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...

Food, Glorious, Food!

I don't know how many of you are aware of my constant food battle with my daughter. She started off life being such a great nurser...it's been downhill from there.

Seriously, she is very much like me in that she is always wanting to eat chocolate or any other type of treat, but when it comes down to eating food of real substance, it's honestly used to be almost a daily battle at our house until my the doctor gave me some good advice.
A couple of years ago my pediatrician told me to not make it a fight. He said, "If she says she doesn't want to eat, tell her that's fine and let her get down, but let her know that when she comes to you and says she's hungry, she's going to have to eat the food she didn't finish." Well, I implemented that rule on and off for a while. It actually does work. At least I thought it did anyway. It's worked up until yesterday/today.
The deal with Ryanna is that she's got no allegiance. She loves bananas one day and won't touch them the next day. I will make a meal such as roast and she'll eat it up and tell me how great it is. The next time I make it, she turns her nose up at it and won't even try it! It's not as thought I'm forcing all these exotic dishes down her throat, she can't make up her mind what she really likes.
She's been on this kick for several months now where she hates cheese. She loves bean burritos and when I say bean burritos, I mean just that--beans and a tortilla. No cheese thank you. The funny thing was that during this whole cheese hating phase, she's always continued to eat pizza. For some reason, she didn't realize that pizza is covered in cheese.
So, yesterday afternoon I made this pasta dish that has cream, peas, bacon and tortellini. Ryanna has eaten this several times with no problem. We gathered around the table to eat yesterday and Ryanna refused to eat any of it because it was "too much" for her to eat. Not that she didn't like the flavor or texture, it was just too much food. Okay, whatever. We let her get down and then at dinner we offered it to her again. She didn't want it and wouldn't eat it. She wanted to only eat toast (I have to say she is pretty faithful to toast, but only with butter, don't put jam or jelly on it or she won't touch it). Well, we didn't allow her to have any other option, so she didn't eat any dinner either.

Now, it's Sunday morning just before 7 am and I am nursing Owen when Ryanna comes into our room, flops herself on our bed and starts making vomit noises. Derek grabs her and runs her to the toilet. After this little episode, he goes to her bedroom to discover that she's thrown up all over her bed.

Before you all start thinking, "oh, she has the flu, poor girl, I bet her mom feels guilty," don't start. She doesn't have the flu. She threw up because she made herself sick from being hungry. I did cave in and give her a piece of toast with pedialyte to drink for breakfast.

Now, we just tried to eat lunch as a family and guess what I served Ryanna again? Guess what...she's still holding out. If I wasn't so irritated at her, I might have to admire her determination.