Daddy's boy. Yet for no reason we can identify, he has now become the little boy clinging to my leg 24/7. One day recently when he was whiny and I said in my worst you-are-getting-on-my-last-nerve voice "please stop whining and tell mommy what you want!", he actually signed "more mommy". It's very sweet, and yet...exhausting. Whew!

Today was a big appetite day and when I picked him up from MDO he was madly saying/signing "eat". So when we got home I stuck him in the high chair to let him finish off whatever was left in his lunch box. As it turned out, there wasn't very much. But it didn't matter, because he was so tired he actually fell asleep in the high chair. I was just puttering around in the kitchen while he snacked, and looked up to see him drowsing. He woke up when I slid him over to the sink for the cleanup, and promptly resumed cramming strawberries into his mouth. Until he dozed off AGAIN, mid-cram. See Exhibit A above.

Now I better understand all those clips on America's Funniest Videos that used to puzzle me, of kids eating popsicles or other goodies in their sleep.