Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012 - 9:08 p.m.

Oh, lordy. I don't know if I can take 3 more weeks of my in-laws.

It's me, it's just me. I should probably lighten up. But it's a MONTH of eating with these people, and, and, and....

I asked them not to let her snack within an hour of dinner, so that she would be hungrier for dinner. They let her anyway, because the snack was just left over from earlier, not a new snack. Yes, I had said they could leave snacks out for later consumption, but in the case of the pre-dinner snack, you'd think they'd understand the spirit of the thing.

So anyway she ate a little of her supper. Meat and carb portions only. Not much. Fine, whatever. But then they served up dessert, a (not-very-good boughten) chocolate pie (a week before my birthday, when they know I always have french silk pie, but whatever). It's one of these things that's got like 4" of whipped cream on top, and they give her an inch-and-a-half wide slice, after I had said please give her a much smaller piece. Is that really what they think is an appropriate portion size for a 2 year old? Really? It was a good cup of pie, by volume. Anyway, she ate the whole thing with them beaming at her happily the whole time.

At that point, the only thing I can do is not say anything, and act cool, because drawing attention to it makes it an issue, and that's at least as harmful. Probably more. I know I go on and on about it here, but I really try not to comment much about stuff like this when we're eating. I encourage her to try everything on her plate, enjoy her food, and that's that.

Just, it's going to go on like this for a month. I'm not really up to cooking a fancy-ass meal for everyone every other night (and there's always a lot of effort involved since they don't like the same range of vegetables we do). But if we go out, someone always has french fries and gives them to her. Or mac and cheese. Or pushes more meat at her the moment she finishes what's on her plate, as if she's really in need of protein. Then if mil cooks, it's two kinds of carb, a token veg, and then a ginormous helping of dessert. If I could even get them to serve dessert alongside dinner instead of after, it would be an improvement. But, hah. No, we'll simultaneously teach her to eat huge quantities of sugar way too often, and to eat way past the point of satiation while we're at it.

A freakin month. Maybe after the baby comes I'll have other things to worry about.

On the other hand, they had her all afternoon, I got to go to the coop and buy oats and then take a nap. That was nice. Worth the mealtime stress, though? I don't know. I probably need to chill.

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