Just eat it!!!!

So, it's going to be one of those types of days. Let me explain what that means around my house:

1. The day begins before 6 am.

2. There is a lot of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth (by children and mom).

3. There are still tons of errands to be done and lessons to be administered before lunch begins.

4. See #2.

5. We fight about food and sleep.

6. Dad comes home and mom turns into a zombie.

Now, to explain to you who don't know the in's and out's of the Petersen family (note correct usage of apostrophes--see blog post below) my kids have two main issues: food and sleep. My kids are well-behaved, they don't destroy my house, they do as they are asked, they love me and my husband...okay really this is mostly describing Ryanna because Owen is too young to deserve such accolades as of yet. Back to their issues.

My daughter is not a good eater as you read about a couple of posts ago. She has an iron will about not eating things she doesn't want to eat. Big deal you say, my kid is the same way. That may be, but does your child take an hour to eat a piece of toast? Do you have to allow an hour for your child to consume her lunch which consists of 4 chicken nuggets (the dinosaur shape by request) and about 10 carrot sticks? Do you have to repeatedly remind your child to eat while she's at the table and there are no toys, other humans or anything else remotely fun in sight? Well, if you don't, you don't understand this struggle.

Two meals of the day Ryanna usually gets to eat food of her own choosing (chicken nuggest, fish sticks, bean burritos, etc. for lunch) and (go-gurt, apples, toast, cereal, etc for breakfast). It still takes an hour for consumption.

My sweet, little boy was looking to be such a great eater. He would gobble down his rice or oatmeal cereal whether it has anything mixed in or not. I thought, "Finally, I deserve this. God knew I couldn't deal with this again." Well, starting last week Owen jumped on the food issues bandwagon. He now immediately spits out all cereal I attempt to place in his mouth. Think of one of those play-do toys where you place the play-do in one end and push the lever down and see it come quickly out the other end. Only with Owen, the food is going in and coming out the same hole and it's not fun for the whole family.

Okay, so the kid doesn't want cereal, what does he want. Let me tell you what I've discovered that is: chicken and ONLY chicken. Did he miss the train when cave men were coming to earth and just come a couple thousand years too late? Am I not nurturing the masculine side of him? Should I get him a club and buy some chickens to run around the backyard and let him go at it? Come on, just eat already!!!!

You know, I would blame my husband for all of this, but he's not a picky eater at all. I don't think I'm particularly picky, but definitely more picky than him (I don't do watermelon, sweet potatoes, undercooked meats...I'm sure there's a few more things I haven't thought of).

Not only does Owen not want to really eat anything other than meat, he refuses to take naps in his crib. As soon as I lay him down he stands up and screams and cries at the top of his lungs for...forever really. I usually let him do this for about 20-30 minutes because I'm in the middle of trying to give my daughter some attention. However, today it's going to be longer because I just need the break.

Featured below was the funny face that he used to make when I would feed him something new. Oh how I long for those days...