tricky tongue

When I picked up Elias on Thursday he had the end of his tongue stuck out of the corner of his mouth with a quirky grin on his face. To that point his tongue had been pretty reclusive. Since then, however, it's out a lot: pointy and to the side (nearly always to the left) when he's being playful, and spread out in front when he's concentrating on something. Hmm. He does seem to cycle through a focus on various body parts (there was a few weeks there that he took every opportunity to pull down the collar of my shirt and stick his hand down there), so I guess it's finally gotten around to his tongue.

I'm not so entertained by his second tongue transformation this week. He's always been a good eater, to put it mildly. In fact, it's been amazing to the point of being a little worrisome the vast quantities he consumes at each of his 5 daily meals. Truly, over the last year (since about a month ago) he's not eaten well only five times, perhaps, when he wasn't feeling well. People wouldn't really believe me when I'd say my toddler eats adult-sized meals, then are bowled over when they witness it in person. My parents still talk about when we visited for his first birthday, how I would be feeding him with a spoon, and in between spoonfuls he had both hands shoving in food continuously, until his round little belly just couldn't hold any more. What's more, he seemed to love eating just about everything. I was pretty good about giving him a huge variety of mostly healthy, home-made, preferably fresh & organic foods. From beets to spicy chili to (yes) sardine-wrapped capers, he ate it all. The only dislikes he seemed to have were lettuce, anything much beyond room temperature, and cold milk. He ate like a maniac for maybe 4 months, which apparently is common with Ethiopian adoptees. Since then he's been gradually becoming more reasonable with the amounts while developing some strong preferences (broccoli, green beans, applesauce, meatloaf) and moderate dislikes (noodle dishes). However, this week suddenly he starting eating like a "normal" 22-month old: irritably refusing to eat almost everything, especially if it's new to him; spitting things out; playing with his food then screaming bloody murder if I take it away; and begging for sugary stuff & soda. It's terrible! I pretty much blame it on daycare, but there's not much I can do about it. I just keep offering lots of good stuff without forcing him (or endlessly cajoling him--how annoying and counterproductive!) to eat any of it. I try to not act differently and keep reminding myself that (per pediatrician's advice) as long as they eat about a tablespoon, they'll be fine. Even his 20% of normal is still way more than a tablespoon, but still, I wonder if I should be looking for a medical problem. He is also unusually short-tempered lately, and even had several angry crying bouts (again, highly unusual). I guess even with the World's Best Baby I won't totally escape these common but trying motherhood challenges.