Food Issues

I know that I can't expect Emily to eat anything and everything that I feed her. I also know that I should expect to have a few food issues with Emily now that she is a toddler, but My Lord, the issues. They are many, and they are fierce.

Like, she won't eat anything from a spoon. Oh, I take that back. She won't eat anything from a baby spoon. Because if it's on a baby spoon then it's obviously baby food and she is not a baby she is a big girl OMG. She will, however, accept food from our "big" spoons and forks. She might not always keep it in her mouth, but at least she lets us put it in. Sometimes.

Foods that used to be her favorites, like oatmeal, yogurt, and fruit are now her worst food enemies. Mainly because oatmeal and yogurt are eaten with a spoon, but the fruit thing is something else altogether. She won't eat fruit because it's cold. In fact, she won't eat anything that is cold. Except for cheese. She would eat cheese and only cheese all day every day and be totally happy about it (she is her mother's child - she totally gets that from me). But I do like for her to not be constipated, so, no.

It is very rare that she will let Denny and I put food into her mouth. If we have something to eat that she wants, we have to put in in her hand and let her feed it to herself. She wants to do it all by herself all the time, and that is why there are orange and red stains in my carpet from the carrots and strawberries that she spit out and stomped on. 

Yes, when she doesn't like food she will spit it out and instead of handing it to me or putting it back on her tray, she will mash it into the carpet and smear it all around if I don't pick it up fast enough.
Here are the things that she will eat: cheese, hot dogs (gross), chicken nuggets sometimes, fish sticks, meatloaf, pizza (OMG she LOVES pizza) spaghetti (or any other type of noodle with spaghetti sauce), macaroni and cheese, eggs, omelets, ham, grilled cheese sandwiches, graham crackers, goldfish, pretzels, smoothies (I am totally tricking her into eating fruit with those) peas, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and that's about it. I am going to have to start shredding vegetables into her food and sneak them into her. She eats like a college boy, and it is disgusting.


She will not sit in her chair and eat, and I know that this is because she is a toddler and she cannot be still not even for a second, but it is really annoying. We have a "low" chair that is made to sit in an adult chair kind of like a baby booster seat, but we never actually put it in a chair. When Emily eats, we put the food on the tray and sit the chair on the floor so that Emily can walk by and grab a bite as she is running all over the house. It takes a while for her to eat. 

Our pediatrician recommended that I try weaning her because she is so little - she only weighs 17 pounds - but she will NOT drink whole milk. I tried and I tried and I tried, but she just isn't taking it. I think she knows what I am trying to do, and she is not happy about it. I'm not exactly 100% ready to quit nursing, but I would like to be able to use the bathroom without her coming up to me, pulling up my shirt and taking a drink WHILE I AM ON THE TOILET. Yes, that really happened today.  

But seriously, she wants to nurse all the time. She gets so full of milk that she doesn't have any room left for real food and that's why the doctor said I need to cut back. But that girl, she can get the boobies all by herself. There really isn't much that I can do to stop her. 

She hates water. Hates it, hates it, hates it. Unless it is in my cup, in a cup with a straw, or in the bathtub. Gross. But she only gets very-diluted juice once or twice a day, and the rest of the time she gets water. If she is really, truly thirsty, she will drink the water, right?

 Are these normal issues for a toddler her age? Is this just a phase that she is going through right now? Will she ever eat normal food? Please tell me good things because I read in a magazine that one couple had their kids taken away from them because they were too little and they were accused of starving them so they wouldn't be fat. I know, it is extremely unlikely that Emily is going to be taken away from us, but really, I worry about her so much.