eating for two

this little piggy went to market...

this little piggy stayed home...

this little piggy ate roast beef (and everything else he could get his hands on)...

this little piggy had none...

and the mommy piggy cried "wee, wee, wee...woe is me, me, me".

"eating for two" has taken on new meaning in the white house.

the interesting thing about having boys so close in age is that their growth patterns are so apparent. wasn't it just yesterday that harrison was frantically signing "more please" and stuffing food into his mouth as if he didn't know when his next meal would come? these days ketchup is his favorite food and he thinks eating a couple teaspoons of it with a fork constitutes a meal. hey, at least he's mannerly enough to use a fork! i should count my blessings.

conversely, graham has turned into a squirrel who packs away the nutrients and stores it for winter. i'm really beginning to notice that he's put on an extra layer of insulation! he eats circles around his brother and frequently asks for more after having been excused from the table. graham is doing exactly what harrison did at that age...eating for two!

it seems that one-year-olds instinctively know that the busy, too-focused-to-stop-and-eat, can't-sit-still-for-a-meal, lean, two-year-old years are ahead. it's "survival of the fittest" at it's very best! or maybe it's just graham who instinctively knows that he must happily eat his food in order to keep his mother from becoming deeply depressed. after all, the thought of two little boys living on the ketchup-only diet is quite disheartening.

who knows, though, i may not be able to avoid the depression...or i may just have to get over it...because i keep having this reoccurring idea that as the growth patterns continue the ketchup-only diet will, sadly, be better know as "eating for four".