Bottomless Pit

For about the past few days, Peeper has been eating non-stop.

I know it can't have been going on for very long, because at her doctor's appointment last Wednesday, when we were discussing her weight plateau (actually a bit of a loss since a month ago), he asked how her appetite is when she's not sick.

I said that "She's willing to eat all sorts of things," and "She has her good days and bad days," and things along those lines, but to be honest, it sort of felt like I was stretching the truth a bit.

She's had a lot more days over the past several weeks when she's not so much about the chewin' food, and because we really don't usually pay a lot of attention to how much of the food actually goes into her, and how much goes, well, into BigGaloot, usually, it's hard to really say that she's eating very much at all.

She is still open to checking out most foods, I think, but she often tosses them overboard as quickly as we give them to her.

And, she's been sick off and on so much that, honestly, it's hard to say what her appetite's like when she's feeling great.

I haven't really worried about it, because she's still nursing as much as ever, so I figure she's getting most of what she needs that way, and the one thing she's always happy to eat is Cheerios, which are iron-fortified, so I suppose that's good.

But, then she immediately started eating like crazy.

The day before, I'd served some veggie garden something or other baked Wheat thin chips (??) at playgroup, and she loved them.

Pretty soon, she was standing in front of the cabinet where they live, signing "more" over and over.

When those ran out (No, she didn't eat the whole bag. That was me.) we gave her some Ritz crackers, and she kept coming back for "more" of those, too.

When I realized how often she was asking for a snack-on-the-run, I bought some cheese sticks, since I wasn't so thrilled with the constant carbs. She didn't so much like the rubbery cheese sticks, but is digging the rectangles of Colby Jack.

In between, of course, we've been plopping her in her highchair a thousand times a day and giving her more substantial, nutritious-ish fare, much of which she's eaten, and then come back a few minutes later for more crackers, or cheese, or whatever we've got to offer.

(That's not even counting any of the mushy stuff with a spoon, because that's going more on her than in her.)

I don't know if she's catching up from being sick a couple of weeks ago, or if her gums are less sore now that the first molar has cut through, or maybe they are more sore and chewing food feels good, or maybe she's just hitting a growth spurt, or gearing up for one, or her body's realizing it needs more fuel for all this running around that she's doing, or what, but holy crow, kiddo.