munchkin meals: 2 years

It’s been awhile since my last munchkin meals update.  Thankfully, things have been much easier for us lately.  Maybe it’s a growth spurt or maybe MacKenna has finally figured out that food tastes dang good, but Kenna Girl has been eating up a storm lately!

Mmmmmm, Mum Mum cookies…

Of course, I wish I could say she was stuffing her tiny little body with fruits and vegetables all the time, but unfortunately, she is still a picky – and hard headed – little thing.  She has her favorite foods, which have changed a ton in the past year, but she pretty much refuses to eat anything else we put in front of her.  It’s great and frustrating all at the same time.  Luckily, we’re realizing that this all happens in phases and hopefully this is just another phase and she’ll start welcoming in more foods as she gets a little older.  Oh dear Lord, let’s hope.

The staples in our house lately:

Waffles with peanut butter
Key Lime yogurt
Smoothies
Sausage and Hot Dogs
Cheese
Bread or Crackers
Cereal
Dried gruit
Macaroni and Cheese
Mum Mum “Cookies”
Fruit (as long as I’m not the one feeding it to her)

OK, so maybe it’s not terrible, but I usually only get to see her eat during dinner, and all she asks for is “Duke” (the brand name for the sausage Matt buys) and yogurt.  Ugh.  Even when it’s pizza night, which used to be her absolute favorite night of the week, she refuses to eat it and asks only for “Duke” and yogurt.

Airplane!

But, the good thing is, she is starting to like more things and is actually EATING!  We have struggled with this since she started eating solids 18 months ago, so it really is nice that we can actually sit down to dinner and have her eat something!  I still cannot stand having to make her a totally separate meal, but I’m hopeful that if we keep introducing new things, she’ll become more willing to eat those things.  She just discovered a love for smoothies after sharing one with me this past weekend, and now she freaks out when I walk out the door with it in the morning and don’t share it with her.  Poor baby!

She was pissed that we gave her pizza and not yogurt or sausage.

We’ve also given up some control over her meals and are letting the babysitter provide lunch for her every day instead of packing her lunch.  I really think this has helped a lot!  I have no idea what she eats most days and I’m sure it is no where near what I would be trying to force her to eat, but she is actually starting to eat for us and I believe this is part of the reason why. 

MacKenna will probably always be picky and I will probably always struggle to get her to eat the things I feel like she should be eating, but seeing her actually enjoy eating and not fighting her to eat something, anything is a very nice change of pace.  Meals aren’t stressful anymore and we are enjoying being able to eat dinner peacefully as a family.

Love when she’s happy – even if that means feeding her processed meat.

Be sure to go check out what the other munchkins are eating lately, and be sure to give Brittany a huge CONGRATS as her little one is going to be a big sister in May!