Size matters

Alright guys, this is a family blog. I mean height. Or weight, or whatever. Size matters. When your kid turns 2, someone has put together a chart of reasonable estimate of future height. When we measured her, we got 35 inches. When the doctor did, 34.5. According to the chart (it’s Internet based, so take this with a grain of salt)…to our measurement, with her dad’s and my height taking into consideration, she’d be 5’7 give or take about 3/4 of an inch. At the doctor’s measurement, 5’5 give or take. Size matters, that 1/2 inch means up to 2 inches later on, apparently. However, if she breaks 5’3, I will rejoice! My own mom was 5’3, her mom, 5’0, and me…well, 5′ 1 3/4– I round UP to 5’2 for bad posture! Then again, they have ‘2’ and ‘3’ as ages on the scale and nothing in between, so in 6 months if she’s grown, then she’ll theoretically move up on their scale because she’s not 3 yet.. right? Kind of silly….I don’t think being ‘short’ is a bad thing, but being taller does have it’s advantages. I’ve never been considered ‘long and lean’, or have ‘legs that go on forever’..the ideal feminine beauty.. I don’t have it. Hopefully my girl will have a little more of ‘it’ than me. I still think I did pretty well for myself, but hey, brains and beauty (because isn’t she gorgeous, WAY prettier than me!)…add a basketball scholarship and you’ve got yourself a winner. Lol. Just kidding. It’ll be football 😉 And she’d be able to reach things from tall cabinets for me when her dad’s at work. Bonus!

I know these are from different angles, but what do you think? Has she grown a lot? I certainly do. We bought her some overall things (not the ones above), but in the store, they were long, dragging the ground. I tried them BACK on her before I washed them last week. Still fine. Washed, and now they are on the lowest level and they look a little high water. They must have REALLY shrunk. Which is disappointing, since they were from a NAME BRAND place for goodness sake. Anyone know if they sell ‘overall extenders’? Basically all I need is a snap out and a snap in that matches. Then again, if she was wearing undies and not a diaper, they might do okay… hmm.. anyway, at one point today I think she had a wedgie, poor kid!

For the record, she also weighs 28 pounds. They put her on the ‘big girl’ scale. No more baby scale for her.. awww. Next time they’ll do her height, there, too. Did you catch that?28 pounds. Moo! She looks so skinny, though, because she’s ‘tall’ for her age. 75% of girls are shorter than her. Size matters.. right? Ha. She’s 75% for weight, too. Just below both of them, actually.

My doctor said, she’s eating okay. My answer ‘whatever she can get her hands on’. He seemed okay with that. Thought about it, 3 meals a day and 3 snacks? My answer. ‘At least.’  The only change we’ve made since then is putting her on 2% milk. I forgot to ask, but 2 is the common age of doing that, and he said she could eat whatever we were eating now. To watch out for hot dogs and grapes. Choking hazard. Other than that, she’s free! Now of course, she’s been eating bigger pieces of food than most kids for ages. Since we skipped purees, she’s used to texture and rarely has gagging issues. I’m still careful of things like popcorn, and since I’m planning on making oatmeal raisin cookies one of these days, she’ll get some raisins, too. Maybe even some peanuts. One at a time. For the record, I cut hot dogs into 4ths long ways and chop them up, still. She chews well, but she’s also greedy. The last thing I want is to be a statistic. I’m too ‘anti norm’ for that.

I’ve read the ‘food charts’ online for 2-3 year olds. Here I’ve been thinking all along that 1/4-1/2 cup of fruit or veggies was a serving. When it’s more like 2-3 tablespoons. My poor kid is munching the veggies and fruits like a wild woman! I haven’t cut back her milk, just changed it to 2% as I said. I need to try and circulate water in every other glass or something. She asked for a lot of water in the summer and now it’s milk. Or chocolate milk. Or juice. Or soda. Today, it was ‘how much juice do you get a day, Keeley’ .. her answer ‘one’.. Okay. Guzzle, guzzle… rolling eyes.. What’s next? We sit down for breakfast.. and she finally gets out ‘one please’ ‘more please’  ‘one juice please’  –beseeching look. She got milk, instead. It all balances out. She probably had a cup of red raspberries (frozen, zapped in microwave to soften)… she wanted more. The heifer. I bet they felt good on her teeth, though. She hadn’t had any since we moved in. I’d forgotten they were in the freezer. Poor kid. She’s been eating canned fruit. Well, that and fresh orchard apples and bananas from the store.. but still. Forgot about the raspberries. That’s the way we roll. She probably had 2 T of green beans at dinner. Some chicken. Some pasta with sauce (veggie there, right?)  At lunch she ate.. cheese. Hm. A few soda crackers. some bites of my chili (tomato there, I guess), and some ham, some bread from my sandwich. Breakfast was bacon and eggs. Sausage. We had a 2 meat (3, technically) breakfast this morning. Oh she had applesauce too. Over the whole day, she probably comes out minus on the veggies, way over on the fruit (counting the juice), over on milk, over on the meat, and I’d have to ask Matt, but I bet she’s low on the breads end of it.

Here’s the 2-3 year scoop, they say they should feed themselves, and look for them to be eager to make food choices (in other words, give them the darn spoon and expect them to be picky.. but in a nice way).. this is from baby center dot com

2-3 dairy servings (1/2 cup milk, 1/2-3/4 oz cheese, 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/4-1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/4 cup pudding)
        *      my thoughts… pudding? hmm.. nice. they suggest diced or grated cheese and low fat versions of everything else. Ours eats cheese cut off in big hunk from a block, and I’m sure it’s full fat (have you priced 2% cheese lately? Good grief she probably has milk 5 or 6 times a day maybe more).

6 servings of grains (1/2 slice bread or bagel, 1 or 2 crackers, 1/4-1/2 cup pasta/rice, 1/2-1/3 cup cereal)
     *my thoughts..bagels? Can kids chew those? 2 crackers? What are they smoking? Come to think of it, if I offer her any bread stuff more than once per day, she’s likely to hit her max for the day, just because. Cereal, for instance. ‘Mo chee chees’ I hear very often.. cheerios, that is. She’d probably hit half her limit in ‘chee chees’ alone! I was surprised to see pretzels make the list for this? Since seeing this list, my daughter has gotten a few. Now they aren’t safe from her anymore. Darn you, list! Also? Expecting a kid to still be eating that mushy iron fortified barley junk is stupid. We mixed that with fruit until the box was gone and moved to cream of wheat and then to ‘cold cereal’. Also, where are the potatoes? As adults, we aren’t allowed ‘potatoes’ as a veggie, only a starch. Jerks.

2 to 3 servings of fruit (1/2 cup cooked or canned, 1/2 piece fresh, or 1/4 – 1/2 cup juice)…
     *my thoughts (ah ha ha ha ha ha)–also they want you to soak raisins or other dried fruits.. dude what’s the point? Most kids eat fruit snacks or have people slipping them candy by now. Are raisins really the biggest problem?

2 to 3 servings of vegetables (2-3 tablespoons)
     *My thoughts…On the days she eats vegetables, I would ‘ah ha ha’ this, for sure!

2 servings of  protein(2 tablespoons ground meat, or 2 one-inch cubes of meat, poultry, or fish, 1 egg, 1/4 cup tofu or beans, 1 tablespoon peanut butter.
     *my thoughts– do they mean 2 servings before noon or.. yeah. I would say at minimum for dinner she hits 2 servings, if she has eggs for breakfast, forget it, it’s laughable. Tofu? Give me a break. Also, since they’re not supposed to ‘eat globs’ of peanut butter, how do you measure the tablespoon anyway? hmm… they also suggest casseroles and combo foods are okay. She’s been wolfing those for a year.

Sometimes, I wonder. So what about your kids? Do they eat more or less than the recommended amounts? Are you laughing with me because they eat so much? Or do they live on air and crackers? Do they eat only chicken nuggets? Pipe in and let me know… tha’ts what the comment box is for. Use it!