We have a child who eats

It's true. We have finally had a child who will actually eat food. Little Tooey will eat almost anything you put in front of him, and one of his favorite words is "cracker" ("kaa-kaa," said in a hopeful voice).

I made pumpkin pie last night, and when Marmot Dad said something about pie, Tooey's little eyes lit up. He came running into the kitchen saying "pie! pie! pie!" and pulled at my pants leg until I gave him a piece. Then we heard nothing more from him as he sat in his booster seat and quietly devoured two adult-sized pieces. We repeated the same routine at breakfast. He is a boy who is very serious about his pie.

Tonight I made mostaccioli for dinner. He wanted to watch every step of the process. And he bugged me until I fed him two bowls of sauce. Then two bowls of noodles. Then after we were sure he had eaten his fill and dinner was over, he caught sight of the finished dish and signed "more! more! more!" until I gave him two more bowls of baked mostaccioli. Then he stole two pieces of cauliflower from his father's salad and ate those. 

I tell you, it's an absolute miracle.

Here's what M has been up to. We went to DI yesterday to get Christmas mugs for the festive drinking of the festive hot chocolate. She chose a beautiful (to her, anyway) angel mug, but while waving it around to show her sister when we got home broke it immediately in two. Then she promptly broke her sister's mug. All within an hour of getting home. Fortunately we had gotten two backup mugs, but I had to almost make myself pass out by gluing the angel mug back together with some noxious glue.

She has also discovered her hidden talent of peeling carrots. It take her an eternity, but she finds it immensely satisfying. She peeled about six carrots for some soup I made a couple of weeks ago and was so triumphant by the time she had finished that she announced that "you will never have to peel carrots again, Mommy. I will always peel them for you. Just tell me if you have any carrots to peel. Is it OK if I left some of the peel on?" Fortunately I was making the soup in a crock pot and could just add a carrot every ten minutes or so as she finished. A few days later she insisted on carrying all the groceries in from the car, one item at a time. This just added to her feeling of omnipotence: "I can peel all your carrots and carry all of your groceries, Mommy. I am such a good helper."