Quirky

Anna is my little quirky girl. She is full of quirks. I like to say that her hair mimics her personality. It's wild, curly, boingy, crazy, out of control, surprising, adorable, scrumptious, and fantastic. So speaking of quirks, Anna's diet is extremely quirky. As we were eating dinner tonight and she asked for Plum Bites for dessert I was reminded of how quirky her diet is. Thankfully, she is child #2 and I don't really stress about her lack of "normal" breakfast/lunch/dinner selections. As her doctors have suggested I like to look at things she is eating over a weekly timetable and make sure she gets the major categories over a week's time rather than day by day.

Here are the food items she is into now.

Plum Bites. Yum. She loves them. Can you blame her? Plus... antioxidants!

Raisins/Craisins/Yogurt Covered Raisins, She loves all sorts of dried fruits and especially anything that comes in little single serve packages. She likes those tiny raisin boxes and the pouches of craisins and anything she can carry in her little hands. Preferably one for each hand.

Yogurt. She has loved yogurt since she started eating solid foods and that's good because yogurt is a staple in our fridge.

Pizza. But only when she's in the mood. Same with spaghetti. The spaghetti and pizza are where I trick her. The dough is all whole wheat (this flour is my besssst friend in the kitchen! I LOVE it and use it in everything, much to John's dismay), and the dough has flax seed in it. The sauce is homemade, organic crushed tomatoes, olive oil, grated carrots, onions, zucchini, broccoli, spinach, peppers, whatever veggie I have in the house ends up in the sauce for both pizza and spaghetti and the kids are none the wiser. And I will never let John forget that he told me my sauce with the broccoli and spinach was the best.

Muffins. Anna is a sucker for any cake like baked good. (Huh. I wonder where....) This is fantastic for me because I love to bake, and she loves to eat. Jack too, so long as I put chocolate chips in them (I usually use the minis). He calls all of them "chocolate chip muffins." I bake banana muffins, zucchini muffins, blueberry muffins, pumpkin, carrot, strawberry, pear, apple, you name it, we make it into a muffin. I make them with white whole wheat flour, flax seeds and applesauce sometimes, but if they are just for the kids I usually use the real deal: Butter. The same goes for pancakes. We make all sorts of pancakes and the kids usually have them for dinner at least one night a week.

Apples/Bananas/Strawberries and especially Blueberries. Anna eats frozen blueberries by the handful and then in yogurt, oatmeal, anything! One of both kids favorites is a banana cut in half and stuck on a popsicle stick and then sprinkled with ground flax seeds or wheat germ and sprinkles. Once in while they get lucky and I melt chocolate then dip the bananas in it and freeze them. Though, usually that results in them only eating the chocolate off of the banana.

Cereal. She doesn't discriminate here. Oatmeal, Organic, all natural, Cheerios--classic, and sweet, Frosted Mini-Wheats Strawberry or Blueberry, or Plain, Mighty Bites, Rice Krispies, Chex, any and all cereal.

Ice Cream Cones. I spread peanut butter on the inside and she gobbles it up. I also put strawberries or cut up apples in there with the same result. She does get lucky and finds frozen yogurt or actual ice cream in her cones once in a while.

Peanut butter and jelly. The good ol' standby. I have tried making our own peanut butter, though mine never gets as creamy as the store bought "natural" peanut butter even though it's the same ingredient: peanuts. And we just ran out of our last jar of homemade strawberry freezer jam from last summer (boy was that good! Nothing like tasting a "fresh strawberry" taste in the middle of winter!) and since last May we have not bought a loaf of bread from the store, I've been expirimenting since then making our own sandwich bread each week. I have yet to find the "perfect" loaf/recipe but I use my favorite flour, flax, olive oil and then mix it with molasses, honey, etc. Anyway, at least I can feel okay that though she doesn't eat much, what she does eat has some good qualities.
I won't go into all the things Anna does NOT eat, but the only thing I kind of stress about is that she does NOT care for milk. At all. Even when sweetened with chocolate or strawberry flavoring, which yes, I have resorted to in an effort to get her to drink milk! Fortunately she loves yogurt and I trick her by making pudding with her milk. She loves pudding. And ice cream. See? Calcium choices everywhere! Also meat. I hide ground turkey in the sauces for pizza and spaghetti too, or beef if I'm making it for John, but it's rare that she'll eat those things.

Since we're on the topic of quirks here are just a few more quirks worth mentioning.

Clothing. Anna will only wear pants if tricked, and then when she realizes she's wearing pants its only a matter of seconds before they are off. Skirts come in a distant second to dresses. Pretty dresses specifically. They are her favorite and I have to bargain with her to get her to wear tights or leggings! Also, Anna dislikes any sort of pajamas. More often than not when I go in her room in the morning to get her up she is in a diaper only or in some other state of undress. Sometimes she's only managed to get one arm out of her shirt, or one leg out of her zippered pajamas. I'll ask her, "Where are your pajamas?" And she'll shrug and put both her hands out and say, "I don't know Mama!" Also, you can usually count on Anna being naked by the end of the day. As the day progresses she starts undressing more and more and by 5:00 it's almost a guarantee that everything is off. If not sooner than that.
Shoes. Anna is shoe obsessed! The other day at Target while we were waiting for a prescription I made the mistake of checking out the shoe aisle. Anna was walking beside me and scooted down to see the shoes on the lowest rack. Off came her rain boots and the next thing I know she is trying on each and every pair of shoes on the bottom shelf. She even convinced me to get her the jelly shoes! We were at the Goodwill the other day and I was looking at the boys jeans which happen to be across from the shoe shelves. I hear Anna exclaim, "Look Mommy!!" and I see her trying on some crazy womens size 10 sandals from 1975. I had plenty of time to browse the racks while she kept herself busy walking around in 4 inch heels.
Blankets. This is worth noting in case anyone out there has to put Anna to bed. She will only allow certain blankets to be placed in her crib. If some other blanket besides the four she has approved make their way into her crib you will find them thrown out in a heartbeat.