No Peas...Please Pass the Dirt

Our "garbage disposal" as we sometimes referred to Macy over the past year has disappeared. I mean, don't get me wrong - the girl can still eat. A lot. But she suddenly has preferences.

For just over a year of her life, Seth and I can honestly say that we do not recall her ever turning anything down. Ever.


In fact, most times we were cutting her off, simply in disbelief as to how much she had already put down. This actually started with nursing. She almost never declared herself done. It was me who made the decision to call it quits each eating session.

But garbage disposal no more. This girl has preferences.
Peas? Don't most kids eat peas?

Not Macy.

In fact, not only does she not eat peas, but as soon as she sees peas on her plate she starts crying. She leans so far over to one side in disappointment that she empties her bib onto the floor.

We get it. No peas.

Okay, then how about some carrots?

No thank you.

Organic, whole wheat pasta with all natural white cheddar cheese sauce?

No thank you.

I mean seriously - it's not like we're talking brussel sprouts or asparagus (both of which you have happily inhaled in the past).

So how about some spinach mixed in with your scrambled eggs...which you have had dozens of times in your short table-food-eating life?

No thank you. I'll eat egg, turkey and cheese bites, but will leave anything that even closely resembles a sliver of green. And I'll cry when all I have left on my plate is "green" bites.

For the first 6 to 9 months that Macy was eating solids (primarily puréed foods), she ate a TON of greens. Thanks to our weekly share of veggies from our CSA farm, her daily menu included pureed collard greens, kale, mustard greens, spinach, or some combination of these. This year I'll actually have to come up with some recipes to use up all of those greens in our share.

I'd like to think that she "ate her greens forward."

So with this in mind, I will relay a story from today. At one point when I realized Macy had been a bit quiet, and asked Norah to check on her. Typically when this happens we find her in her room "reading" books.

Not today.

Norah came running back into the office saying, "Mommy. Come see what Macy is doing!"

I followed her into the living room and found Macy kneeling beside a huge potted plant with a pile of dirt on the floor, and dirt on her hands and all around her mouth.

Um...seriously? You cry at the sight of peas and now you're eating DIRT??

She had been there long enough to have carpet imprints on her feet. Who knows how much dirt she ate (mmmm) and there was so much dirt on the floor that I put two handfuls back into the pot before vacuuming the rest up.

But again...it's a "no" on the peas.