It’s almost funny, now that I have over 2 years of experience in this parenting gig, I can spot a growth spurt a mile away.

His normal food intake throughout the day consists of 6 specific mealtimes:

1. breakfast at home
2. a second breakfast/early-morning snack at daycare
3. lunch at daycare
4. afternoon snack at daycare
5. afternoon snack while driving home from daycare
6. supper at home

While normally it’s like he grazes all day, lately it’s more like Little MPB is a ravenous lion with an empty pit for a stomach.  In fact, right now he’s added a seventh meal to his list – bedtime snack.

Keeping up with his food demands at the moment is almost comical.  For example, yesterday for lunch as we walked through a farmer’s market he reached up to a fruit vendor and helped himself to an apricot.  The vendor laughed and offered it to him, but we of course bought a small basket full of apricots.  Upon purchasing them, Little MPB proceeded to eat 7 more apricots! There was no stopping him as that’s all he’d eat, try as we might to get him to eat something a little less likely to cause future digestive angst.  Eventually, he decided it was time to eat diversify his lunch and some sausage and 2 fruit pouches.  Then, once we got home, no more then 20 minutes later, he demanded pasta. Again, he dove in like it was the last plate of food on the earth.  After that, he napped.  When he woke up, he proceeded to eat more of everything we have in the house.

I swear you can literally see him growing right now – as if he grows an inch over night.  All the sudden he’s even leaner and taller – I’m not sure there was much doubt about his toddler status left, but if there was, it’s now completely gone.  I’ve even had to pull a bunch of his clothing out of size 2T wardrobe as all the sudden a tonne of his t-shirts no longer fit him.  Heck, in some photos from this weekend, I swear he looks like a 7 years old.

And interestingly, linked with this growth spurt is a clear jump in cognitive language skills.  A few weeks ago he started with I Wuv You (which just melts my heart) and he’s been using multiple word sentences for a while.  But now he’s playing tricks to get try to get his way (after being tucked into bed he’ll announce that he’s pooped as I’m walking out of his room, just so I’ll come back to check so he can steal my arm as I reach into his crib for another hug), he’s telling us stories he’s making up (he had to take his pants off because of an oweee on his leg) and he’s getting mad at us when we don’t actively listen to him (there’s nothing quite like having a toddler shout from the backseat of the car: Mommy, You’re Not Listening To Me!!!)

Temper-tantrums aside, I just cannot believe how much fun he is right now!

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