chipmunk

While we were at my parent's house last week, I had a difficult time getting Callan to eat one night at dinner. I told him he had to eat one more bite of noodles before he could get down. He did, and I let him out of his seat. A good 30 minutes (or more) later, I noticed that Callan had something in his mouth. I ran right over to him and said, "What are you eating?" because I was afraid he had something in his mouth that he wasn't supposed to have. I pried his mouth open and saw the noodle he had "eaten" a half an hour ago still in his mouth! I told him to chew it, and he put it in his cheek and continued to walk around the house. I finally just pulled the noodle out and threw it away.

Then last night at dinner Callan refused to eat again. Gene told him he had to eat his hotdog before he got out of his seat. We made him take a bite, and several minutes later we both noticed that he had shoved the bite into his cheek again and refused to chew! Gene mumbled something about looking like a chipmunk, told Callan to chew, and we went back to eating our dinner.

A few minutes later we looked at Callan and noticed that he was still sitting there, not chewing. We told him he needed to eat. He pointed to the big lump in his cheek and said, "Chipmunk!" Gene and I both had to turn our heads and laugh. I don't know what this weird phase is that he is going through right now, but I really don't know any way to force Callan to chew!

He has also learned how to "disobey" without really disobeying. Like when we tell him to take one more bite of his sandwich before getting down from the table, he'll take the tiniest little bite from the corner of the bread and say, "All done!" Now we have to clarify and say, "Take one more BIG bite before getting down."