Photo A Day, Day 14: Eating

For dinner tonight, my kids had hot dogs and fruit. My son (who weighs just over 50 pounds) ate half a hot dog, maybe half a dozen grapes, and half a glass of milk. My daughter (who weighs about 25 pounds) ate two entire hot dogs, a whole pear, a full cup of milk, and a full cup of apple juice. Although my son often eats a somewhat heartier dinner, this is a pretty typical meal for my daughter.

I don’t know where she puts it in that wee little body.

What I do know is how she gets it into that wee little body: a wee little bite at a time.

 Her eating style could be described as both a “Crammer” and a “Choker.” She tends to stuff as much food as possible into her mouth, and she also tends to get things caught halfway down (the latter is quite likely related to the former). Because of that, we generally cut her food into small bites, as you can clearly see in today’s photo. Since she now uses a spoon or a fork to put each piece in her mouth, limiting the volume in each spoonful significantly limits her cramming ability. When you see all those pieces of food on her plate at the beginning of the meal, you would never expect that she would be able to finish all that food, but finish it she does, and often some of her brother’s, to boot.

It reminds me just how much a single person can accomplish when they approach something one small bite at a time. Whoever guessed there would be such a profound life lesson in something as simple as watching a small child eating?