Noah is 20 months old and loves to eat on the go. He will eat in the car, his room, running around anywhere...but stopping to eat at a table has been something of some sort of past life. We would have stages here and there when sitting him in the high chair to eat was a wonderful and happy experience, but those times were more rare than the others.
Today, after just two days of training him, a miracle has occurred. We were tired of having Noah only eat finger food...he would only eat "meal food" when we went out to eat. So, for the past two days (going on three today) I have forced him to sit in his booster seat at the kitchen table. I figured it wasn't going to go smoothly at first and shockingly it went somewhat smooth. There were a couple of attempts where he was not interested in eating and I just let him go, but overall the experience has been an easy ride. He has managed to eat organic mickey mouse nuggets, organic sweet potato fries, all natural gold fish, organic whole wheat english muffin with organic butter, and all beef uncurred hot dog since we began this journey. Sounds like a lot of bad stuff, I know, but the point was that if he was willing to eat all of the finger food...eventually he would move back to meal food again.
So, Steven was paid today and we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at Wood Grill Buffet. I told Steven before we got out of the car that we were going to leave the high chair out of the picture and let him use a booster to avoid upsetting him from the get go. (The past couple months he has been refusing high chairs when going out) The woman walked us to the booth and Noah didn't want to sit down at first...so Steven held the table and ordered our drinks while we went to get Noah's plate. Noah pointed at the grapes while I was walking with him on my hip to get a plate. I walked over and laid the plate on the side so I could get the grapes with my left hand while holding Noah on my right hip. He was enthused out of his mind about the grapes. Then I got him some chicken and a small bit of macaroni and cheese. When we were walking back to the table, Noah picked up a grape and popped it into his mouth like an adult would with popcorn. He grinned and that made Mommy grin.
When we got back to the table the jumped onto the booster seat and just ate away. He refused that macaroni until everything was gone on his plate except for that. I had put one noodle onto the fork in hopes that at some point during the lunch he would pick it up and eat it. HE DID IT! Noah had known how to use a fork and a spoon for quite a while now, but has been quite stubborn since he was refusing to sit an eat. Steven was able to get his food in peace and eat...I was able to do the same! Noah was smiling and eating his food, he would stab each noodle individually with the fork and turn it upside down to eat it. Of course there was music on in the background and Noah is unable to stop himself from dancing when he hears music; so he would eat a bite and then do a little jiggy with his shoulders and waist. Steven and I joined in with him from time to time.
I said to Steven about halfway through, "Is a miracle happening?"
His response was, "I'll let you know when it's all done."
Noah's smiles and dancing made us so happy, but what made us even happier was that he remained in his booster the whole time. He ate all of his food and behaved! Mommy and Daddy were able to switch off to get a plate of food without him screaming as one of us walked away AND we were able to eat all of our food too! There wasn't any getting up and walking outside, eating with a toddler/baby on your lap, screaming, or anything. It was officially declared a miracle.
We got up and Noah followed us to walk out of the restaurant without wandering! Plus, he got into his car seat with no complaints! I looked at Steven as I buckled, "So...can we declare this a miracle?""Yes, this was a miracle."
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