A while ago we noticed an interesting phenomenon after breakfast:  Abe’s tray was littered with little bits of food.  Each morning I make an oh-so-interesting-and-savory round of organic peanut butter and sugar-free jam on whole grain bread sandwiches.  JJ goes through phases where he will scarf it down (followed by grapes followed by cheese followed by a banana followed by club crackers followed by nothing because I was tired of feeding him, as was the case yesterday:  methinks someone’s growing) or he’ll munch on it all morning long.  Abe, however, generally eats what’s before him.

But there were bits.  It wasn’t until I stopped cutting up his sandwiches (some due to him getting bigger, some due to me being lazy) that I noticed what was left:  crusts.  He would take even the smallest piece, eat off the “flesh” of the bread, and politely deposit the crust in his high chair sippy cup holder.  Lovely.  Of course, I could be nice and cut off his crusts ahead of time, but as hope springs eternal, I keep thinking one day he might accidentally let a little bit of crust cross his lips and realize that crusts are not in fact evil but quite digestable.

Last night, those hopes were dashed.

After about two weeks quarentine with Darth Vader children (enter deep breathing noises), I had an outing I could go to on my own:  Book Group!  Discussion!  With adults!  About a funny book!  At a coffee shop!  And nobody wheezing or whining!  So I was looking forward to it a bit . . . .

When I got home and was getting the debrief of the evening, Jason mentioned that Abe finished off the apples I gave him at dinner.  See, for some reason he decided he didn’t want to eat his cheese eggs and apples at dinner, apples I nicely cut up into little wedges for his little fists to grab and shove into his mouth, dripping apple juice down his arms, creating the sticky fruit monster to destroy all the clean surfaces I created this morning.  So I wasn’t so sad about the not eating dinner.  Of course, he chose to eat it a) after I left and 2) after he’d been released from his chair.  Helpful.

But Jason noticed an interesting phenomenon:  Abe wouldn’t finish eating his apple wedges.  He’s shove them in his mouth, wander around, and bring Jason bits that he decided weren’t worthy of digestion.  Do you know what bits these were?  Oh yes:  the apple peels.

It gets better.

Jason asked me if Abe had been doing this before.  I said I didn’t think so.  He asked if Judah cleaned up Abe’s messes.  I said rarely.  Jason opened the garbage can to show me what he saw when went to throw away the Rejected Bits:  apple peels stuck to the top of the garbage can.

Lovely.

And so I have one of Those Kids.  I’d better start cutting of his clothing tags and getting rid of the cute but potentially itchy sweaters now.  Or maybe I could just invest in a really good, grow-with-you Bubble.

Daily Drivel, Little A Adventures