Out With the Old, In With the New

At mealtimes, Ayden's famous requests used to be for "cheese" (puffs) and (tomato) "sauce." Very seldom does he now desire those food items. He's moved on to french fries and pizza.

Ayden asks about certain people throughout his day. When he gets to his CeeCee, I tell him she is selling pizza. (She works for Schwan's.) I'm starting to wonder if Ayden wouldn't also be a good salesperson for a pizza company. He would, at the very least, be an excellent advertisement: We taught Ayden the Batman jingle, and we have moved on to the Superman slogan; out of nowhere this past week, he exclaimed, "Bird! Plane! Pizza!" Who needs Superman when he can have pizza!?!?! He waits for pizza expectantly and assumes that is what is waiting at the door when the doorbell rings. When he actually gets pizza, all he does is bite on it and lick off the sauce; still, he loves the stuff.

When Ayden points to his jaw and bites,
he is showing you that he knows the concept of chewing.

Though pizza is high on the list, french fries are still higher. You know you eat fast food too often when your son yells from the backseat, "Fries!" as you put in an order at any drive thru. When he gets home from school, he almost always expects to have a bowl of fries, as well as the accompanying All Done Bowl (or paper towel) for his discards. His consumption of fries is minimal at best; however, fries are the only food item he makes a concentrated effort to bite, chew, and swallow. Often these actions result in spitting the fry pieces out; sometimes he ends up gagging on a piece he feels uncomfortable having in his mouth. On occasion, he swallows some of the fry, and we all applaud the accomplishment. Indeed, it's still a scary action for him, so we give him all the fries he wants! We do similar activities with more meltable items as well, such as Ritz crackers, Oreo cookies, and graham crackers. He's really come a long way, and we are hopeful that his peer models at school will inspire him to try and consume even more. Already he has come home one day with a report that he ate TWO WHOLE CRACKERS! We've never seen him eat one, so we're thrilled!

I love french fries with ketchup!

CeeCee and Mama made me pancakes, bacon, banana slices,
yogurt, and milk for breakfast. A bit ambitious, perhaps, but yummy, nonetheless!

Ayden is a very funny guy, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. One recent instance that made Bryan and me chuckle was when Bryan told Ayden he had only two more bites of food before he could get down to play. Ayden responded, "Four?" Bryan said, "You're negotiating skills are not that good, Buddy. You want four?" Ayden then questioned, "Six?" Yeah, he's not quite getting it yet.