And We're Off!

PHEW! I have spent most of last night and all of this morning packing and repacking and consolidating and reconsolidating so that we could fit practically the entire contents of our house into the back end of our minivan... Because -- we're going camping! We are off to Lake George for a long weekend with our extended family! Catherine thought I should take a picture of the back of the van, all packed up, and put it here on the blog saying, "See you next week!" but alas, the camera is in some bag, somewhere in the back of the van... Use your imaginations!

Have a great weekend and we'll catch up next week!

The Battle of the Fussy Eater

Sigh... We had such fun plans for tonight, my girl and I. We've had the premiere of Disney's "Camp Rock" written on our calendar for at least a month. Movie night with popcorn and the Jonas Brothers -- what could be better?

We had a busy day with my girl off at school, my husband and I both home and running errands all over town in preparation for our family vacation this coming week. We got home late, with a minivan full of bags to unload and sort and put away. I began to make dinner - one of my hubby's favorites - pan-seared tilapia. When I made it about a month ago, both of the girls tried it -- my older daughter tried it begrudgingly, but then admitted, "Ok, I liked it!" So after a week of thrown together meals and take-out, I thought it would be nice to make a good dinner and I didn't anticipate any problems with this one.

Well! Who knew? My girl sees me getting dinner ready and she asks what I am making. I tell her, and she grimaces and I remind her that she tried it last time and liked it. Doesn't matter -- she is turning her nose up at it tonight. I decide, fine, I will make our stand-by, chicken nuggets, for the girls but they can each have a small bite of the fish. This is what my grandmother famously (in our family) called a "no thank you helping." You could dislike whatever you wanted to, but you had to at least take a small bite, just to try it. And actually, I have read recently that it is a good idea to keep introducing things to your child to try and get them out of the fussy-eating rut. Anyway, we sat down to dinner, and I was already being much easier going about dinner than I was in the mood to be -- it had been a long day, and it was a very involved meal to make, and I really have no desire to be a short order cook and make different meals for everyone. But, to keep the peace, out came the chicken nuggets. I put a small piece of fish on both girls plates, and my little one munched on everything on her plate without argument. Her older sister, moaned and groaned her way through dinner -- to the complete annoyance of both of her parents!

My husband, wonderful man and father that he is, is very tired lately, and he is more inclined to give up the fight (in irritation) so that we can move on with our lives. I, on the otherhand, am tired of giving in, especially when I don't feel that the request is unreasonable -- like taking one bite of the dinner that everyone else is eating. After much fussing and drama, my husband told my girl that if she did not eat the one bite, there would be no popcorn (part of the movie night). So, she sat for another 10 minutes (we were already 10 minutes into her huffing and puffing over the one bite of fish) with the food on her fork, held up toward her mouth, her nose plugged because she was complaining that the fish smelled funny (it really didn't) and finally, my husband had had it and he took the fork out of her hand and dumped the piece of fish in the garbage and told her "No movie - time for bed!" Of course, then the real drama starts -- her jumping up and saying, "No, I'll eat it!" but it's in the garbage -- no turning back from there! And he's telling her to get ready for bed and she's crying, and frankly, I was practically crying, because this was supposed to be such a fun night that she and I had looked forward to, and I never like to see my girl disappointed. She went upstairs and I said to him (when she was out of earshot, of course), "Why did you have to do that?" and he said, "I wasn't going to have her sit there ALL night with her nose plugged, whining about not wanting to take one little bite of her dinner!" I told him, "I feel bad -- the night's ruined, all over the fish! But really, she liked it last month -- I didn't think one bite was unreasonable!" And he reassured me that no, I was not being unreasonable. Still, I felt terrible.

I went up to her room a little while later and we talked and she was really pretty good about the whole thing. I explained that I was disappointed because it was such a simple request, and she could have easily done it and we could have been downstairs snuggling with a bowl of popcorn and watching her movie.

I taped the movie and on Tuesday night, after her last day of school and the night before our vacation, she and I will have our movie night together.

It's hard to be the parent of a fussy eater. I feel like it's a constant battle not just to introduce her to new foods, but to make sure that she is getting healthy, well-rounded meals. This is a child who will only eat grapes, apples, and bananas for fruit. That's it! And even that is iffy. The other morning I got her to have a banana with breakfast (I started this game about who gets the first bite of the banana -- we both think that's the best part!) and there was the teensy-tiniest little brown spot about 2/3's of the way down and she wanted to throw the whole thing out -- didn't want to touch it! I convinced her to at least at down to that point... Her idea of veggies are cucumbers and corn, which both have about zero nutritional value in them. I have tried a ton of different ways to get her to branch out and try different fruits and veggies -- it really is a tiring battle! Sometimes you have to pick your battles, and maybe tonight was not the best time for mine.

What ideas do you have for getting a fussy eater to try new things?

Sister, Sister

I must admit -- I am a little jealous of my girls... I am an only child, and while at times it was great not having to share my things, and getting all the attention from my parents, sometimes it was a real bummer, not having someone to share my things with and getting ALL the attention from my parents! ;)

I think my girls are SO lucky to have each other, and each day I see them growing closer together and having more opportunities to do things together. With the age difference (5-1/2 years), I always worried that they wouldn't be able to play together, but as our little one grows they seem to enjoy each other's company more and more. Except when they are getting on each other's nerves, of course... But that's a sibling thing, right? Yesterday afternoon when my older daughter got home from school, she decided that she wanted to get into her jammies and snuggle up on the couch with Mommy (who was home sick from work) and her 10 Webkinz... Well, the little one saw this and she wanted in on the fun, too! So she came over with her own blanket, and hoisted herself up onto the couch and snuggled in with her sister. A few minutes later, she reached over nonchalantly, picked up one of her sister's Webkinz, and hefted it over her shoulder and onto the floor behind the couch. "KIKI!" my older daughter shouted, "NO, NO!" And she got up, walked around the couch and the end table and the chair, and went behind us to pick up the fallen Webkinz. As she was on her way back to her snuggly spot on couch, Kiki picked up another Webkinz and tossed it over -- all the while keeping her face totally expressionless, not turning to look where she was dropping the stuffed animal, all just very casual. So her sister gets back to her spot on the couch, sees that yet another Webkinz was missing, shouted again, and got up and went back around the couch to save it. And once again, while she had her back turned and was on her way back around -- you guessed it, another one was tossed. I watched this whole thing for at least 5 or 6 turns and finally my little one started giggling and her older sister caught on to the game and they played this back and forth for quite some time. I was cracking up -- it was quite entertaining!

Later, the two of them were sitting side by side at the kitchen table trying to share the Little People house and the Little People -- they had their moments, but sharing is a relatively new concept to both of them, so there were some conflicts! Enter Mom with the patented, "If you can't share nicely, then no one will play with it!"

But for the most part, they are sweet, loving sisters and I couldn't be more thrilled with the special relationship that they share. When we were at our daughter's dance recital last weekend, I thought the most touching moment (caught on the dvd that we purchased, thankfully!!) was at the end of the first performance, when all the girls took their final pose, and my girl had her arms up in the air in almost a circle over her head, fingers touching gracefully (if I had gone to dance class, I might be able to tell you what that position is...). Our little one, completely excited about seeing her sister on stage yelled, "LULU" (really, my daughters have beautiful first names, I'm not sure where they got these nicknames from...) and Lulu, hearing her little sister, gently waved the fingers on her one hand - not breaking her pose - to show her sister that she heard her. It was SO sweet, I thought I would about burst!

On Father's Day, my oldest daughter said to me at bedtime, "Mommy, I wish there was a Sibling Day, like how they have Mother's Day and Father's Day. So we could make a cake and make cards and show our siblings how much we love them!" Well, my dear, you can bet that Mommy will be implementing that new holiday in our house! And of course, I'll be happy to tell you all about it! :)

A Belated Happy Father's Day!

A belated Happy Father's Day wish to all the great dads out there! And a special salute to the two great dads in my life! I am blessed with a wonderful father of my own, who has been there through thick and thin with me, and who is now an irreplaceable figure in my daughters lives. I couldn't ask for a better father and grandfather to my girls!

And the icing on the cake for me, is that somehow I found a wonderful husband who is an equally great father to our daughters! I may act like I can do it all and like I have all the answers -- but I wouldn't and couldn't do it without him!

By the Light of the Silvery Moon...

If only! I love that the nice weather is here, and I love summer, but... If only it didn't stay light so long! I know, I know, that's a good thing -- except when I try to put my children to bed! Last night and tonight my oldest has told me over and over, "But it's still DAY out!" Um, no, it's just still a little light out. It's 8:30 -- bedtime!

(BTW - thanks to www.webweaver.nu for this great FREE moon graphic!)