Piper has been a strict vegetarian for over two months. For some reason, one day, she decided she wouldn't eat any meat. And she never looked back. If a meat product found its way onto her tray, she batted it onto the floor in a flurry of angry tears! (This delighted Hero, of course.) If a pinhead-sized piece of meat were snuck into her cheese and actually got into her mouth, everything was spit out and an impatient tongue was stuck out with the offending meat bit on its center, waiting for Dad to remove it. No more cheese would be consumed that day. Despite these tantrums, we have continued to offer her meat almost every day during this period, as all the literature indicates that meat provides vital nutrients for a baby's development and even true vegetarians ought not to start their babies out without meat. But because her weight continues to be solid, the pediatrician has assured us that this will soon pass and all will be fine. We can't help but worry, though.
Well, on Sunday evening we went to our friends Angie and Jake's house to visit them and their lovely daughter Eva. Perhaps she was performing for an audience, but when a few bites of chicken were placed onto Piper's tray, she ate them! When a few more bites were put on her tray, she ate those, too! In the end, she ate a very respectable and balanced meal.
We asked if we could invite ourselves over to Angie and Jake's house everyday from now on, but, for some reason, they had scheduling conflicts.
Back home Monday evening, Piper resumed her vegetarian diet, refusing the chicken that Laura had lovingly prepared with renewed hope. On Tuesday, however, I warmed up a few bites of the chicken, placed them on Piper's plate and was amazed when she ate them all. She then held her tray up for more! I couldn't heat up the chicken fast enough. When she had eaten half of a large chicken breast, I cut her off, but rewarded her with her favorite food group: fruit. Tonight, she finished the other half of the chicken breast and even had a few bites of chicken sausage.
Whether this renewed boldness will continue, I can't say. But we're headed in a great direction!
In a related note, our pediatrician said we need to stop giving Piper her milk in a bottle and switch to a sippy cup at age 12 months. We, of course, followed these instructions to the letter. But, while Piper will happily drink water or juice from a sippy cup, if she discovers there is milk in that same cup, she gets furious and refuses to even look at it! We have had many failed attempts at this. Given her abstinence from meat, we didn't want her to go without milk, too. So we have caved in and poured her milk into a bottle. At her checkup last week, the doctor again insisted we need to switch her to a sippy cup, that it will only get harder the longer we wait. Saturday evening, we made the switch. Piper responded as expected: pushing the cup away, screaming, crying, kicking her legs. She went to bed without milk that night. Sunday morning: same routine. Sunday evening: no change.
Tuesday night, I settled into the rocking chair with a cup of milk and Piper. She had not had milk since Saturday morning. Once again, she pushed the cup away as soon as she saw it, and she squirmed off my lap in tears as quickly as she could. We tried reading books to distract her, to no result. I set her cup down on the changing table and moved on to other things. After a couple read-throughs of her current favorite, Once Upon a Potty (a potty training book for boys, incidentally), Piper walked over to the table, picked up the cup, and started drinking it. I tried to pick her up and snuggle with her, to reduce the inevitable spilling. This only resulted in a tantrum. So long as I let her do her own thing, she happily sipped at her milk. Eventually, we settled into her monkey beanbag to read stories while she finished her milk.
Tonight, she happily ran around the living room and enjoyed her milk. If either of us tries to sit still with her and hold the cup, the game is off and she gets very upset. So we have to let her hold the cup herself. This is a little frustrating to those of us who tell time, of course, because it takes her three times as long to finish her milk while running around the house, and delays her bed time. But at least she's getting the milk she needs!
You may remember last year's annual daycare Christmas party. This year, Santa was not such a hit with Piper.
In fact, after the traditional sitting-on-the-lap ritual (or an attempt at it), she was pretty much unable to recover.
Toward the end of the event, she was basically just trying to make a break for it.
Piper got to experience her first snowfall the weekend before Thanksgiving. OK, there was a lot of snow last winter, but Piper wasn't old enough to really experience it. Now that she's a toddler, she can walk in the snow, touch it, and see how the world looks and feels different under a blanket of white. 
She might read a story and drink some milk.
These giant, bulbous crayons are called "Tadoodles" - especially made for little toddler hands :)
Piper is a natural.
Learning from a master of the craft.
The proud artist displays her work.
Then, once the creative expression portion of our day's itinerary was complete, we went to the park for some physical education. Piper had a good time there - she was a little bit hesitant but once she got used to the sand she did alright (although she certainly didn't like it).
There definitely was a lot to explore!
The slide was a pretty big hit.
Nothing like a good old-fashioned swing.
Dear Daddy,
