Favorite Things

Brady:

• His shooter (it shoots darts, which up until recently Brady pronounced "dolts")
• Martha Speaks episode he calls "Dog Catcher"
• "Martha Pickles" and dressing like a pickle, which means putting the green tunnel over his head and body.
• CHAPSTICK!!! (but not the one I gave him for Christmas with Rudolph on it)
• Gymnastics class 
• Bagel cream cheese, which he pronounces as one word "bagelcreencheese", meatball lunch day, which is meatballs, ketchup, cheese puffs, green beans and fruit.  He always eats the whole thing and he always comes home with ketchup on his face. 
• Riding his scooters (red Lighting McQueen bike, big wheel, Cate's pink tricycle), especially down the street.
• Jumping on the trampoline.
• Zipper jammies.
• When asked what his favorite things are, Brady says "my marble game."

Cate:

• Asking Mom and Dad "what's that noise?"
• Watching "Aurora", also known as Sleeping Beauty.
• Wearing her Cinderella dress, her Cinderella nightgown (white, preferably, but blue will do, too) or her Rapunzel nightgown(s).
• Playing on the iPad - princess game and Scout's ABC Garden or watching Godzilla on Netflix.
• Pancakes, muffins, going to the grocery store to get a cookie.
• Jumping on the trampoline.
• Going to school with Brady.
• Doing it herself...anything, everything and watch out, she'll yell at you if you try to help.
• Waking Mom up at 3am either saying "snuggle me" or "I want ceerios".
• When asked what her favorite things are, Cate says "pink cupcakes."

Mommy:

• When Brady sings Capitain Dubois' song from Madagascar 3, "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" complete with dramatic movement at the end.
• When you ask Brady if he did something - usually "did you flush the toilet?" and he says "yes, I did." Subtle nuance: when he's telling the truth, he says "yes, I did."  When he's fibbing, he says "yes" or "yep."
• When Cate says "I'm tiny."  
• When Cate sings anything - usually "A Dream is a Wish" from Cinderella.
• When Cate says "doopless", which is her word for Toothless, the dragon from How to Train Your Dragon.
• Catching Brady or Cate reciting dialogue from a movie or show...or acting it out.  Last week I caught Brady walking on his feet and hands sniffing the ground like Capitain Dubois from Madagascar 3.  Cate has also started saying "Yyyyyyyes, your majesty" and curtsying (from Alice in Wonderland)

Daddy:

• When Cate tells us "I need little milk."
• When Cate says "Daddy give me pri-e-cy" [when she wants to be alone in the bathroom]
• When Brady says "you baddy, Daddy."

Catch-Up!

So I was strolling down financial and medical memory lane today as I began scanning and shredding our documents from the past oh-18 months (shame on me!).  And lo I discover some critical Cate news I should have posted about - the report from her 2 1/2 year-old visit to the pediatrician.  Here are the stats:

As of November 20, 2012:

Height - 37.5 inches (86th percentile)

Weight - 29.3 pounds (56th percentile)

Head - 50 cm (90th percentile)

So looking back on her last visit, Cate grew 3 inches and gained 3 pounds...in 6 months!  Good Lord, no wonder she'd been so fussy, hungry and popping out of all shoes and clothes!  

And what does a toddler do when she's done at the doctor and it's just her and her mama?  She gets her hair cut and has a cute little ladies lunch at Souper Jenny.  In classic Cate style, she mostly just ate her cookie and buttered roll.

I've also learned some mistakes we've been making at mealtimes with our picky eaters.  Perhaps I should have read the hand-out from the doctor when I received it?  Here are some guidelines on feeding a picky eater (i.e. feeding Cate) which we have been doing NONE of (care of Ellyn Satter Associates):

• Teach her to say "no, thank you" rather than "YUK."  Have her leave the table if she behaves badly.
• Be family friendly with meals. Pair unfamiliar with familiar food, not-yet-liked with liked foods.  Don't make special foods for her. [ok, maybe we got this one right]
• Let her pick and choose from what you put on the table, even if she eats five slices of bread and nothing else.
• Teach her to use her napkin to get food back out of her mouth when she discovers she doesn't want to swallow.

We've also been making some feeding errors:

• Failing to have structured meals and snacks and'or letting her eat or drink (except for water) whenever she wants to between times.
• Talking about your child's food likes and dislikes.
• Limiting the menu to food your child readily accepts.
• Putting pressure in any way on her eating. [woooooaaaah - we really suck here]

Oh well.  Hopefully she's not terribly scarred.  Thankfully, I'm typing this on Pizza Night (Friday) so I won't have to feel too guilty tonight about doing it wrong.