Posted on October 19, 2008
In several aspects of typical toddler behavior, we are extremely lucky with Chloe. She is generally mild mannered, very sweet and cuddly, her “fits” don’t last long and are easily controlled through hugs and threats of “time out”, she is skilled in basic manners, and seems to enjoy learning new things.
However, her eating habits are the stuff of nightmares. Now, I am willing to take quite a bit of blame with this personality trait. I mean, I am a vegetarian primarily because I never really liked the taste of meat. Her daddy is also picky when it comes to food. Together, we created one heck of a picky eater.
This being said, I never really worry about Chloe’s nutrition. Our pediatrician has assured me that she is getting everything she needs (and this is even after I described what she is willing to eat in detail.)
She gets all of her fruits and vegetables by pure deception on my part. I give her juice laced with vegetables (the product is called “Vruit.”) I sneak fruits and vegetables into pancakes and muffins because the ONLY meal she is adventurous with is breakfast. I am lucky, she’ll eat any kind of pancake, muffin, waffle, and cereal. (She’s been known to enjoy a snack of Frosted Mini Wheats, sans milk. She just crunches away!) I recently discovered “Veggie Crisps,” chips made with vegetable puree. And the only mac and cheese she will eat is geared for the toddler pallet, and has carrots in it.
When it comes to protein, she gets everything she needs from milk, yogurt smoothies, cheese, chicken nuggets and fish sticks. That’s it. I never intended Chloe to be a vegetarian, so I have tried various other meats, but she won’t even TRY them.
It is just so frustrating that the child will not TRY anything new.
I can’t tell you how many people have given me suggestions on how to improve the variety of her diet. And, I have been more than willing to attempt a majority of these suggestions. Our latest (and thus far failed) attempt is to only cook one meal for dinner, and she is given what we are eating. Our child is a rare breed of stubborn, and she will opt to go to bed hungry then even take a SINGLE bite of what we offer her. Then, she eats like a maniac the next day, only to refuse to eat dinner again that night.
I have limited or omitted any snacks after 3pm (we eat dinner around fiveish.) As I mentioned, she is only offered what John and I are eating. And all we ask is for ONE bite. My philosophy has always been: One bite, and then “No, Thank you.” She has, thus far, refused. I even tried my somewhat pushy method of getting some of the food on her finger or on her lips so she has to lick it off, and still, she refuses.
So, this is my question: Should we just accept that she is going to be a picky eater, and try to get the nutrition into her that we know she will eat, or do we continue to push food with the hopes that eventually, one day she’ll give in and try it)? And if we should keep pushing it, any suggestions on how to make this more successful?
My gut tells me that Chloe is WAY too stubborn, and will only do things when she is ready. But, I also don’t want to bring up a child that is allowed to “call the shots.” And, quite frankly, I am tired of making two dinners every night.
Posted on October 15, 2008
In my effort to lose the last of the ten pounds I regained, I decided to join the Mom’s walking club. It seemed easy enough. On Mondays, I will walk with them on a trail near Chloe’s school, so I can drop her off and go work out. On Wednesdays, until I add another day of school, she can ride in the stroller while I am walking.
We were on a different trail last Wednesday, and her stroller made it difficult, but it certainly wasn’t an issue. (We have a Maclaren umbrella stroller that folds up quite nicely for all of our travels.) Today, we walked on the exact same trail I did on Monday without her. On Monday, I added another lap after all the other mom’s were done, because they were pushing strollers and they ran out of steam. I was like, “This is so easy!”
Today, with the stroller, I was the one huffing and puffing, struggling to get her oh so fancy and lightweight stroller through the not so forgiving sand. Two of the mom’s had all terrain jogging strollers, and they left another mom and myself literally in the dust. Ellen was one of the mom’s with the jogging stroller, and she switched with me for a couple of seconds so I could see the difference, it was unbelievable! They barely even had to push!
I just don’t understand why someone can’t invent a decent priced all-terrain stroller that is also light weight and can easily fit in a small stroller bag for travel. I mean, come on people! We’ve sent humans into space, for pete’s sake! How difficult can it possibly be?
For now, I have the following options: The huge and cumbersome travel system stroller that you can snap your carseat into when you child is small, a light weight umbrella stroller that travels easily, or a all terrain jogging stroller that takes up the entire back of your car. In a perfect world, I would love to have all three! I just am not sure I want to invest another $100 or more on a jogging stroller just so my work out is easier.
Oh, and then if we decide to have another kid, we’ll probably end up buying yet ANOTHER stroller that will hold two kids. It never ends.
Posted on October 14, 2008
Two Tinker Bell fairies from the Disney Store.
Oh, they seem harmless enough. They’re adorable with their cute little fairy outfits, fairy wings and fairy shoes. All their limbs are flexible. My princess loves her some posable dolls! They were even on sale, what could possibly go wrong?
EVERYTHING is removable! Both John and I scoured our house last night for one of the fairy’s shoes. And this morning I have spent the first hour of us being awake redressing the fairies, reattaching each of their wings at least five times, and searching in vain for yet another lost shoe. I HATE THOSE DAMN FAIRIES!
Of course she loves them. They’re her favorite toy, ever! The world will end if I can’t find that teeny tiny shoe.
(sob)
Posted on October 12, 2008
And I was running away from the enemy who had just discovered me. My accomplice and I were stumbling up the stairs in an abandoned building, desperately trying to reach the top where our contact would retrieve us from the roof. The building started crumbling around us and suddenly all the lights went out. The only illumination was that from the spotlights of our foe shining through the holes in the walls and the floors. Just as my accomplice reached the top stair and turned back to look at me, the rest of the stairs disintegrated under me. He grabbed my hand just as I was about to fall and pulled me up onto the landing. We turned to run down the hallway to the next stair case, when…
Mommy! Mommy, where aaaaare you? Mommy, awaaaaaaake!
It’s as if somebody turned off the TV show right as it was starting to get good. My pulse was racing, I was scared, and yet dying to find out what would happen next. I look at John lying next to me. Nothing, he didn’t hear her. He didn’t even flinch. I look at the clock, 4:12 am. Sighing, I drag myself out of bed, grasp around for my glasses, and go into Chloe’s room.
Its too early, baby, time to go back to sleep.
I lead her back to her bed, put her covers on, and go back to my own bed.
There is no way I am ever going to get that dream back.
Posted on October 9, 2008
Firstly, if you read this, and you know who you are, I apologize if I offend, but I need to get it off my chest.
There is a mother in my mom’s group who has sort of befriended me and lately we have been talking about the issues she is having with her son. He seems to be falling off the developmental curve in some fundamental areas, and her doctor recommended that she should have him tested for early intervention. He is only 16 months old, so I can understand her assertion that he may just be a late bloomer and that all of this may be premature. He is not walking, talking, or sleeping through the night. He still puts everything in his mouth and apparently is still drooling. (This is what she tells me anyway, I have spent a little time with him, and I didn’t see him drool.) They have already discovered that he is seriously near sighted and because of this he has to wear glasses and like you would expect, he doesn’t like them so he constantly takes them off.
He seems to be adapting to his environment. I suspect he doesn’t walk because he doesn’t have to. He is extremely mobile using cruising, crawling and climbing to explore his surroundings. But sleeping through the night and his language skills are major issues. She is also not REALLY sure how much he understands. She insists he is a non-compliant child and so it is difficult to accurately assess what he does and doesn’t know.
The thing that blows my mind is that she seems to really disregard people’s advice when it comes to helping her son improve his skills. The conversation started with sleeping through the night. At that time I was there with another mother who has three children. We were both throwing out ideas on how she could develop a bedtime routine. “He wouldn’t have the patience for that” Reading him stories. “He would never pay attention to the book.” Let him cry it out. “He never learned how to self soothe, so he would cry all night.” And on and on.
When we were talking about improving his language skills, we were actually walking on a nature trail. I was pointing out the green leaves on the trees to him. She said to me, “That’s just a waste of time, he’s not going to notice any of those things, he is just looking at you.”
I felt a little stunned. Here she is complaining that her kid is not developing language in one breath, and then in another telling me it is a waste of time to talk to him. Now, whether or not he is developmentally delayed is an issue that will be decided later when he is a bit older, but that doesn’t mean that she can’t start working on some of those things NOW. I was worried when Chloe was behind with her physical milestones, so I put her in Gymboree and made sure we played on playgrounds, and now I have her in a gymnastics program so that she can work on her gross motor skills. I can’t imagine saying, “Oh, she’s not good at climbing so I am not going to take her to a park.”
She has also stated that she’s going to wait to take him to the aquarium or the zoo until he is older. “Right now, all he does is people watch.” And that’s a bad thing?
And this is an intelligent woman, she’s a DOCTOR for pete’s sake.
She obviously loves her son. She had him tested and is arranging speech and occupational therapy for him. I just really hope that she listens to what the professionals have to say so that she CAN actually help him. Otherwise, it will be an exercise in futility.
Posted on October 7, 2008
It is getting so that I can’t tell who is being more whiny, Chloe or me. I think, in all fairness, she starts it. She gets frustrated because I am not playing one of the games she just invented EXACTLY the way she wants me to. So, she starts whining. Then I get tired of her whining and I start whining back. Before I know it, she is scowling in time out and I am pouting on the couch (in my own version of time out.)
I know I shouldn’t let my two year old boss me around, and it frustrates me when she does. But, at the same time, I want to feed her creativity and “play” with her when she comes up with these games. I am just having a hard time with finding the limit between her being bossy, and her trying to engage me in one of her games.
I really do enjoy playing with her, and even sitting there watching her play. She is getting more and more creative, and its fun to watch how her mind works. She does things that are completely unexpected, and I honestly can’t wait to see what she is going to do next.
It is unbelievably frustrating, though, when I go out of my way to try and make sure she is having fun, and all she does is boss me around and cry when I don’t do what she wants me to. Time out really works for her, she always comes out of it with a more compliant and positive attitude. I hate having to resort to that. I don’t want to punish her for expressing her frustration. Once she starts though, she just doesn’t stop, and threatening or giving her a time out is the only way I have found to make her stop.
Anyway, generally, she is a really good kid. And I know I should be grateful that I have a sweet, caring, cuddly child that wants to spend time with me. But nobody has any fun once the whining begins.
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