Legree's Food Diary

Legree loves food. Plain and simple, he LOVES it! He hasn't turned any food down yet and loves ANYTHING we put in front of him. He's always been a great eater, from day one. The first day we fed him rice cereal I expected half of it to be all over his face and the other half to be all over the bib. That's what everyone told me happens. The baby just doesn't know how to eat or open their mouth or swallow the new food. So I expected him not to eat much and it was really just practice. Nope, not my little porker, he opened his mouth as wide as he could get it and inhaled any cereal we would give him. The first picture below is of the very first time we fed him. As you can see he had a knack for opening his mouth wide like a little birdy and waiting for the food. He did this the WHOLE time he was eating baby food. Opened his mouth as wide as it would go and wait for the food. As you can see in the second picture here... he opened WIDE! No lie he did this every time... HILLARIOUS!

If we went to a restaurant or had friends or family over to eat with us everyone would marvel at how well he ate, how he ate and how much he ate! I never will forget going to the beach with my mother in law when Legree was about 9 months old. We went to a restaurant/bar place for supper. It was 1st week for the college kids so they were at this place drinking and having a good time. Legree got a hold to my pickle spear (as he often does) and went to town. Literally all of the college kids stopped partying, celebrating and drinking to watch Legree eat. That's impressive! He ate two whole pickle spears in NO time! Below is a picture from that trip. This was at Subway and he was eating a cookie...

Legree eventually got to the point where we just couldn't buy enough baby food to fed him. By the time he 6 months old he would go through 3-4 jars of baby food in one sitting, sometimes more! I asked the Dr. if I should be feeding him so much. It felt odd feeding something so little SO much. Especially since I always heard their stomachs are about the size of their fist. He's always ate much more food then the size of his fist! So, we started feeding him more and more table food. He of course fell even more in love with food!!

I make no bones about it, I have a tiny kid! I mean what can you expect to come from a 5'3" mommy and 5'8" daddy? Neither one of us are very big, so we never expected our kids to be big. But Legree is TINY! Most of our friends kids or relatives that are younger outgrow him in no time. He's normally around the 30% for weight, 10% for height and 75% for head circumferance. He's short with a big head, what can I say! So I always worry with the amount he's eating he's going to suddenly balloon up.... but alas he never has. He's so busy all the time and goes 90 miles an hour, I guess he works it all off. But gosh he eats alot!! Most mornings for breakfast he'll eat more then I do!! For example, this morning for breakfast he had 3 pancakes and a banana!

So, I made a food diary. I was going to do it for a week, but I lost track over the weekend. But I got a full 5 days in. I wrote the food diary so that I could show his dr. at his next dr's appt. I've told the dr. before he eats a lot but I don't think he understands the magnitude of this!! HAHA... so I wrote it down just for reassurance that it's okay that he eats this much. I know, I know but I'm a first time mom and I need reaassurance on everything. And if he wasn't eating at all, that would be concerning, so if he's eating a lot it's concerning for me too, LOL. I worry about everything I admit it! HAHA! If nothing else it'll be good for Legree to see when he's older how much he eats....and whenever we sit down for a meal and I see the amount he packs away, I wonder, what's it going to be like when he's a teenager???

Here are some more pictures of Legree eating over the past few months and then the diary...

Legree's Food Diary 7/26- 7/30

(all amount are approximate, I didn't measure or count out exactly, he also normally drinks around 24 oz of whole milk a day and another cup or two of water)

Monday - 2 1/2 blueberry pancakes, 1/2 cookie, 10 puffers, 2 pieces of Pizza Hut Pizza, one whole tomato, yogurt, 1/2 can of beans and weenies, 1/4 cup peas, 2 bananas

Tuesday - 2 blueberry pancakes, yougurt, plum, 1/4 waffle, 1/4 cup peas, 3 chik (s0y) nuggetts, 15 veggie sticks (like potato chips, but made from veggies), 1 tablespoon ranch dressing, 1 tablespoon cake batter ice cream, 1/2 cup macaroni and cheese/peac mix, 4 slices of turkey sausage, 8 veggie sticks, 3 slices of cucumbers

Wednesday - 2 blueberry pancakes, 10 veggie sticks, 1 graham cracker, 1/2 cup macaroni and cheese/pea mix, banan, 1 cup of mixed fruit, 3 tbsp refried beans, 1 cheese quesidilla

Thursday - 2 blueberry pancakes, plum, 7 puffers, 1 peanut butter cracker, 3 cucumber slices, 3 fish sticks, 1 tsp ketchip, 1/4 cup green beans, 1 whole sweet potato, 1 peach, 2 tomato slices, 1 graham cracker, 2/3 cup spaghetti, 1 ear of corn, 1/2 banana

Friday - 2 blueberry pancakes, 1 peanut butter cracker, 1/2 cup green beans, 15 veggie sticks, 1/2 peanut butter and jelly sandwhich, 1 chik (soy) nuggett, 1 tsp ranch dressing, 1 cup mixed fruit, 2 pieces of Domino's pizza, 1/2 slice of birthday cake