our family grace: Toddler Battle Ground

Eating has become such a battlefield recently. Really, Bug is a great eater. She'll eat almost anything, depending on her mood. Our biggest battle is how she eats. She has become Miss Independent as of late and that goes double for eating times. She absolutely must feed herself. No matter what. Also, she wants to cut up her own food, or in another instance, she just wants to pick up the whole plate and bite off one by one what she's eating.

A couple nights ago, we made burgers. The hubs cut hers into bite size pieces and covered it in cheese for her to eat. Something she typically loves! Did she eat it? No. She pitched a fit and kept pointing at my plate. Now my plate had a whole burger (not cut up), a different type of cheese, and onions. She wanted to eat my food! And, well, as most mommys know, you pick and choose your battles. This was one that I was willing to let her win. It was late, she didn't nap well, I was tired, you know how it goes. So I traded plates with her. She decided to pick up that burger whole in both hands and just take bite after bite of it. She devoured almost the whole thing, including the onions! Silly girl.

So really, I don't have any tips. I go by what kind of mood my little girl is in. If she appears to want to eat, then we eat and we eat well, but we have to do it at her pace. And you know what? I'm okay with that.

Oh. One more thing. My daughter LOVES eggs. I think she could eat eggs for every meal...so if we're having problems, eggs and applesauce are a go to. In my mind, as long as she's eating and it's relatively good for her, then that is all that matters in the long run.