Slow Down There, Big Fella.

Here is Tate today:

At the rate this kid has been eating lately, this will be Tate in about 2 weeks:

Seriously. The kid is eating like he's got a tapeworm or something. For lunch the other day, he had four peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Yes, four. Yes, he ate the crusts, too. Last night for dinner? Six bowls of corn cereal. Stuff should be called crack cereal the way he goes through it. Oh, and he had an apple too. He likes a little fiber thrown in there. Tonight I'm fully expecting him to put away a stuffed rack of lamb. Maybe a small Cornish hen to top it off. Never mind that we eat neither lamb nor hen. I have a feeling he will find them.

But he's been in a much better mood now that I've figured out that perhaps I should be feeding him sometimes. As soon as he starts to pitch a fit, or any kind of hard object at my head, I immediately ask if he's hungry. The answer is usually affirmative, so off we trot to raid the pantry. And refrigerator. He selects a nice block of cheese or bucket of ice cream and has a snack. This usually tides him over for an hour or so, when he puts away a box of crackers and a jug of apple juice. Or something close to all that.

It must be a growth spurt. I'm just waiting for him to come trotting out of his room one morning next week measuring 6'3'' and weighing in at a nice 200 lbs, the way he's scarfing everything down.

I decided to be either very brave or very stupid yesterday and take both kids to meet some friends and their kids at the Hardees playland yesterday, and then on to Toys R Us. It went suprisingly well. Tate was extremely well-behaved at Hardees. I had to keep standing up and checking that he hadn't escaped out of the room everytime 5 or so minutes went by without some kid screaming. Toys R Us was his reward for being so good. He's still young enough that we can get out of there with minimal toy buyage. He did need some new toys though...for some reason Nora's rattles don't really hold his attention. I'm hoping this angelic streak will continue, but I am well aware of the fact that now that I put that hope down in words, I will be forced to eat those very words because later today Tate will give the dog a haircut or dump all the napkins on the floor and spill vegetable oil on them or something.

I'm just enjoying it while it lasts.