First Time Parents

So I realized this week, that I am not normal...OK - keep all comments to yourself. I let my son explore and that means eating things off the floor, crawling around on nasty gym floors, "running" behind his walker totally out of control, and even rolling around on our kitchen floor with our smelly, furry dogs. Isn't that what you are suppose to do to help your children thrive and learn? I let him cry for a minute or two (unless he is hurt) before I run to pick him up, and YES I let him cry it out when he was 5 months old (he now sleeps over 11 hours a night).

I feel like some parents look at me in horror as my son eats goldfish off the floor :) Thank goodness my neighbors already know I am crazy, because they don't even bat an eye when they see my son pick up a Cheerio off of the driveway as he does a crawl by. I will say this... as I knock VERY loudly on wood...my son is almost 11 months old and has ran one fever of only 100 degrees since he was born and that was just this past month. He has to have a strong immune system...I am the Assistant Principal at of campus with 650 children under the age of 8!

I am not one of those moms that doesn't let her kid eat "certain" foods. I don't ban milk products because of infections, I don't think having a sweet food will affect whether my son eats his veggies too. I just am not like that. I am not saying that is bad, but I sometimes feel like other people look at me in horror as I let my son taste cotton candy or take a bite of my baseball park dill pickle. Have you met my son? He eats everything...I do NOT have a picky eater - that is for sure. He will take a bite of a cookie and then eat his broccoli and squash...not so worried at this point.

We have started having family meals now that Cole is not eating baby food anymore. We bought a restaurant style highchair, which is great. We shut the TV off, throw the dogs outside, so Cole is not tempted to share, and we all sit at the kitchen table and he eats what we eat...for example:

Today we had waffles and peaches for breakfast, sliced turkey, veggie crunchies, and dried strawberries and bananas for lunch, and Freebirds for dinner (that was my craving). Cole ate a cheese quesedilla, pinto beans, and yes...part of a chocolate chip cookie for dessert.

Dan and I received the best compliment from our neighbor today. She said, "You two do not act like first time parents at all." Sounds like a good thing to me!