Sick and Picky

The girls have been sick with fevers and thus in a very mellow and snuggly mood. Yesterday Sarah asked permission, "Mom can we please stay in our beds all day?" Sure! They did end up coming to the kitchen for soup and into my bed to watch Aristocats on my tiny portable DVD player. They snuggled up together and watched while Adam took a cat nap and my visiting teachers came to visit me. Its rare for me having faithful visitors who come every month. It makes me feel like I'm not a burden to them, but that they enjoy coming.

Adam has been working on gumming through a couple more teeth, though I'm not sure which will show through first. I have found that he gnaw's on his index finger positioned on the patch of gums that has a tooth coming in, where it probably is hurting the most.

Through all of this teething I have to say he has been very cheerful. In fact he is much more cheerful in teething than in learning how to eat solid foods. He refuses everything, especially rice cereal. I trick him into eating 2-3 bites at 2-3 different times each day. I sit him in his saucer toy and wait for him to go for the flower he loves to bite on. When he opens his mouth for the flower, in goes the rice cereal. He is a smart boy and catches on to my schemes quickly, which is why I can only get in 2-3 bites each session. In his insistance to avoid the spoon he has learned to spin himself around and leave me facing his back. I spin him back, but he has strong legs and a strong will, and wants no more rice cereal, obviously. So at this point I have learned its best to put the rice cereal aside and give him my genius idea of the next best thing, a rice crispy. He sucks on it for about a minute, drools a little and I offer another. He is eager to accept another and another, very slowly, until he has had about ten. Then he is done.

We have tried formula, pears, yams, butternut squash, apples, cooked grains of rice, bits of bread. Everything gets the spit out treatment. The only other success we've had finding a food he likes besides the rice crispies is mashed potatoes. This was a very dumb choice on our part, not realizing before hand that we had made them with milk and butter, which he seems to be somewhat allergic to or intolerant of. Poor guy broke out in red bumps on his wrists and had terrible gas for a day or so. But he did eat! He also likes a few drops of water from a sippy cup, but will have nothing to do with any bottle, no matter whats inside. Maybe tomorrow we'll try peaches, or what Rachel would call "babysauce," which really is anything in a baby food jar. It sounds so cute when she says it. Well thats a lot of my world, that is not interesting to anyone but me, their mother.