Wednesday, November 14, 2007

I Can't Relate

22 months old and Caleb has finally tipped the scales at 25 pounds. And though his pediatrician assures me he is healthy (since good nutrition is measured in height and not weight) the fact that I can see his ribs through his stomach and his back sometimes makes me feel like a bad mother.

More weight than I should or would like to be carrying and I are old friends. I have never been the skinny kid, I did not get those genes. I like to think of myself as a normal size, could stand to lose a few pounds but not in danger of being secretly filmed and shown from the waist down on an NBC nightly news special about obesity in America. And, especially now, at nearly 7 months pregnant I try not think of myself in any sort of spacial sense at all, just suspended in time until after the baby comes and my "skinny" jeans beckon.

But, Caleb is another story, a story for which I have no frame of reference. He eats a lot and all the time. He loves avocados, tomatoes, chicken, beef, rice, beans, noodles, potatoes (does not like french fries - just licks off the ketchup and discards the fry), anything sweet and all things chocolate. But, he operates at a fever pitch when he is awake and that coupled with an extremely fast metabolism he must have inherited from my Dad, means he never manages to gain weight - wouldn't that be nice? When we introduced him to solid foods, I was a total food nazi only giving him vegetables for months so he would develop a taste for them over fruit. I didn't let him eat fries until he was at least 15 months old and rarely gave him refined sugar. I've relaxed a bit in light of his desire to eat mostly healthy stuff anyway and generally let him eat whatever he wants as long as he eats. As evidence, see him below eating packets of butter. Check with me in 10 years to see if I've created a monster who subsists solely on lard and condiments. Let's hope his apparent good genes win out.



12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't believe how big he is getting he is sooooo cute!! He looks just like Kenny did at that age its amazing, mini Kenny! We are excited to see you next month Garret will finally have someone around his age to "play" with, for a few months anyhow!!

Ashley said...

Yeah...I got nothin'. Who knows why I stood in the line I did in Heaven where I got the chubby girl body & then had a sister who stood in the "I just had a baby & am already as thin as I was when I got married" body. Totally unfair!

Heather said...

If I didn't like him so much, I would begrudge him those good genes. And while on the subject of jeans, what are these "skinny" ones that you speak of? They just don't exist in my post-baby world.

Paige said...

My two year old is 25 lbs and perfect! So is Caleb. That butter looks good. I think I'll rub it on my butt.

Jessica said...

I have those babies too. They are totally fine and that extra fat and calorie thing never worked for mine...they are made just how they are made and there's not a lot to do about it.

Celia Fae said...

You know what is fun? When the fat girl has the skinny baby and the skinny girl has the fat baby. It drives my sister Lenore nuts that she has the fat one. I stuff my skinny baby constantly but Lenore accuses me of starving her to keep her small. Babyrexia.

Ilene said...

My boys are small and skinny. Jackson has evened out this third year and looks like most kids his age. I hope they get their dad's ultra metabolism.

My metabolism isn't horrible but average and that doesn't bode well for my above-average appetite for all things dairy and or chocolate. I seriously can relate to Caleb's wanting to eat the butter paddies. Can't relate to actually eating them, though. I do have some limits ;)

D-dawg said...

I love small babies. Chubby ones are great too. Mine are all tiny and still healthy! My son's metabolism is out of control though. I can so relate to this. He eats a ton and still looks like he's been starving for days!!

Lilita said...

oooh, pretty new format! Bee-yoo-ti-ful. And these weight discussions, both of children and adults, are seriously overrated. Here's to health, in all its varieties!

OnCallMom said...

okay, everyone's blogs are getting so cute. I need to redo my template. Yours looks great. Your description of wanting to think of your body as 'suspended in time' until post baby...well, that just hit the nail right on the head. :) A perfect description of of how I felt.

Martababe said...

I am having the same issue with Olsen. I don't understand skinny because that gene does not belong in my family anywhere, but Olsen has it. His hight is fine, but he is always a little underweight (oh, to have such a problem.......) I did switch him to whole milk a few months ago just for good measure......

Have fun at home.

Travelin'Oma said...

What a fun blog! Thanks for your comment so I could find you. You're immediately on my favorites. We lived for a year in England, and I'm forever fascinated by families who live in a foreign country. And I love your list of book shops, too.

 

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