Nothing, i repeat nothing, is more amazingly wonderful than the joy of holding your child for the first time. As you gaze at this tiny little miracle in your arms, suckling away on its first meal, you realize that you have finally found perfection. you envision a happy future, with the perfect little angel....
What we fail to realize in this moment is that this angel of perfection will slowly grow. and that halo will slowly fade. by the age of one your little angel will be up and walking, talking, giggling, snacking. and due to some completely unfathomable oral fixation, they will snack on whatever little treasures they can find, particularly when mommies back is turned. my son was what you would call a calm toddler. he mostly focused on sucking on rocks, and chewing up anything paper. cherioes and the little gerber puffs were the best thing in the world. my daughter? a whole other story. she has the energy of five energizer bunnies who have been drinking nothing but red bull for three weeks. from her first to her second birthday, she refused to touch almost anything that was meat. unless it was a bug. apparently, bugs are simply delicous! i will never forget one conversation had with my daughter during a day of fun outside. she walks up to me, curls askew, covered in grass and sand from the sand pit, her little fist cupped for dear life. "look mommy! look!" she opens her fist to produce her
treasures: a handful of rollie-polies, centipedes, and a cricket looking thing. "what do you have there?" i asked< feinging, cluelessness. "my FRIENDS!!!" she announces and runs off.
ten minutes later, i see the she is calmly chewing on something. fearing that she may be attempting toddler suicide via swalling then choking on rock, i run towards her, pleading for her to open you mouth. "baby what are you eating? let mama see ur pretty snack!" she grins and says "my friends!" well, i thought to myself, at least she finally got some protien in her....
Now its a year later. my daughter has decided to accept meat as part of her diets, and she normally sticks to only food substances. my son is a good, albeit picky, eater, and my daughter... well, is a bottomless piot. i swear she can sniff candy out from a mile away... it doesnt matter where you hide it...she WILL find it! bacause when a toddler wants to snack... they snack.
