Picky eater?

We now officially (in my eyes) have more of a toddler in the house than we do a baby! Ellie has her own opinion about almost everything!  It's fun in many ways because she is already beginning to make choices and I think she enjoys things more when she's made the choice to do them.  This also means however, that she has an opinion about everything including what she wants to eat/drink.  

Ellie has been doing baby signs for several months now, which I've been extremely thankful for.  It has solved many a question about what she actually wants ("more", "done", "play") and it has (I think) decreased the amount of whining we may have experienced.  The problem is, the signs only say so much.  So now we know she wants to "eat" but WHAT does she want to eat!?! More importantly, should she have an opinion about what she wants to eat!?! Ellie has begun to reject certain foods one minute that she will proudly eat the next.  Sometimes she wants cheerios, sometimes she wants chicken, sometimes she wants peanut butter and jelly and sometimes (though she's saying "eat") she wants a drink!  ARGH! It can be quite aggravating! Many of times it is solved with giving her a simple choice, cheese or chicken.  Though today for example, she finished her cheese and all she had left was chicken.  She began whining for "more" when the cheese ran out.  So she ate nothing until she realized, "oh yes, I like chicken!" and then finally finished her chicken!  

This has brought about many conversations about how much we should expect out of our 1 year old! Should she be able to chose at this young, tender age(mom's opinion= YES)? Or should we make her finish what's in front of her no matter how much she cries(dad's opinion=YES--bias making it seem worse)!?  She is getting her protein, she loves chicken when in the mood and eats plenty of peanut butter (not to mention the cheddar cheese, cottage cheese and yogurt).  She's getting her carbs, no questions (cheerios and wheat puffs for breakfast).  She's getting her vegetables, steamed chopped mixed veggies--Loves the green veggies best! And she's getting her fruit-lots of natural apple sauce and bananas!  So do we let her scream and make her eat what's in front of her? Or do we give her a choice between two heathly, equally "good-for-you" meals? 

A side note, this increased fussiness about food has come at the same time we've begun to only nurse once a day--bedtime.  She refuses whole milk which has been the supplement!  Has the weaning made her emotionally unstable?  Has the option to refuse whole milk led her to refusing other things as well? And that's another problem, she won't drink milk (though mixed 50/50 with breastmilk she will chug-which will soon not be an option as I'm running out of milk)! How does one fatten up a picky, weaning one year old!?!

Sick

Last night we got Ellie to bed kind of late. Ok, a lot late! She did fine with it and then slept in until 10am!!! WOW! That's a new record.  So when she woke up, I put her in her exersaucer with a baby einstein signs video and went upstairs and took a shower.  I came back to find her little food compartment full of puke! She had hardly ate any of the cheerios I had put in front of her. They were either on the floor or soaked.  I didn't know what that was all about but decided it was time for a bath.  So she got her bath, I got her in her nice clean clothes and....she puked again! She was looking really tired and at this point it was 11:15, so I put her in bed.  I went in to her door to check on her and I could hear puking noises again! So I came in and there were several wet spots all over her bed! When I came in she was retching! So I picked her up to console her and she wouldn't let me put her down.  So she is now downstairs with me playing very slowly, quietly and gently.  Poor girl! She had her Dr. appt this Monday and got four immunizations which she's never had any reaction besides a low grade fever.  She also had daycare on Tuesday.  She usually wakes up Thursday with a cold, but today it's puking! Our poor little one year old!

On another note, at her Dr. appt Ellie weighed 20 lbs 2.5 oz.  She is officially in a car seat that is forward facing, which is really exciting! That puts her in the 23rd percentile for weight, so a little tiny! She is 28 3/4 inch long which puts her in the 30th percentile for height.  So with that said, we have started whole milk (which has taken some getting used to) to see if we can puff her up a bit.  :) She is developmentally right on target! :) We are just so thankful for her health!  Up until this point the nursing weaning process has been very natural, which has made it nice and easy.  At nine months, I started nursing her three times a day; for the last month I've been nursing her twice a day.  I've always said I would stop at a year and here we are! So last night I skipped the night feeding! So we are now moving into once a day.  In many ways I'm excited about this transition, but in many other ways, this is really hard! I told Joey last night that he was going to have to help me wean!  I love the bonding! I will definitely miss it!