I Know It's Yummy, But Come On!

Yesterday I picked Andrew up at daycare around 4:50 PM.  He was still napping when I got there, so Marc went to get him.  When he set him down I noticed that Andrew wasn't chatting or laughing or opening his mouth.  He just stood there with his little lips pursed. That could only mean one thing - he was holding something in there.

I was able to pry his mouth open enough to see that he had a piece of burger in there.  From lunch.  WTF?!  I was concerned that he was left to nap with that in his mouth because hello! Choking hazard!  More than that I was grossed out that he had held a piece of beef in his mouth for four hours.  Gross!

Andrea couldn't believe that he had that in there because he had been laughing and smiling before nap time and they never saw anything in there. I guess he had been storing it in his cheek like a little chipmunk.

"Andrew, what's in your mouth??"

I got him home (with it still in his mouth after several failed attempts to remove it) and decided that maybe milk would get him to spit it out or swallow it.  No.  He just attempted to drink the milk and made a mess.  So I picked him up, laid him on his changing pad, held his nose so he would open his mouth, and dug it out while he yelled at me.  I got most of it and figured he would now swallow the rest.  Again, no.  What finally DID get him to eat it was when he picked up a cup of applesauce that he wanted. When I took off the lid and handed him a spoon he finally chewed it up and swallowed it.  I guess the prospect of his favorite snack was enough to inspire him to eat it.

He ate his dinner just fine with no hording or anything.  We had bath time, had a little playtime, and then he got a hold of a raw baby carrot that J was eating and proceeded to chew it/suck on it for the next 10 mins.  It was time to brush his teeth and I wasn't in the mood, so we had a repeat of the nose-holding-digging-out scenario from a few hours earlier. Ugh.

This morning he ate his breakfast of french toast sticks and green grapes.  Except the last grape. That one he chewed up and then refused to swallow it.  What in the world? What is going on with my kid?  Is he doing this because he knows he shouldn't?  Is he savoring the flavor that much?  Is he just weird??

So yeah, that's what we're dealing with at the moment.  He was dropped off this morning with instructions to Andrea and Marc to check his mouth before nap time and keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't choke on anything.  I really hope this is just a little phase and not something he is going to continually do at every meal/snack.  Toddlers are strange little beings.