Picky Eaters: Part 1 - No More Snacks

The first thing I decided to do for my picky eaters was take away their snacks.  I'm not talking about starving them, but they really don't NEED cheerios on the ride home from preschool.  Besides, lunch is made as soon as we get home.  They don't need to eat pretzels and goldfish in our living room, casually munching all afternoon long.  They'd be snacking up until dinner.  Surprise surprise, they weren't hungry for dinner.  So, I did the unthinkable with a 3 year old and 2 year old. 

Day 1 was met with whining almost nonstop, all day long.  "Mama, I want goooooooldfiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish" "I neeeeeeeeeed pretzels" and my favorite "I'm huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuungry" which was uttered only 5 minutes after finishing lunch assuring me she was full.  By the time dinnertime rolled around, I was in full 'ignore the whine' mode.  I made an easy and simple dinner that I KNEW they both liked.  Oh, yea, that worked well. 

Bean Sprout happily devoured her entire dinner.  I was thrilled.  She was then allowed to eat her biscuits since she finished her dinner.  Peanut yelled and screamed at me.. for an hour.  My favorite line from the night was she wouldn't eat dinner because she was hungry.  I wish I could make this up.  She finally ate maybe a quarter of her dinner.  With that much eaten, she happily looked at me and asked for her biscuit.  The response was a big fat NO.  Que the waterworks.  I simply ignored her and took her food away.  We did our typical bath and bedtime routine.  Peanut begged for snacks, but I responded by saying that she had her chance to eat her dinner and she choose not to.  There would be no snacks before or in bed.

Day 2 went much better.  Peanut still asked for snacks more than I wanted.  But she knew I wasn't giving in with any snacks.  They ate a very large breakfast.  It's amazing how hungry you are when you refuse dinner.  I decided on an early lunch around 11, since we haven't gotten too used to going all morning without snacks.  I'll eventually shift that time back to 12:30 which will work much better with Peanut's school schedule.  Both girls ate everything that was on their plate.  By 2, they were once again whining.  I knew there was no way they were making it to 5 for dinner.  So I gave both a healthy serving of fruit.  Bean Sprout, once again, ate everything.  Peanut decided she didn't want grapes.  So once we got to dinner, Peanut ate over half of the 'chicken' I gave her.  Yea, it was pork, and she had no clue.  Bean Sprout only ate the rice, but she did try the 'chicken' several times.  She hasn't tasted it enough to like it yet.  No one asked for snacks at bedtime, surprisingly!

I am not allowing her to 'trade' her food once she's sitting in her chair.  Tomorrow, when I make our weekly meal plan, I will enlist the girls to help me make different lists.  We will make a different dish each night and they will always have something that I know they like/have eaten before.  Once we get into our routine of no snacking and eating the whole dinner, then we'll start introducing new foods.  Here's to hoping we can continue moving forward and the girls start being much better with food.  And for me to eat better!

Picky Eaters: Preview

I may have the pickiest eaters in the country.  Peanut won't even eat ice cream...  No, that's not an exaggeration either!  Hubby and I are exhausted every night after the dinner battle with her. She will eventually eat.  For instance, one night, I made plain pasta noodles.  Nothing else on them.  Bean Sprout devoured them almost immediately, but Peanut was still sitting over an hour later, picking at them.  At first, it was "I don't like pasta!"  Then, we heard the "but it's icky" and "I'm too full."  This kid would live on goldfish and cheerios if she could.  She'd also live on strawberries.  Too bad those aren't in season.

Unfortunately, Bean Sprout has begun picking up on her sister's antics.  She had loved rice.  All of a sudden, it was "No!  I don't like that!"  WHAT?!  How do you not like rice?  Then it hit me.  Neither did Peanut.  Facepalm.  I was not doing this again with child #2, and I refuse to have child #3 go down this road once he starts eating.  

I've always chalked Peanut's picky eating to how I was a kid.  I was so picky.  I still will choose chicken fingers and mozzarella sticks over a main entree at a restaurant!  So we're all going to change the way we eat in this household (that will include RoBrotz too, but he doesn't know it yet).  

I'm reading "French Kids Eat Everything" by Karen Le Billon.  I'm starting to look at food, and eating food with my kids in a whole new light.  Over the next few weeks or maybe even months, I'll be updating my blog with our eating habits.  I want to instill healthy eating habits in my children.  It will be a long process and take a lot of work on my end, but I truly believe that it will be worth it to have children who want to eat, and not just snack.

From French Kids Eat Everything

Happy New Year

Goals for this year, well, I have a lot.  I have ones for financial, fitness, cleaning/organization, the kids, and for my relationship with my wonderful hubby.  Last year got away from me, especially with the pregnancy.  Hubby and I went through a lot but we're stronger now than ever.  I still have things to work on because he deserves the very best of what I can give him.

Financial Goals include getting my budget to be as accurate as possible, including home/car maintenance, gifts, outings especially our trips to the cabin, clothing, exercise, and tithing.  We want to pay off the rest of our debt by the end of the year and I would really like to attend a Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University (luckily, our church will be holding it soon).  We will eventually need to move from our current home.  We also would like to take the kids to Disney in the next few years.  I don't want to break the bank and I'd like to have some extra cushions in case something happens.  I still need to get myself life insurance too.  And I'm not going to purchase any new yarn unless I absolutely need more for a project over on Brotz Creations.

Fitness Goals are to be able to run a 5K, though not necessarily doing one, make it to SLAG at least once a week for either Dumbell Diva or LeBarre (ideally, I'd like to get there twice a week for both classes, but sometimes with 3 kids that are under 4, it's near impossible), do at least 15-30 minutes of exercise a day, and possibly get certified in another class.  I'm already certified in LeBarre.  I also have Eating and Nutrition Goals which include eventually cutting out the need for candy and chips, eating out only twice per month, eat more fruit, keep my other blog (I Hate Healthy Food) updated with recipes we try and progress of getting the little ones to eat, to eat Breakfast daily and no coffee isn't breakfast, cutting out soda (I love my cherry cokes), and do a meal plan.  Making a meal plan will help the financial goals too since I seem to go over our food budget every week (partially due to all our food allergies).  And my other goal is to not care as much what the scale says.  My amazing hubby loves me the way that I am.  I'm very blessed that he loves my body even after I gained way too much while pregnant with Little Man!

Cleaning and Organizing goals are mostly to keep up with the house.  Laundry will need to be done daily until Little Man stops spitting up so much.  I have completed a binder to help me keep track of daily and weekly tasks.  My friend introduced me to Clean Mama.  I fell in love with her style and created my own task lists.  Don't forget, if you put your check lists inside those plastic sheet protectors, you can use a dry erase pen on it and wipe it off every week!  We will also get the kids' bedrooms cleaned out and organize.  Right now, Little Man's room is one big toysplosion.  Seriously, I shudder every time I walk past and my OCD goes nuts.  I also need to get my yarn reorganized!

As for my kids and hubby, well, I always need to be a better person.  I worry that I'll screw up my kids (isn't this every normal mom's worry).  I want to be better with consistency with discipline for them and keep my temper in check.  I want to spend more time teaching them to do things I enjoy (especially since Peanut's getting older and better with everything).  It's hard to divide my attention between the 3 to make sure they all feel like they're getting time with Mama in.  Not to mention making sure I have enough time and energy to devote to my husband.  There are days I know he looks forward to going back to work when all the kids are in meltdown mode and I haven't slept well the night before.  When I don't get my sleep, I know I can be a very cranky person.  Luckily, Little Man loves to sleep.  We need to have date nights, and I love being able to spend some time with my husband away from the kids.

Also, I want to be able to spend even more time in the Word.  God has blessed me so much even though I feel unworthy of His love and grace.  I have started praying daily, multiple times a day.  I say prayers of thanksgiving when everyone is behaved and we're all happy, when we make it out of the house without me yelling or any fighting from the kids, when we make it early to any place.  I pray for a lot of patience not to scream at my kids when I've had to ask for them to do something for the umpteenth time, when they fight or whine, or screech.  I will be doing a devotional study with my friends online.  These ladies are women that I met online when I was pregnant with Peanut.  We've known one another for over 4 years now and have become sounding boards of ideas and parenting techniques.  They are some of my closest friends I have.

I know that my goals seem like a ton.  They aren't resolutions but things that I already have started doing and want to continue.  I tend to get burnt out and bored easily, but I want to continue these items throughout the year.  Praise God that I will be able to do so!