Happy Plate

The past 4 weeks Ian has started making "happy plates" (clean plates) both at the sitters and at home.  Now, in trying to figure out what brought this change on (I know I know stop thinking about it, this is what you have been wanting to happen for 18+ months) I have come up with 3 thoughts: 1) I've become a platable chef, 2) he's tried of always being hungry and only being offered carrots or 3) going through a growth spurt. Now, we'll use the process of elimination can't be 1 as cooking hasn't changed nor has the take out menu options, could be 2 as well as 3.  Seeing as though 4 weeks ago Ian could stand under the counter over-hang without a problem and now well 4 weeks later he no longer fits under the counter I'm going with option #3.  He has outgrown all his 2T pants in the length dept. He is by no means digging head first into each meal, in fact his average meal time is 1hr, I wish I could say he is taking his time enjoying the meal that I slaved over all day.  But he just likes to take his time and take some potty breaks along the way.

We still rotate through the same meals each week. But I'm becoming less an less of a short order chef. On evenings in which I know I'm flying solo through dinner time I make it easy on myself and make things that I know will be a success. We also use the "either eat what is on your plate or go to bed". Now this works when at home but its a little harder when eating out. He will sometimes choose to go to bed and only a couple times has he in fact been super sleepy and slept till morning. 90% of the other time he re-thinks his options and decides to join us in eating.

Last week Marcus measured him and he is 36.5in tall. To compare when Marcus was 3 he measured 39in tall. I looked back to Ian's 2yr check up and measured 35.5in so we'll see what the next 3mos hold in the growing dept.