Food for Thought

Jacob has always had a love for food! From the time he was born he had to nurse every 2-3 hours for about 45 minutes. Needless to say I spent a lot of time on the couch his first couple of months. He immediately took to baby food when it was introduced right at 4 months (a week before he turned 4 months, he was already 16 pounds and 26 ½ inches long so he was definitely ready) and it was a good thing for my sake! Grandma Stevens still laughs about the time when she was watching him when at 11 months old, Jacob nearly finished off an entire box of macaroni & cheese by himself; and then had some more handouts from other family members.
Now, at 3 years and 362 days (Jacob will be 4 on Monday) Jacob will literally eat more than I do!

Here is an example of a typical day:

Jacob wakes up and is hungry for breakfast at 7:00. This morning he had two slices of French toast (with the big thick Italian bread), then he wants a bowl of oatmeal-and it’s not just eat the little ‘packets’ oatmeal, it’s a full sized serving. After the oatmeal, he would also like a bowl of cereal.

At 10:00 he comes and tells me that he’s hungry for lunch. I tell him that he just finished eating at 8, and lunch isn’t for another couple hours. So I get him a whole bagel, and a few pretzels to tie him over.

Lunchtime at noon, I’ll ask him what he wants. He nonchalantly replies, “A pickle, some pretzels, an apple, a sandwich & a hotdog.” We start with one whole sandwich, a pickle, some pretzels and carrots. Then he has a hotdog afterwards. A couple days ago he wanted a peanut butter sandwich & a tuna fish sandwich along with his side dishes and ate everything.

He’s generally hungry again around 2 and wants an apple or a piece of bread, or something like that. He is then usually asking for food again at about 4 and I’ll usually give him something like an apple or orange, etc.

Dinner time I usually give him portions just slightly smaller than mine, and he usually finishes off everything and sometimes wants seconds. And of course he’s always game for dessert afterwards. (or a couple desserts!)

He’s usually good from there, but fairly often when he’s getting ready for bed he’ll tell me that he’s hungry again and wants a piece of bread.

(Side note: I think Jacob gets his love of food from Jeff. It was so funny when we were reading through Jeff's old journals; especially those from junior high and high school. In almost every entry, no fail, he talks about the food he had that day in some form or other.)

Caleb can also be a good eater if he’s in the mood. This morning he also had a piece of French toast, a small bowl of oatmeal & some cereal. But with him, it completely depends on his mood. He still loves to drink milk and sometimes prefers that to food, which can cause some interesting battle of the wills! Mainly because it’s not healthy, but also because milk is almost $4 a gallon!

I feel like I spend most of my day in the kitchen preparing something or getting food for both Jacob and Caleb! Really though, it would be interesting to see a break down of the minutes of my day into each room of the house; I bet I spend a great deal of it in the kitchen!

In all actuality I am grateful that the boys eat well, especially since they’re pretty fond of fruits and vegetables and healthy food. It’ll be fun to see how Matthew does when we introduce solid foods in a month or so.
Anyway, I’m a little nervous at this point. Nervous about how high our grocery bill will be when we have three teenage boys! It’s already a little tricky to really keep the grocery budget. Good thing Jeff will be a practicing doctor at that point because we’re going to need that salary just to keep food in the fridge!