Because 4 a.m. is NOT breakfast time

I am concerned that my child may have a hollow leg. Because where else would she be stuffing all the food she has been constantly eating, non-stop for the past two weeks?

It started innocently enough, after a nasty bout with bronchitis, on roughly day three of antibiotics, her appetite--which had gone missing for days and days--came back with a vengeance. She spent the afternoon at my sister's house, and Alisa reported that she ate from 11:30 in the morning straight through the day until she walked out the door munching on a handful of crackers.

So, for a few days, I was willing to concede that she was just making up for lost time.

But OH MY GOD. Here we are, two weeks later, and people? I CAN'T FILL HER UP. I got off work early yesterday, and when we walked through the door at 3:45 p.m. her first comment was "I'm hungry...is it dinner time yet?" Licking the beaters after we baked cookies and snacking on yogurt did little to tide her over, and she scarfed down two helpings of broccoli and a huge plate of spaghetti when I finally decided to dine like an 80 year old at the early hour of 5:00 p.m. She ate a sizable bowl of popcorn while watching her Maisy DVD before bed...then, after tucking her in, I thought she'd be so full perhaps the weight of all her food would prevent her from getting out of bed again. Ha! When Bryan came home and went to kiss her goodnight, he came out to the livingroom and told me "Zoey says Mommy didn't feed her enough food tonight, and could she get up and have a snack?"

Two bowls of cereal and another plate of spaghetti and broccoli later, she was finally down for the night.

And then there are the late night cravings. (Seriously, is she pregnant? About to start her period? I can't tell.) She wakes me up at 4:00 in the morning to ask if it's breakfast time yet. When I tell her, um, NO...she asks if she can have a snack to last her until breakfast time. I have yet to cave on this request. But then, at 6:30, my child who has never been a breakfast eater is suddenly popping out of bed, anxious to eat her cereal and anything else that happens to be on Mommy's plate. (This could be the diet plan I've always waited for.)

I am assuming this all points to an impending growth spurt. And, with her height already being off the charts, we can also assume she'll be as tall as her mother before entering kindergarten. I thought I had a few more years before I could start saying "she's eating me out of house and home!"

I guess not.