New Year

Julia does not eat. We fix food that we know she likes and she often looks at it, plays with it, then says her tummy hurts or that she's done and she gets down from the table.

I think the child subsists on cottage cheese, fruit snacks, chicken nuggets and cereal. Tonight, the girls got the following on their plates: pigs in a blanket (hot dogs wrapped in buttery crescent rolls), macaroni and cheese (Kraft, of course), and cottage cheese.

Julia was in one of her no-I-don't-want-cottage-cheese moods, even though it's often all she eats for dinner. She picked some of the roll off her hot dog, complained that her macaroni and cheese was hot (as it cooled and congealed on her plate), and didn't touch her cottage cheese.

So of course, we knew she'd be asking for fruit snacks later. And, after her bath, she did. I told her she could have melon, a banana, or grapes. She said, "I show you what I want," and went off to the refrigerator.

I wasn't watching too closely and she didn't call me over, so I wasn't sure exactly what she was doing as she dug in the vegetable and fruit drawer. Finally, I asked her what she was up to and she said she was getting oranges.

She walked past shortly, on her way downstairs to ask Daddy to peel some for her, with a mesh sack of oranges slung over her shoulder like Santa Claus. I couldn't help smiling, and she caught me looking at her as she circled back to get some napkins.

It's fun to have an independent 3 1/2 year old. Happy New Year!