The New and Improved DaVinci

I love my daughter. There are SO MANY things that have always been awesome about her. Too many to list here. My list of not awesome things is remarkably small, and in the past month has been reduced by one major one - EATING. DaVinci has been a picky eater since starting on solid foods. She used to gag and even throw up on the slightest chunk of tomato in tomato soup. She used to chew on bites of scrambled eggs for minutes, until they expanded as they became saturated with the saliva in her mouth to the point of gagging. Difficult. She hated beans. BEANS! The girl does not want to eat meat but she won't eat beans.

And then, suddenly, like a beautiful spring day after a long grey winter, she changed. This girl of ours now eats almost anything. She will try whatever you put on her plate, and will eat a decent enough amount that we don't have to argue with her. This includes Eggs! Beans! Pasta sauce - with tomato chunks! Those of you reading this who have known DaVinci for years (which I guess is probably most/all of you) will know what an accomplishment this is. I remember a time staying with our friend Titian in California when Davinci was probably 1ish. Davinci was eating in the highchair, and started to gag on something. I paid no attention, because she always gagged on everything. Before I know it, Titian is flying across the room, flinging the highchair tray away to rescue DaVinci by giving her a baby heimlich. She moved so fast that I think Titian had her out of the chair before I could tell her that was just how DaVinci ate. Or as the Griswold's say "That's just the dog, yakking on a bone."

I am proud of all the accomplishments and developments that both of our kids achieve. But this one, the one where we just eat food? Not just our favorite, limited array of food, but whatever food is provided to us? Maybe the most useful.