DH remembers with no small amount of amazement The Col.’s appetite during the days before the word “diet” existed in his vocabulary. As she tells it: We’d had lasagne for dinner for one of the first meals he ate with our family, way back when. We’d all finished eating and DH was about to put dessert on the table. The Col. looked at us, looked at the 1/4 pan of lasagne remaining, looked at us again, said, “Does anyone want any more of this?” and then finished it off — scraped the pan clean. It was a 9″x13″ pan, and this was after he’d already had a second helping.

So, prepare yourself. By the time teenagedom arrives, you might be cashing in The Boy’s college fund and expanding the garden in order to fill that hollow leg. And the other one. And his hollow arms. You may eventually even manage to fill his stomach (but not for long).