Abbie Appleseed
Abbie’s latest trick is eating apples. This may not seem like a big deal considering that kids eat apples all the time, as evidenced by the McDonalds menu item Apple Dippers, which have caramel sauce accompanying apple-flavored wedges of Styrofoam. When I say she eats apples, I mean she eats apples from the core. In fact, I’m not sure what she’d do with slices of apples; probably refuse to touch them until I produce some caramel dipping sauce.
Abbie used to love eating apples in sauce form. Applesauce is one of the first “solid” foods I gave her, as it’s one of the few baby foods I can dispense guilt-free from a giant jar that cost under $2. Eventually she’d even eat chunks of apple that I’d chisel off the core I was eating. This lasted until about 18 months, during her stage when she’d eat anything offered, up to and including spoonfuls of pico de gallo. After that she realized that there are better foods to be eaten, generally from the fried and/or in nugget families, and she refused all apples in hopes of receiving some of those golden beauties.
Recently, we realized that she’d eat the applesauce that comes with various kid’s meals. Then we discovered that she’d eat apples from a core when we were eating. Actually Ellie discovered this with one of her apples; daddy doesn’t like sharing his food with her because so much of it ends up in the dog’s mouth either by picking tossed food off the floor or plucking it from Abbie’s outstretched fingers.
To our surprise, Abbie took a bite right off the core with Ellie holding it. Ellie took another bite, and offered Abbie the apple again. She took it in her fingers, and gnawed off an appropriately sized chunk before offering it back to Ellie. This is encouraging behavior since Abbie has always been reluctant to take small bites off larger pieces of food, instead opting to shove the whole thing in her mouth or nothing at all. She may well be on her way to enjoying sandwiches and pizza. Then she took a bite of the core, stem and all; that was a little less encouraging.
Now when I eat an apple for lunch, I save some fruit on the core and offer it to Abbie. Not that I need to leave much fruit on the core; she can find meat on an apple when all I see is stem and seeds. I have to keep a close eye on her, though. Today I gave her my remaining apple, turned around for a minute, and haven’t seen the apple core since. I’m not sure which possibility disturbs me more, Abbie having eaten an entire apple core in the span of a minute, or an uneaten apple core hiding somewhere in our house. I suppose the dog might have eaten it too.
Abbie used to love eating apples in sauce form. Applesauce is one of the first “solid” foods I gave her, as it’s one of the few baby foods I can dispense guilt-free from a giant jar that cost under $2. Eventually she’d even eat chunks of apple that I’d chisel off the core I was eating. This lasted until about 18 months, during her stage when she’d eat anything offered, up to and including spoonfuls of pico de gallo. After that she realized that there are better foods to be eaten, generally from the fried and/or in nugget families, and she refused all apples in hopes of receiving some of those golden beauties.
Recently, we realized that she’d eat the applesauce that comes with various kid’s meals. Then we discovered that she’d eat apples from a core when we were eating. Actually Ellie discovered this with one of her apples; daddy doesn’t like sharing his food with her because so much of it ends up in the dog’s mouth either by picking tossed food off the floor or plucking it from Abbie’s outstretched fingers.
To our surprise, Abbie took a bite right off the core with Ellie holding it. Ellie took another bite, and offered Abbie the apple again. She took it in her fingers, and gnawed off an appropriately sized chunk before offering it back to Ellie. This is encouraging behavior since Abbie has always been reluctant to take small bites off larger pieces of food, instead opting to shove the whole thing in her mouth or nothing at all. She may well be on her way to enjoying sandwiches and pizza. Then she took a bite of the core, stem and all; that was a little less encouraging.
Now when I eat an apple for lunch, I save some fruit on the core and offer it to Abbie. Not that I need to leave much fruit on the core; she can find meat on an apple when all I see is stem and seeds. I have to keep a close eye on her, though. Today I gave her my remaining apple, turned around for a minute, and haven’t seen the apple core since. I’m not sure which possibility disturbs me more, Abbie having eaten an entire apple core in the span of a minute, or an uneaten apple core hiding somewhere in our house. I suppose the dog might have eaten it too.
posted by Matt at
10:55 PM
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