War of the Grapes

There were no blueberries today but there were grapes. My child is obsessed with fruit. Any fruit, any time. Today we had one of my favorite days "the mommy & me day". We head out the the mall and shop til we drop..LOL or rather shop til Sloane screams. And then there is lunch. Our big girl lunch where everyone in the restaurant thinks all is normal. That's because I plan it this way. I schedule it and plan it and obsess about it every day. How, when , where will the tube happen. The tube is to us like what many people keep in their night stands...a dirty little secret. 

You see I hate taking the feeding pump and tube out in public. I hate that if someone sees it, they began to stare, trying to figure out why such a perfectly healthy child has a feeding tube. There actually was a small scene in my town at a breakfast joint when a woman said "i wonder what is wrong with that baby," as I plugged Sloane in. The mother (aka me), of course, made a scene. Luckily, I was with my step-mom, who is a perfect lady, so I composed myself. If I was with one of the aunties, there may have been a brawl. You see when Sloane was too young to eat solids it was harder to keep our little secret. The tube with its formula/milk were her only source of food so the tube was our shadow. Now we are free birds!! Sloane eats everything and I mean everything. She has the momma's appetite. Finally, the tube has become a drink. Gone are the days of plugging her in every three hours for one hour...here are the days of plugging her in for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. 

Mommy & me lunch is one of my favorite things in the world. After we sanitize the table (we are obsessed with germs...another post for another day), we sit and babble and I take pictures. It can make me tear up at times...drama momma!! I feel so blessed. And then the grapes land on the table. That's when the power struggle begins. My question is: is 18 months the new 2 years old like how 40 is the new 30? Sloane has begun to give me a run for my money as they say. The grapes now take over and chaos starts. There is whining, slurping, squirting and sweating involved as we fight over to cut and skin or not to cut and skin. Once the last grape is devoured, I remember the tube. The tube is sitting in the car waiting for our arrival. Chilled milk, charged pump, and privacy await. The fucking tube! 

Now, my child has never been passive so the grape war is just a glimpse of what is to come. I can't wait???? Thank God Sloane has the happiest and most determined personality I've seen in a long time because I believe that is why she has progressed swimmingly thru the past 18 months. The child that was supposed to be breast fed by an organically fed momma:
has taken antibiotics, 
had anesthesia 7 times, 
had 3 surgical procedures, 
has taken prescriptions daily because her reflux was so severe that she spent the first 9 months of her life upright at ALL times,
has an artificial device in her belly that mimics a mouth,
not to mention the 15+ x-rays she has already had
Many days I think can this really be????