Grapes

Ivie loves grapes. Now, admittedly, I'm not the world's best eater. OK, that's the understatement of the year, and everyone that knows me is laughing at me for even saying it. But I DID read in one of my parenting magazines (I'm only about 9 months behind with them right now) that in order to encourage your children to develop positive eating habits, you should keep healthy snacks at their level in the fridge.

So I've started with grapes.

Now, I use a fairly large tupperware container for these grapes (takes a pretty big one to hold all the grapes that you have to buy in the plastic bags at the grocery store!), and I put it on a lower shelf where she can reach them. For those of you concerned about choking (since kids under 3 aren't even supposed to HAVE grapes, and, at last check, Ivie's only 2 1/2), I cut them in half after cleaning them and before putting them within her reach. And we keep a close eye on her when she's eating them. So I think she's safe.

This morning, when we returned from church, Ivie enthusiastically stated, "I want grapes!". Happily, I said, "OK, you know where they are!", and gave myself a pat on the back for getting her to eat grapes instead of the chips I was about to eat (come on people, I'm going to have a baby any day - I can splurge on some Doritos, right?!?). So Ivie ate a handful of grapes and moved on to her puzzle. Fine, at least it's progress.

After lunch (which was bologna sandwiches and peaches for us all), she was back to the grapes. Grabbed the tupperware container, and her sippy cup of milk, and settled in on Daddy's lap in the living room for some pre-nap Finding Nemo time (we don't do a great job of limiting television on the weekends, particularly when Daddy LOVES that she will cuddle with him and watch for an hour!). Much to Daddy's chagrin, I was back to working on my blog page (sure is fun to include links and videos!).

I woke up from my nap before Ivie did, so I took advantage of the golf tournament (which Dale was happily watching on the couch) and talked him into letting me go out for a bit of shopping. Alone. Probably the last time I'll do that before Macie (or after, for that matter)! As I walked into Target, I sent Dale a text to check in on Ivie's status. Apparently she was just waking up. And then, 15 minutes later, I got another text from him that made me laugh out loud. He said, "Wait until you get home to hear about this POOP!"

Suffice it to say that I think Ivie had too many grapes. When I got home and saw the sheer thickness of the diaper (Dale had saved it for me for proof), I checked out the tupperware to see just how many she'd had. Seriously, folks, she probably ate 60 grapes today. And that might be an understatement - I'm not good with spacial comparisons. Let's just say that the remaining grapes don't even cover the bottom of the container any more.

Someday I'll probably read that grapes, in excess, cause some sort of disease. In fact, I could probably find that now if I google'd it. But for now, all I know is that they can certainly be the cause of one heck of a poopy diaper. "By far the worst in 2.5 years," as Dale elegantly described.

I'm glad I was out shopping!