Mamas Tell All: Kids and Eating [blog linkup]

my picky eater, eating a zucchini spear

If you're visiting from the linkup, you won't know this, but I would say I have some experience in this category! When my oldest was 20 months old, his baby brother was born, 6 weeks later we moved to a temporary home, 4 months after that, we moved to another country. He was, understandably, shaken up. As a strong-willed kid, he needs to feel in control of some things, and his whole life seemed to change, 3 times, in rapid succession. What could he control? What he ate. He stopped eating everything but bread, deli meat, grapes, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, and junk food. For us, picky eating was all about insecurity, fear, and control. I think this applies to a lot of picky eaters, even when their lives haven't been so completely turned upside down.

When he was 2 years old, Nate (now 4 1/2) couldn't be reasoned with. I focused on making sure he ate enough calories and gave him vitamins. Still, he didn't gain weight at all for several months. After he turned 3, Nate was more reasonable and had started eating a little more variety. It was a window of opportunity. We used it.

• I identified that trying new things was scary for him. We encouraged bravery (doing what you need to do, even though you are afraid), started with just 1 bite, and celebrated that bite!
• He wanted to be in control, so he was allowed to choose when he would eat his new food, but he had to eat it or he gave up second helpings of what he liked at supper and couldn't have his usual bedtime snack.
• I focused on vegetables because that is the main food group he has trouble with, and it was a huge hole in his nutrition. I choose my battles, in all things parenting. One I don't fight, for example, is potatoes. If he never eats potatoes (besides the fried variety), he's not missing much. He knows this and enjoys the control. He voluntarily tried roasted potatoes recently, liked them, but chose not to eat them the next time they were served. Fine by me. My battle is veggies.
• In the beginning, I served the same vegetable for supper every night for a week. The first 2 days, he had to eat 1 bite only, then 2 bites for 2 days, then a full serving until the end of the week. 
• The next week, I still served the previous vegetable once or twice (now a welcomed old friend), but added a new every-night-veggie, and we repeated the process until we worked through all of our usual vegetables.
• When we are not at home, we take a break from the rules. Sometimes when we're at a restaurant, he wants to eat nothing but a plate of french fries. Hey - it's a special occasion! Why not?

Now, he knows he is required to eat the veggies on his plate, and if he doesn't, there are no seconds or snack. I don't fight him about it because the conflict makes him more resolute and me more grumpy. I just remind him of the consequences. Two nights ago, he chose not to eat his veggies, and we held to our consequences. Last night, he apologized and told me, "I will eat my vegetables tonight so I can have a snack." And he did.

My advice to parents dealing with a picky eater:

1. Determine why. Do they genuinely not like the taste of many foods? Are they afraid? Do they just want control? (If said picky eater is a toddler, you may just be dealing with toddlerhood.) Then address it from that angle.
2. Choose your battles. 
3. Have consequences and stick to them.
4. Give the kid a break sometimes! 

Find more tips at the linkup!

kids, moving internationally, and eating

Nate used to be a really good eater. Once he started eating table food, he really couldn't get enough. Around 18 months old, he started getting picky. He would refuse to eat his favorite foods, spend entire days eating nothing but pickles and cheese, and could not be convinced to try new foods. If I considered the food he ate for an entire week, rather than just each day's menu, he still had a fairly well balanced diet. We chose not to have the mealtime battle of wills.

He was still in this picky phase when we moved to the other side of the world. Though we have a lot of the same foods here in Kenya, everything is slightly different. I expect an adult would enjoy the differences in ingredients and cooking in Kenya, but it was a lot for a 2-year old to deal with. He stopped eating almost everything. He also stopped gaining weight. We became rather lenient with Nate and eating, just to get some food into him. He would refuse to eat all day, then wake up crying with hunger pains at midnight.

Nate's weight chart. We moved 6 weeks after his 2nd birthday, just before the "2" dot.

Around 2 1/2 years old, he started eating meat, and he also started gaining weight again. He maintained a vegetable strike for several more months, though I could get him to eat peas about once a week. After Nate turned 3 he became a bit easier to reason with, and we instituted a vegetable requirement at supper. I could get him to eat either peas or green beans every day.

I think his food issues come down to 2 things: control and fear. I used to think it was only about control. We let him save the vegetables for last if that's what he wanted to do, but he also knew that he could get seconds of his favorite dish as soon as he finished the veggies. We tried to give him as much control over it as possible, without letting him skip eating vegetables altogether.

Once he was used to this vegetable requirement, I decided to try requiring him to eat a bite of everything served so that he could branch out, and we wouldn't have to have peas or green beans at every single meal. It started with 1 carrot stick - he liked everything else on the table that night. He fussed and complained and tried to refuse to eat it, but once I actually got the carrot stick into his mouth, he grabbed it out of his mouth, held it in his hand, and calmly took bites of it. The next night, the same thing happened with the carrot, but he almost made himself sick when I made him eat a bite of potatoes, too. We talked about it and determined that food he isn't used to eating is scary. Ok. I was a picky eater as a kid, and I can relate to that actually.

So what do we do about it? I decided to work on 1 new food at a time with him. Since we'd already started on carrots, we kept that up until he would eat a serving of carrots without being afraid. Then we moved on to zucchini. It seemed worse at first, but we progressed through it much more quickly. I think we'll give zucchini a little more time to settle in, then we're going to start on broccoli.

He was so proud of his bravery in eating an entire zucchini spear last night. I'm proud, too!

I Support You - my opposites

My boys don't even drink milk much anymore, and what they do drink now is plain old cow's milk. One won't drink it unless it's on his cereal. The other only has a cup of milk every now and then. My firstborn is 3 1/2; my baby will be 2 years old in a few weeks. Some time has passed since I was caught up in the infant feeding phase. But I remember the anxiety and having everyone in my business. The most frustrating part was assumptions that I made the decisions I did because either: a) I wasn't trying hard enough to breastfeed; b) I was doing something wrong which sabotaged my own milk production; or c) I was mistaken about what my circumstances actually were (i.e. my milk was enough, I just thought my baby needed to eat more than that). Not to mention that, even if all of these were true, it's none of their business anyway. There are vocal minorities on all sides of infant feeding, so much so that there is no decision a family makes in this area will be free from judgement.

I Support You is a movement which says that even though we may choose different methods of infant feeding (or maybe we're in a situation in which we feel we have only one option), we're all doing the best thing for our individual circumstances, and we can support each other.

I Support You post from Fearless Formula Feeder here.
I Support You post from Mama by the Bay here.
I Support You post from I am not the Babysitter here.

Technically, I combo fed my babies. Since they mostly got formula, my experience is more that of a formula feeder. For the I Support You blog hop, I'm interviewing some of my friends who breastfed their babies, Ashlea, Kristen, and Melissa. Their babies are all 2 years old now. Their experiences seem so different from mine on the surface, yet we're not really so different. We all did what was best, and pay attention to their first statements on question 3 especially—that's exactly what I would say about the way I fed my babies.

1) Please share a brief summary of your feeding experience.

A: I breastfed my son 90% of the time for the 1st three months of his life. He did receive some formula in the beginning due to jaundice and occasionally he would get it because I truly did not understand pumping. I went back to work when he was three months and from then until he was about 9 months he got about 50-60% formula and 40-50% breastmilk (pumped or through breast).

K: I breastfed my daughter on demand until she weaned herself at 15 months old. She was exclusively breastfed until 6 months old when we slowly introduced solids, but we rarely used a bottle as I am/was a stay at home mom and found it easier to just use the breast. Our challenge was the fact that my daughter had food allergies to dairy, soy, wheat, and egg which meant I could not eat any foods that contained those items myself.

M: I exclusively breastfed my son for 15 months.

2) What was your original plan for feeding your child, and how did that compare to what you ultimately ended up doing?

A: I planned to breastfeed exclusively for three months and then pump exclusively for 9 months after that.  

K: I had planned on exclusively breastfeeding. Other than the food limitations, it was just as as I had planned.

M: I had planned to breastfeed for two years. He started eating more food at 13/14 months and nursed less over a long period of time. By the 15th, he was barely nursing so, essentially, he weaned himself. When I stopped offering, I did not engorge or experience pain. I was not disappointed about stopping earlier than planned after it ended so naturally.

3) What was the best part about how you fed your child? What was the worst?

A: I loved the bonding with my son during breast feeding. I was sad when he no longer wanted to do so. I hated pumping. Going back to work was stressful and I could not produce a good amount of milk when I pumped.

K: The best was the bond it formed between us, knowing I was giving her the best I could, and as a bonus, I always had her food ready and available without anything to clean up afterwards. The worst part was the fact that I was the sole provider of her food, so if I couldn't have her with me, I had to pump in advance (which wasn't my favorite thing to do).

M: The best is the intimacy and bonding. It also forced me to slow down giving me time to really appreciate him. The worst was that it was harder to have a break since my husband couldn't easily feed him. It was either spend the time to feed him or spend the time pumping. I chose him. It was also difficult to pump when I went back to work. Teachers don't really have a lot of flexibility in the day so that was a struggle.

4) What myths about how you fed your child were the most hurtful? What is your truth that counteracts those myths?

A: The myth that if he gets formula or drinks from a bottle, he'll never nurse properly. I was so scared to do either that I exacerbated his jaundice. When I finally did, he was fine and went back to breast feeding with no problem whatsoever.

K: That not only should I have switched to formula because she had food allergies (and was suffering from reflux and digestive issues before they were identified), but it was selfish of me to continue breastfeeding. The fact is that once the allergies are identified and removed from the mothers diet, breast milk is the most beneficial and healing to the food allergic child. Breastfeeding past a year old is gross and mostly for the mother. The fact is that breast milk changes as the child grows and continues to provide the perfect composition of nutrients, antibodies, and immunity.

M: I think breastfeeding is unpopular with people who think it is an outdated trend. This is weird to me because I feel that this is the reason I was given breasts, and they provide the most nutritious and customized food for your baby. It seems like a no brainier for me. I know there is a lot of good formula out there that might come close but I didn't have trouble producing milk so I never felt the need to try it.

5) What would have helped you to feel supported/understood by society and/or medical professionals?

A: I think if the nurses were more open-minded about formula, I wouldn't have felt so conflicted.

K: I think the bad stigma that society has regarding breastfeeding in public really puts a damper on the positive experience. It can potentially make breastfeeding mothers feel unnecessarily uncomfortable about leaving their house in the beginning as well as to make it seem that using a nursing cover and finding a spot away from other people is a necessity. It would be nice if all of society saw it as a normal occurrence instead of something sexual or something to hide.

M: I really didn't care what people thought. I was doing what was natural and best for my baby.

6) Think ten, twenty years into the future. If you could give your grown child one message about how you chose to feed him/her, what would it be?

A: We did what was best for you. It may be different than what we do for future children, but it worked so well for you and your personality. We learned a lot about you through this experience.

K: Every mother does what they feel is best for their child and family and that is exactly what I did given the knowledge and circumstances that we had. As a mother, you have to trust your instincts and ignore any negativity or outside persuasion. Otherwise, you will always be questioning yourself instead of enjoying those precious first years.

M: I would tell him to support his wife. Do his research. Encourage her and be her cheerleader. It isn't easy or convenient sometimes especially if you lead a fast paced life.

7) Is there anything your friends/family could have done to help you feel more supported in your feeding journey?

A: Most of my friends were very supportive. The ones who struggled with nursing mostly stopped and switched to formula. I didn't get many perspectives similar to my experience. My mom could've been more supportive in the beginning. She eventually came around once she saw how well he was doing with supplementing and how well he started nursing from me. 

K: I would have appreciated them trusting my decisions more. For instance, some of my family tried to convince me that scheduled feelings were better than nursing on demand, which was something I was just not comfortable with. It would have been nice to not have to defend the decisions that I made while my child was crying for the breast.

M: My grandmother was probably the least supportive although she never told me directly. My mom explained that in her time, people only breastfed if they were poor and couldn't afford formula. That sounds crazy to me. Haha. I appreciated that she never tried to discourage me. No one did. It was nice to find a friend or family member that has been through it that can help provide encouragement and answer questions.

To me, the most important thing you can do to support others (both in this area of parenting and other areas fraught with judgement) is just what Kristen said: trust their judgement. Apart from instances of actual abuse, parents are all making decisions based on what is best for their families in their individual circumstances, even if it's not what you did/would do/are doing.

Now, go check out more of the I Support You blog hop.

"if you think 2 is bad...

...just wait until he turns 3!"

This is what they all told me. Most of Nate's "terrible twos," I felt like I was at the end of my rope. Everything was a battle of wills. Everything was a struggle. He was indifferent to impending punishment. Oh, he would scream during punishment, but the threat that he would be punished if he didn't obey didn't matter to him.

His "willful two-ness," as I've come to think of it (separate from general personality willfulness), was exaggerated by a feeling of insecurity because his baby brother was born when he was 20 months old; we moved 6 weeks later; then we moved in the extreme, coming to Kenya 6 weeks after his second birthday.

The kid snapped. He hardly ate anything for the first month or so (and I have a horizontal line on his weight growth chart to prove it). He threw a fit about everything. He disobeyed simply to be defiant. There was a phase of about 6 months, peaking at 30 months old, when I really didn't think we were going to make it. Especially if what they said was true: that it would get worse at age 3.

[I realize I'm dwelling on the negative so far, and I feel I should add that we had lots of good moments during that 6 months, too. We had some new, wonderful, fun experiences together. We had many great, normal afternoons just playing at home. Not to mention that parenting through infancy was far easier on me the second time around. It certainly wasn't all bad. Nate's 2-and-a-half blog post, 1 year ago.]

I'm happy to report that they were wrong. Unless Nate is saving some epic breakdown for the second half of his 3s, it has been so much better. Easier. More peaceful.

For example, now he cares about having privileges taken away. Before, "No TV until you clean up toys" would have been met with screaming. Nothing but screaming. Now, he will clean up (albeit grudgingly) in order to get what he wants. We have a required number of bites of vegetables now, which he will comply with in order to get a second helping of his favorite item on the menu or to simply have permission to leave the table. We've worked out some ways of dealing with him not listening or just not wanting to do what he's been told. Some of them work and some of them...well, at least they don't make things worse.

Of course he has a will of his own. He's a human being. Of course he still has his father's stubbornness. That's part of who he is. Of course it's not easy. I said it's easier. It's not easy. It's life.

dinner with the Ken-Tex family

We have dinner kind of early. The boys eat best if they aren't super tired and ready for bed. When 5:15 rolls around, I start setting the table. It goes something like this:

I fix the boys' plates so that their food can cool. They are already in their chairs, ready. Nate says, "I don't like carrots! I like crunchy chicken." (Which is not on the menu.) Ben says, "Meat! Meat! I want meeeeeeat!"

I fix their drinks and turn off the TV, and Rodgers fixes our drinks. Nate and Ben have already burned their mouths on their food because they just couldn't wait any longer. Ben blows on his and says, "Go away hot!"

We sit down, and Nate blesses the food, "Thank you Gooooooooood, for the fooooooooood. Aaaaaaamen!" Then it's Ben's turn, "Thank you Gooooooood, for 'cchini. And carrots. Aaaaamen!"

I've taken 1 bite, and Ben is already asking for more zucchini. I give him a lot. Repeat x 4. Then he starts eating Rodgers' food. "More meat?!"

Ben has decided he wants to potty train, so he spends most of the day in only a T-shirt. Generally he should put something on his bottom to sit at the dinner table, but today I've forgotten about that. His skin makes a scooting sound on the plastic seat cover of his chair. Nate exclaims, "Did Ben TOOT?!" Then I realize that, not only is Ben wearing nothing but a T-shirt, Nate is wearing nothing but underwear. Oh well. We'll work on proper dinner dress next time.

Meanwhile, Nate has eaten only a few bites because he is making noises. I tell him to stop making noise and eat. "But I'm saying 'zee-zee-wha-wha-wha!'" Rodgers tells him, "Eat 10 bites, then you can say 1 word."

As I eat in the relative peace, it dawns on me that Nate is counting to 10 way too fast. "Nate! 1 bite, chew and swallow, then another." He's got half a link of sausage in his mouth and can no longer close his lips. He manages to get through it without choking himself, so that's a relief.

Rodgers and I attempt conversation. We are trying to teach the boys not to interrupt, so I think it's important that we give them chances to practice. They do a pretty good job, but it's still a little chaotic.

Ben announces he's done, jumps down, and goes into the living room to play. Nate is also done. It's time for him to do his homework, but Rodgers and I have only just started eating. I tell him I'll get his homework out for him once I've finished. I remind him to take his plate and fork to the kitchen, which he does. Then he goes to play in the living room with Ben.

Rodgers keeps an eye on them. This is the time of day when they run off all that extra energy they have so that they can go to bed. They are all over the place, but at least they aren't fighting.

Once I finish eating, I call Nate back to the table to do his homework. Rodgers is still finishing up. Ben gets back in his chair to eat more from Rodgers' plate and some from his own because he still had food left when he was "done."

Finally, the food is all eaten, homework is done, and we have a few minutes of play time left before the bedtime routine starts.

And Nate says, "I'm ready for a snack."

recipe: fish fingers

Nate has long been in the "I don't like any food" phase of life. Ben is still usually a good eater, but gradually arriving in that phase as well. Because of this, I have been looking for lots of kid-friendly foods. (Now's as good a time as any to point out this Chik fil a copy cat recipe. It's one of the few recipes I actually follow exactly.)

The boys love fish fingers (fish sticks) that come in a box, frozen, precooked, and highly processed. One great thing about living here is that we don't have access to all of that processed food. But it also means that my kids, who have tasted processed food in the US and LOOOVE it, have a hard time finding fresh food that they like. It has taken me a year to find a fish recipe the picky toddler will eat. We've tried to get them to eat different types of fish, cooked different ways. Sometimes in the past Ben would, but less so now. I've tried different recipes for fish fingers, thinking maybe if they look the "right" shape and are fried, they'll eat them. No go.

Until today.

I started with this recipe, but I kind of did my own thing. One thing that is really great about their recipe is the suggested addition of turmeric to the bread crumbs for color. Kids love colorful food. (I'm looking at you, Rainbow Goldfish.) I took that suggestion, and they did turn out with great color. Another secret to the success this time, I think, is that we had a very mild flavored fish (Nile Perch), which also had a great texture for the small pieces.

Note that I did not measure anything, so the following recipe is true Ken-Tex family style cooking.

It's hard to get a good picture in our house at night. The lights are not very bright.

Fish Fingers

2 servings of fish, filleted (It's usually enough. We didn't know the boys would eat.)
flour, about half a cereal bowl
1 egg
breadcrumbs, same amount as flour
garlic powder
paprika
salt
black pepper
turmeric
oil for frying

1. Cut the fish into thumb-sized pieces. I aimed for similar thickness to the ones my mom served them in Texas - the frozen ones they adore.
2. Place flour in a small bowl. Add some (1/2 tsp, give or take) garlic powder and paprika, 2 pinches of salt, and a few shakes of black pepper. Mix thoroughly. Beat the egg in a separate small bowl. Place the breadcrumbs in a third small bowl. Add some turmeric. Mix thoroughly.
3. Coat the fish fingers in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs.
4. Heat oil in a frying pan, < 1/2" deep. When the oil is hot, add the fish and fry until golden brown. The original said 3-4 min per side, but I didn't think they were golden brown enough yet. I did about 10 minutes total. Remove from oil and drain on a towel or paper towels.

There are none left. At all. And I bet we would have kept eating if there had been more.

lunchbox

lunchbox, with insert and matching water bottle

In Kenya, kindergarten is 3 years, encompassing what in TX would be preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. Kids start KG 1 at age 3. Nate turned 3 in January. Thus, when we got back from TX, he started school. He was very, very excited to start school. After a week and 2 days of school, he isn't so excited about it! Every day, he tells me that he misses me. :(

School is 7:30 am - 4 pm. We originally planned on him eating the lunch provided by the school. However, I was worried that he wouldn't eat, that he would have a horrible time because he was hungry, etc. They have tea break at 10 am, when they serve porridge, which he won't eat, so I pack him a snack as well as lunch. They don't have clean drinking water at school, so he has a water bottle that matches his lunchbox. Too bad I didn't think about snack when we were buying this. I think they had small snack containers in the same theme...

Nate's snack and lunch for tomorrow, minus the sandwich. I'll make that in the morning.

I have pinned lists of little kid lunchbox ideas, but he's 3. He wants to eat the same thing for lunch every day. He loves having the same lunch every day. Some days for supper, he requests lunch, meaning a peanut butter and honey sandwich, fruit, and chips or pretzels. I'm glad there aren't so many food allergies here, so we don't have to worry about a peanut-free school! Packing his favorite meal makes school so much better for him. He gets excited when I put his lunchbox in his backpack in the mornings.

As with all Kenyan schools, he has a uniform. They have one uniform they wear on Mon-Wed-Fri. On Tue-Thu they have P.E., so they wear a P.E. uniform. It's white. White canvas shoes and white shorts. They come home reddish brown. He loves his school clothes, even the tie. How cute is he?!

MWF uniform. He has a school badge on the pocket of the shirt now.

TTh uniform. He didn't have his shirt yet. It's a red T-shirt with the school badge screen printed on it.

the last can

of formula.

We opened the last can of formula today. With Ben turning 1 soon and eating so much real food, he doesn't need it anymore. He can get his nutrients from the dinner table, like the rest of us.

The end of formula seems like a milestone. It tells us that we (including Ben!) have survived babyhood. We breathe a sigh of relief while simultaneously bracing ourselves for the terrors of toddlerhood. We do try to keep our focus on saying "good riddance" to the hard parts of the previous phase, enjoying the fun parts of the current phase, and looking forward to the fun parts of the coming phase.

We're enjoying Ben's emerging goofy personality. We enjoy him learning to walk and communicate (he signs milk and eat, and he says Mama, Baba/Dada, yum, and Mammmmammmm-yuummmm-yummmm-yummm when he wants me to give him some more food, and he said "out" to get out of the buggy at the store today). We enjoy letting him try new foods, and almost every food is his favorite right now. We really enjoy seeing him play with big brother (Nate says, "That's my brudder!"). Their wrestling matches are a blast!

We are looking forward to Ben beginning to sleep through the night again (he hasn't recovered from that 9 month sleep regression). We are looking forward to him learning more words, becoming a steadier walker, learning to hold his own sippy cup (he thinks all cups work like straws). We're looking forward to him weaning from the paci - mostly because we keep losing them, and we'd prefer he stops using them because he's ready rather than because we lost the last one.

The only problem with the last can of formula is this: we had been going through 2 cans of formula per week. We have trash pickup twice a week. Empty formula cans made excellent food waste containers. Now what do we do with our food waste?

Ben's happy place

I've mentioned before that Ben loves food. That Ben will not take a bottle if he sees someone eating real food, so we have to sneak the bottles in around our mealtimes. Ben's happy place is anywhere food is. I wondered if Ben would ever crawl. Then, Nate left food on the floor, and Ben had a reason to try crawling! We are collecting photos that we'll call "Ben's happy place." Here are some:

Sitting on Baba's lap, with a wad of bread in each fist

In his walker, with toast 

Under the desk, "cleaning up" Nate's snack that he dropped on the floor

ice cream

Church service here lasts all day. Since I don't understand enough Swahili to "get" everything that's going on, and since Nate doesn't have the attention span for it or the stamina to skip lunch, we just go to the "English service" (semi-English, semi-Swahili) and go home.

Of the four Sundays we've been here, Rodgers has preached 3. One Sunday, he preached in 2 services, but that's not the point. He was asked to preach during the Swahili service again this week. There is some time between the end of the English service and the sermon in the Swahili service, so he brought us home around 10:15, ran a couple of errands, then went back to church to preach.

I expected him to be gone at least 4 hours. It takes 3 minutes to get from our driveway to the dirt road that leads to the church and 5-10 minutes from the paved road to the church, though it's a very short distance. But I know that the service is long, plus there are meetings afterwards (for what? I do not know.)

I started to get a little anxious when he wasn't home by 3, but I was sure he'd be home soon. I texted him around 4, just to make sure he was still breathing. He is out of texts on his cell phone plan this month (for sending texts), but I thought he could call me if he wasn't in the middle of praying or something. He didn't. I called him around 5. He just told me, "Sorry, I got stuck here. I hope I'll be home soon," and left it at that. (Later I found out they'd gone to the home of one church member who had a new baby to do a dedication service, and of course the parents fed everyone, so it took a few hours.)

So we waited. I fed the kids dinner. I ate dinner. We started getting ready for bedtime. Finally, he came home around 6:45. He said, "It's been a long day. You look worn out. Let's go get ice cream."

There is a decent ice cream shop not far from home (in a real live shopping mall), so we headed there, with the boys in pjs. Being Sunday night, the mall was super busy, so I picked up the ice cream to go, and we ate it at home. We had strawberry, coconut, and chocolate with chocolate pieces. Nate's favorite is pink ice cream (strawberry).

Then, we resumed getting the boys ready for bed. For Nate's bedtime, we always read 4 books, say prayers, then sing Jesus Loves Me. I say a prayer first, then ask Nate what he wants to thank Jesus for today. He usually thanks Jesus for his soccer ball and either Sesame Street, Super Why, or Sid the Science Kid. Sometimes he thanks Jesus for his friends, Gigi, Grandpa, other relatives as they come to mind. Since getting his typhoid and yellow fever vaccines a couple of weeks ago, he has been saying thank you for "the shot's done."

Last night, Nate said, "Thank you, Jesus, for ice cream. Oh, and Daddy's ice cream. Oh, and Mama's ice cream. And Ben's ice cream." [note: Ben did not eat any ice cream]

It was so sweet, and yes, we are thankful for a yummy treat at the end of a long day.

cookies for Nate

I think I may have mentioned that Nate tends to be constipated. It doesn't help that he looooooves food that stops him up even more. In an attempt to remedy his last bout of constipation, I looked up some constipation cookie recipes. One recipe was really yummy, but he wouldn't eat them. He at least tasted them. I tried bran muffins, but he wouldn't even touch them. So I took a recipe he loves already and made some adjustments. This is based on Quaker's Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies recipe.

1 stick of margarine, softened
1/2 cup pureed prunes (this is about 2 plastic tubs of Gerber 1st Foods prunes)
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup black strap molasses
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats
1 cup raisins

Heat oven to 350
Beat together margarine, prunes, sugars, and molasses until creamy
Add eggs and vanilla; beat well
Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; mix well
Stir in oats and raisins; mix well
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet
Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown
Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack

He loves them. And they help him stay semi-regular. Sometimes I let him have one for breakfast. I haven't calculated the nutritional value, but I figure they're better for him than cereal... The other recipe I tried subbed the sugar 100% with molasses and honey and the butter 50% with pureed prunes and 50% with peanut butter. They would be more healthy, but what's the point if he doesn't eat them? Rodgers and I liked them, but the texture was a little off.

My little secret: I divide the dough in half before adding the raisins, then add raisins to half of it for Nate and chocolate chips to the other half for me. :)

QOTW: Me not *take* cookies, me *eat* the cookies. 

 

favorite dinner

Nate's too big to cram into the Bumbo anymore. He hates restaurant high chairs. He's not that fond of his high chair anymore, plus we have a very small apartment and not really much room for a high chair. We should have gone the space saver route, but went the "whatever we can find for $20 on craigslist" route. It's a nice high chair. But, we're over it. He needs a portable booster chair.

Since Nate's going to be staying with his grandparents next weekend, (WAHOO!!) I thought now would be a great time to go ahead and get the booster, and he can take it with him to their house. It came in the mail today. It's not fancy at all, but I chose it for the price and because it folds up so tiny. As I was strapping it into our dining room chair, Nate was very interested. He inspected the straps and giggled in anticipation of whatever this new game was. He was thrilled to sit in a real chair at the table with me while we ate dinner!

We had one of Nate's favorite meals, too: black beans, brown rice, and green peas (which were still on the stove when the picture was taken). And he ate really well, too, which always makes me happy.

The past few days, he has been more interested in sleep than food. Actually yesterday, he fell asleep for his nap before lunch. Rodgers was holding him while he was drinking some milk, and the next thing we knew, he was out. That hasn't happened in...I don't remember the last time he drank himself to sleep. Today, Nate's still sleeping well, but eating better. I'm thinking maybe a little growth spurt? Who knows?

QOTW (quote of the whatever):
explanation: QOTW is a random quote from a movie, TV show, book, song, or sometimes even real life which happens to be in my head at the time I'm blogging. I used to do it on my very first blog, and I've had some votes to bring it back. I want to bring it back, too, so I am! I will not post the source at first so that readers who want to show off their knowledge of quotes can do so by posting the source. Hopefully I'll remember to post the source later, though, so that we're not left wondering where the quote came from. Now that that's settled, here we go!
"You're going the right way for a smacked bottom."

pizza's good for toddlers, right?

Nate likes almost every food. He doesn't like most fresh fruit, but that's about it. He goes through phases, though, when he just doesn't want to eat what I cook. I know he likes it because he's eaten it before, but maybe he's just "not in the mood." He also goes through phases that seem like he never stops eating and will eat anything. So I have to assume he has hungrier times and not so hungry times.

Sunday through Wednesday this week, he refused to eat anything besides applesauce, Cheerios, cheese, and dill pickles. I didn't give him full meals of those things. So, by refusing to eat anything else, either he was going hungry, or he didn't have much appetite to begin with.

Thursday, we had pizza. The boy can eat some pizza. I cut some of the Roma tomato and green bell pepper into bite sized pieces for him, and he inhaled it. First veggies he'd eaten since Saturday (unless pickles count?). He got some of the meat, cheese, and crust, too, but when he started eating the veggies, I just kept putting them in front of him until he wouldn't eat them anymore.

Today it seems like he's back to his usual eating habits - eating from all the food groups, like a champ. Seems like having pizza snapped him out of his applesauce-Cheerios-cheese-pickles phase. Maybe he'll go through another phase next week, and we can try having pizza again to snap him out of it. This might not be such a bad thing...We like pizza.

feeding my baby

I sometimes find it helpful to compare how Nate eats with the way other babies eat, as far as how often, how much, and what they are eating. It's not like a competition or anything. It's just that I can get ideas from other moms about how I might better go about feeding my baby. So, I just thought I'd put this out there.

Since Nate was 4 months old, he's been eating 30 ounces of formula per day, in 5 6-oz bottles between the hours of 6 am and 6 pm. We've gradually added solid food meals, and now he is eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When we added the third meal, he started occasionally leaving his bottles unfinished. Many days, he would total 26 oz of formula, rather than his previous usual of 30. But, he wasn't leaving the same bottles unfinished every day. Sometimes it was his second and fourth bottles that he didn't finish, sometimes his first and fifth. Sometimes he finished all of them. We tried decreasing the amount we gave him with his solids meals, but he would sometimes still be hungry. It was totally unpredictable.

If that was unpredictable, what's happening now is a complete mystery. He has 3 teeth coming in. Two of them have just peeked through the gum. I saw them yesterday morning. The third is still below the gum. (These will be teeth 3, 4, and 5 for him, as his first 2 came in 5 months ago.) His mouth hurts, and I think it's making him not want his bottles.

Typically if he has less than 20 oz of formula, he will wake up hungry in the middle of the night. If he has 24 or more, he sleeps through the night. Between 20 and 24, it's a toss-up. I feel like right now we're always trying to get him to eat, all day long, trying to reach that magic number of 24 oz.

Today he had 19. But, I was able to get him to eat more solids. This is our ultimate goal anyway - over the next few months he should eat more solids, drink less milk. I'm hoping it works.

His previous schedule: 6 am bottle, 9 am puffs or cereal and bottle, 12 pm jar of veggies and bottle, 3 pm bottle, 6 pm jar of fruit and bottle. He wouldn't take the solids and bottles right after each other. We usually had to give him a 45-60 minute break. And the bottles were all 6 oz, until recently. Naps would be between the 6 & 9, 9 & 12, and 12 & 3 meals.

His schedule today: 6:45 am 6 oz bottle, 10:15 am puffs and 4 oz bottle (he didn't finish the bottle until close to 11), 2:30 pm jar of veggies, 4 pm 6 oz bottle, 5:15 pm jar and a half of fruit and veggies, 6:30 pm 3 oz bottle. Naps 8-10:15 am and 12:45-2:20 pm. What the heck?