And yet, here I write instead of doing all of the above. It's just that there are a few things I wanted to post before my tired brain loses the information forever.
What I am up to:
- See Above.
What Shane is up to:
- Workin'
- Volunteering with the city council Task Force Committee doin' stuff
What Rachel is up to:
- Picks out her own outfits every day. She likes to have a different pattern for every piece, so leopard-print tights, flower skirt and polka dot top. She gets lots of compliments at school and revels in them.
- Wants to be a teacher, a nurse, a babysitter, and most recently, a mermaid-ologist (she meant marine biologist)
- Can balance on one foot as a flamingo, and as a "slork". She wouldn't let us correct her on that one.
- Refers to one of her female teachers as a boy because "he" has short hair.
- Has an excellent vocabulary but it is hilarious listening to her put it together. When she refers to a "third" item, like first, second, third, she says "threef"
- Wears clothes to bed instead of pajamas because her mother told her the story of the little boys whose mommy had so much trouble getting them ready in time for school in the morning that she simply put them to bed with their clothes on for the next day. In the morning, boom! They were already dressed. (Mom, you told me this story. Was it one of your friends?) Anyway, Rachel LOVED the idea of going to bed with clothes on. Well, it's better than freezing, I guess.
- Still makes us dance in circles around her at dinnertime. Now that we are both tired of being short-order cooks, we are issuing ultimatums: sit and eat with us, stay in the living room with no dinner while WE eat, or go to your room if you are going to be upset. I tell ya, dinnertime is my most hated time of day. We're all tired, she is tired and hungry, but refuses nearly everything I put in front of her, except maybe pancakes. So we go through this entire charade, and she stomps off to her room or whatever. Ultimately she returns hungry, then she moves her chair beside mine, and she eats. Sheesh! I am open to suggestions although I must warn you we have tried nearly everything. This ultimatum thing seems to work, and it forces her to eat OUR meal. Which is never anything fancy! We're talking chicken or beef and vegetables, sometimes pasta.
- Sorry. Bit of a rant there.
I also hate dinner time. I feel like the meanest parents in the world, but that we MUST NOT GIVE IN. Sigh. Dinner is HARD. I especially despair when all three kids' plates are still full at the end of dinnertime. But like you, I will not make a second dinner for picky eaters. We will however, leave the sauce on the side, or make it less spicy, or not mix it together. (Like pad thai, with chicken, noodles and peanuts all separate.) One day I had leftover lentils and rice, so I mixed them together and told the girls that "this is what kids all around the world eat". I totally expected complete rejection of dinner that day, but if you add enough Ramen noodle flavouring, kids will eat anything. (Ok, Elora didn't eat it, but 2 out of 3 aint bad.)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, sometimes the food needs a story.
Some of our rules:
1. Even if you don't eat, you have to sit at the table with us until we all are finished. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. But it means that playing doesn't take precedence over a meal they don't like. And maybe they'll have a bite out of boredom, since they're there anyway.
2. Everybody has to have one small bite of everything. (We struggle with this one daily, especially with Elora. Today, it directly led to rule #3.)
3. Screaming, crying, or whining means: go to your room.
4. You can have as much dessert as you've eaten dinner. (Roughly.)
Sometimes this turns into "buying" dessert by eating more. I'm ok with that.
5. Drinks only AFTER you've had a good portion of dinner.
6. Thank whomever made dinner.
Some other things:
Fresh veggies are put out first as an appetizer, with dip, before dinner is on the table, when the kids are starving. Sometimes I will put out apples or grapes instead.
Often we'll talk about what a great dessert we're having, and how so-and-so can have only a small bit, because she only had a small bit of dinner. This works great if we actually put dessert on the table before they're done. Nothing like seeing Mum break a cookie into four to inspire a few more bites of dinner. It will backfire if the dessert is unworthy, though. :)
We make smoothies with cooked vegetables, frozen berries, yogurt, apple juice and a touch of honey or sugar. As long as the drink is pink and slightly sweet, the kids will drink it, even if it contains an ungodly amount of broccoli. Just don't let them see you make it. This is how we are sneaking veggies into Elora. I still like the kids to have a bite of the "real" vegetable too though, so they get used to them.
I tell Elora stories of the "boy who didn't eat his vegetables and got sick" or the "girl who didn't eat a little bit of everything and got sick/tired/had her gums bleed and teeth get loose".
Anya at this point invariably likes to pipe in with the story of when she ate too much chocolate at Easter and threw up. 2 years ago. So we emphasize "a little bit of everything."
So, good luck. Kids won't starve themselves. So they tell us. But gee, can they ever get crabby in the meantime. :)
Love to all,
Carol
I love it! I love the stories, and the suggestions. I'm also very glad to hear that mine isn't the only hell-child at the dining room table. (Not that yours are, of course!) Smoothies are great for us too...I put in fresh baby spinach leaves, which grind up to nothing, especially when you add frozen blueberries, you can't even see the green. Rachel helps by adding them, calling them, "the green leaves", so at least she is seeing that she's eating them. We also make "carrot coins" and "trees". It seems as long as there is a fun name to go with them, she'll eat them. I've never put cooked vegetables in...which ones? One trick is that I've bought the recipe book, Sneaky Chef. It tells you how to combine the right veggies with the right meals so the taste and texture blend in. Like cauliflower and zucchini in tomato sauce. The problem is, once Shane knows I've snuck in something, then HE won't eat it. But, at the end of the day, she sleeps well, she has energy and she's (mostly) happy. I guess she is getting good nutrition in there somewhere. I think I just always pictured the happy-family scene around the table at dinnertime, which is not always the case. We've had a run of good dinners lately tho, so maybe my luck has changed. Love to you, too!
ReplyDeleteWe've put all sorts of cooked vegetables in smoothies at one time or another... broccoli, cauliflower, squash, carrots, yams, peas, corn (I think). Probably lots of others that I can't remember. Some of them require a bit more blending than others, but we get the thick straws, and the kids have no complaints. :)
ReplyDelete