24 February 2007 12:05 pm
Macaroni & Cheese and Meatballs
Andrea ate food from a restaurant for the first time yesterday evening. We went to Noodles, which is one of Dylan's favorite restaurants. He ordered his standard "Wisconsin Mac & Cheese" with grilled chicken. Geoff and I decided to let Andrea try some of Dylan's mac and cheese; we also brought plenty of other food for her to eat. Dylan ate his flatbread, drank his milk, and had a bit of his entree. Andrea started with some mac and cheese, pieces of banana, and some bagel. She kept taking one piece of food at a time, eating it, and doing a little dance in her chair. Dylan got antsy at one point, so he and Geoff left for the library, which was our plan for after dinner. A half hour later, Andrea had finished the mac and cheese (!). Andrea ate more of Dylan's mac and cheese than he did and ate nearly an entire banana. I was amazed. At least two-thirds of the serving was put in front of Andrea. Now, all of you experienced parents out there are thinking, "Aha! I know what's coming next - the floor..." But, sorry to disappoint, there were only 5-10 pieces of macaroni on the floor and in her bib. We're still not sure exactly where she put it. But we know that we have a winner.
Andrea's mac and cheese incident reminded me of the Meatball incident with Dylan. I don't think that I wrote this one down at the time, but if I did you can check my recollection. I made a little more than a pound of meatballs one night, with the intent for us to eat them for two dinners. Dylan was probably between 18 months and 2 years old at the time. We cut up a couple meatballs for him, and started to eat our dinners. We continued to cut up meatballs as he ate them, and before we knew it, he'd eaten 8 or 9 meatballs! Now, these were not mini-meatballs. They were solid inch-and-a-half in diameter meatballs! At the time, I counted how many meatballs I made, how many Dylan ate, and determined he'd consumed just shy of a half pound of ground beef for dinner. We never did figure out where he hid them all... and he's not eaten that many in one sitting again. Needless to say, we had to come up with an alternative for dinner the next night.
A couple of footnotes: (1) Andrea got her third tooth (upper right) on Thursday of this week; her fourth tooth is probably minutes away, and (2) within the last two weeks Andrea has learned to turn around at the top of stairs to crawl down backwards.
