No Deer Allowed

Cale's bedtime routine starts with Daddy reading bedtime stories. Then I pick him up, tilt for kisses from Daddy and Karston. After kisses, Cale turns off the hall lights, then his bedroom light. I settle on the chair while Cale gets the correct combination of toys in his hands, turning some in, picking some up. Then he climbs up onto the chair with significantly less help than when he was younger. Finally he nurses, hopefully to sleep or at least drowsy enough.

This evening when Cale turned off the lights, I said thank you, dear. He gave me a scowl and said, Mommy, I not a deer! I decided not to fight that one. I'm happy he's using "I" more often, and properly, now. Karston and Cale know Mimi and I don't like the deer in our gardens...

For the past several weeks, we've noticed a transformation in Karston's eating. The first four years just need to hide behind the colic moniker, before we were allowed to sleep through the night (I still don't do it well). After that, we faced the legacy of bad eating habits, but we could usually manage it by insisting on variety within his limited repertoire. We were more lax while on vacation at Atlantic Beach three weeks ago, and Karston ate chicken most of the time. However, without our insistence on variety, Karston ate more with less encouragement than we've ever seen! He hasn't been perfectly consistent (tonight's dinner was a particular low), but Karston has been eating more food, with more variety at every meal, with less coaxing. So we hope that we might get closer to normal eating, and what a fantastic goal!