She Says… The Hollow Leg

We’re in the middle of one of those crazy voracious toddler eating phases. The last few days, it feels like Owen is eating us out of house and home. What am I going to do when he’s a teenager? Or with TWO teenage boys in the house?! Sigh.

Each breakfast lasted nearly an hour this past weekend, because Owen just kept saying, “I’m still hungry!”. On Sunday he started with his usual:

• Milk (plus an extra half cup upon his request)
• Protein (a hard-boiled egg)
• Carb/starch (a pancake with ground flax)
• Fruit (a clementine)

Still hungry.

• Cheese stick
• Fruit/veggie/almond milk smoothie that Benjamin and I were having
• Dry cereal

Still hungry.

• Handful of pistachios

And then I cut him off. I thought maybe he was just front-loading his food, like I often do (I eat a huge breakfast, smaller lunch, and eventually need a smaller dinner… so I don’t sweat it or starve myself if I’m super hungry in the morning, since it usually evens out). But then at lunch the same thing happened (despite doing my best to fill his belly with black beans, a hummus wrap, pear slices and green and red peppers). And I’m pretty sure he had his usual two snacks a day, also.

By dinner I thought he would have had enough, but no.

• Salmon
• Rice made with coconut milk
• Broccoli
• Milk

Then he was ready for his “treat”, since he gobbled his dinner.

• Easter marshmallow

Still hungry.

• Applesauce
• Dry cereal

Still hungry.

• Almonds

The kid is a vacuum. Thankfully he pretty much says “Ummmm… yes!” to whatever I offer when he grins and says, “I’m still hungry”, so at least he’s eating whatever I put in front of him.

Growth spurt, much?!

She Says… The Easter Bunny Came!

Eggs were dyed…

and eaten.

The Easter basket was hidden (in the bathtub!)…

… found,

… and immediately dug through.

Bellies were filled. Well, mine with a big, active baby (and a few Peeps and peanut butter eggs) and Owen’s with more chocolate and sugar than his little body has ever experienced.

I regulated the treats well at home (only put 2 Peeps and 2 marshmallows in the basket, allowed him to choose ONE to have when he opened his basket, and then put the rest away as special treats to be awarded after eating good dinners).

But I restrained myself from controlling him while we let him go wild on an Easter egg hunt at his Grammy and Grampy’s. I’m working on loosening my grip on stuff like this. Though they only put treats in a few of the eggs, Owen promptly stuffed his face with waaaaay more chocolate than he’d ever eaten in a day and didn’t eat a bite of dinner that night.

On the ride home Owen started whining that he was hungry… then that he had to poop… then that he was going to be sick. Clearly his “dinner” of sugar didn’t sit very well.

But in the end we made it home without any bodily fluid accidents and he slept like a rock, despite no dinner, a late bedtime and no bath (which may be the first time we’ve ever skipped bath since he was 4 months old).

Easter WIN.

She Says… Polite But Annoying

Owen has a new habit. And I’m not really sure where it started, or if he even has any idea how “proper” he’s being. All of a sudden, he wants to wait for everyone in the house to sit down before he starts eating. Mr. Manners, I tell you. (Ha! Hardly.).

Now before you start “awww”ing, let me tell you how this usually plays out. At breakfast, I’m used to getting his food together first so he is occupied and entertained while I make my own breakfast. It used to work out great — he would chatter away and eat his little tiny pieces one at a time while I made my oatmeal or eggs or cereal and we would both generally finish eating around the same time. Now he’s all “I wanna wait for you, Mommy!” “Can you sit?” “Are you ready yet?” “Can you sit?” “Where’s your breakfast?”  “Can you sit down next to me, please?” “What are you having?” “Can you sit?”. I’m trying to use the opportunity to teach waiting and patience and all of those other skills that are elusive to a 2 year old. But honestly? The incessant questioning when I just want to sit and eat grates on my nerves. JUST EAT, CHILD. PUT FOOD IN YOUR MOUTH AND STOP TALKING FOR A SPLIT SECOND.

At lunch it’s a similar scene. Usually we’re coming back in from a walk or a morning at the playground or running errands, and it’s a bit of a hodge podge of eating and putting away groceries or cutting veggies for a salad and scrambling to make sure we have time to finish before naptime. We generally do sit together and eat (lest you think we’re always eating on the run… we’re not), but someone’s lunch has to be ready first, and the choice has become 1. make my own lunch first and risk the I’m-so-hungry-feed-me-now-meltdown, or 2. make his lunch first and try my best to ignore the sit-down-with-me-I’m-not-eating-until-you-sit, uber-polite-but-also-very-annoying habit.

Dinner is easier, because we always sit at the table as a family and eat together. Perhaps that’s what he’s trying to tell me after all — that he likes sitting and eating together and would like to do it for every meal. Well, so would I if someone else was doing the cooking and cleaning

All in all I’m sure it’s not the most annoying thing he’ll ever do (far from it!), but for now it’s right up there with YELLING “excuse me!” when I’m talking to someone. Polite (he’s saying the right words to be polite), but incredibly annoying (his delivery could use some work).

I guess they have to start somewhere.

What other polite but annoying habits do I have to look forward to?!

She Says… Ladies Who Lunch

After I posted Owen’s cutesy Valentine’s Day lunch I got a comment asking me for more info about what I usually send for him for lunch at school. In fact, I posted the same picture on my personal Facebook page and it started a long conversation about the same sort of topic (“what is that?” “how do you make it?” “where did you get that cute lunchbox?”). Apparently this is a hot topic!

It’s a hot topic that I don’t touch very often because I know talking about food can bring out strong emotions in some people. Yes, many mamas out there would simply like to see what others are sending for toddler/kid lunches to get ideas for themselves (I fall into this camp!), but I have noticed that when I have posted about food in the past it either elicits criticism of my own choices, or criticism that it seems like I am judging other peoples’ food choices if they don’t eat just like me (ahem, this post).

So before I even broach the subject of food, I’d like to say: I think a lot about what I feed my family and what I eat. We have some dietary restrictions (with Benjamin and Owen both eating strictly gluten free, which means not even using products that say “processed in a facility with wheat”). I have a philosophy that I do my best to follow, which includes eating mostly whole, unprocessed foods. We eat snacks out of bags and frozen chicken nuggets once in a while, and I don’t consider this to be “cheating” or “bad” or detrimental to our overall health. That said, I am NOT judging you for how you eat, or how you feed your kids. We all make choices for different reasons. Please don’t hate on mine, and I won’t hate on yours.

So for those of you who want to hear how feeding Owen is going these days WITHOUT judging, here it is! On a normal day, he eats breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks. He has milk before breakfast and at lunch and dinner. Now that he’s using an open cup at lunch and dinner, he drinks FAR less milk than he used to, and water in between meals. I am very blessed to have a good eater. Sure, he’s gone through picky phases and throwing food on the floor phases and food strike stages, but overall he is an adventurous and open-minded little foodie. We have established that if there’s something he doesn’t want to eat, he has to take one “no thank you bite” before he can refuse it. Recently we’ve started introducing treats after dinner like “special cereal” (Honey Nut Chex), animal crackers, fruit, cookies or a few mini marshmallows.

Breakfast consists of generally the same 3 buckets. Grains (something bread-y like waffles or pancakes, which we make ahead of time and freeze, Rice or Corn Chex cereal, zucchini/banana bread, etc.), protein (eggs, yogurt, cheese), and fruit.

Lunch is usually a protein (generally leftover dinner protein, gluten free lunch meat, cheese, beans, tofu, etc.), a veggie, and “something else” (which could be another veggie, a fruit, a grain-y side like rice or quinoa, nuts/seeds/dried fruit, etc.).

Leftover roast chicken, cheese stick and red/green peppers.

Edamame, tofu & rice noodles with a sesame/soy sauce from the previous night’s dinner, and steamed sugar snap peas.

Cheese, tomatoes, broccoli/cauliflower, lemon quinoa with parsley & feta.

I love seeing the notes his teachers write about how much of everything he ate. Recently he’s been not eating the veggies that he eats without issue at home, but in the past it was the complete opposite (he would eat everything at school and nothing at home). I don’t sweat it. This is what I offer him. Whatever he eats, he eats. Whatever he doesn’t, he doesn’t.

Dinner is usually a protein (beef, poultry, fish, tofu, beans — since the celiac diagnosis, we have been eating more meat than we did before), a veggie and “something else” (usually a starchy veggie like sweet potatoes or grain like rice, quinoa, pasta or toasted bread).

Snacks are usually a fruit/veggie and something crunchy (pretzels, popcorn, cereal, granola bar). At home I also include nuts/seeds here, but his school is nut free, so we save those snacks for home.

So far this method has been working out really well for us. Owen will even ask me sometimes, “What has protein in it?”. Whenever  possible I give him choices like, “For protein for breakfast, do you want cheese or eggs?”. I’m hoping it gives him an idea of how to balance his own meals when that day comes.

What do you send your kids for lunch? I would love to hear your ideas! I love to check out sites like Weelicious and 100 Days of Real Food for tips as well.

P.S. Those cute bento box containers that I use for his lunch are called LunchBots and are sold on Amazon. They are the perfect size for portioned breakfasts and lunches!

She Says… In the Kitchen

I only blogged twice so far this week. You probably didn’t even notice, but I did, as I usually try to blog every day during the week. But you know what I did do? Everything else.

I am finally feeling like myself again after the awful flu-that-never-ended, then the subsequent sinus infection and then dealing with the lovely side effects from my antibiotics. Dudes, I was “not myself” for over 2 weeks. I have never in my life been sick for that long. Especially not while pregnant, so I couldn’t take any of the good drugs. I stopped whining about it after the first few days, because, really, who wants to read that for two weeks straight? Not me. But alas, it is over, and I spent this week getting everything done.

I worked. A lot. I exercised. A lot more than usual. I meal planned and cooked really delicious dinners. Every night. I walked the dog, despite the cold temps and the fact that I really just wanted to stay warm inside. I even had enough energy to stay up and watch tv with Benjamin until a semi-normal bedtime (but we all know I still go to bed with the grandmas). I tackled piles of papers in my office and errands I had been meaning to run but never found the time. I did laundry and folded it in the same day. All in all, rocked my To Do lists.

It feels so good to be back in the land of the living.

For those who care, I thought I’d share what I made for dinners the last few nights. A while back I tried to do a “what we ate for dinner” thing at the end of my posts, but it only lasted a week or two because it was time consuming and hard to remember, and sometimes I don’t want you to know we ate Annie’s mac n’ cheese from a box, even if it is gluten free. We still eat dinner at 5:45pm with Owen, and we generally don’t pick him up from daycare until 5:00pm, which means that dinners around here have to be fast, easy and still gluten free and made from mostly, if not all, whole foods.

• Pot roast with carrots, onions and celery (I adapted The Pioneer Woman’s awesome recipe to work in a slow cooker). This is in my slow cooker right now in preparation for the snowstorm that has already started outside. Warm comfort food that will be ready with little to no prep! I’ll serve with gluten free noodles, I think.
• Middle Eastern Garlic Chicken. I used breasts and popped it all in my slow cooker yesterday. Made extra for lunch leftovers too. We had parmesan risotto and steamed frozen veggies on the side.
• Turkey meatloaf loaded with shredded veggies, steamed sweet potatoes and green beans.
• Quinoa salad with tomatoes, feta, peas and spinach (I just cooked plain quinoa, mixed it all together and added a splash of Italian dressing for “sauce) and grilled sausages. We had cucumber slices on the side.
• Tofu stir fry over brown rice.
• Sesame-crusted lemon pepper tilapia. Just sprinkle tilapia filets with lemon pepper seasoning and sesame seeds, then saute in a pan with olive oil until they are cooked through. We had mashed cauliflower (made like mashed potatoes) and steamed frozen veggies on the side.

I also made some gluten free zucchini bread (my fave recipe is here) and homemade yogurt (we make our own because Benjamin can’t tolerate lactose due to his celiac disease, and it’s very cost-effective and yummy to make our own — if you ferment for 24 hours there’s no lactose!). I’ve been on a cooking kick!

Tomorrow Owen and I are going to bake me a birthday cake. It’s the big 3-0. My birthday present so far is this crazy blizzard that is likely cancelling my birthday party. Wouldn’t be the first time my party has been snowed out. I was born in the middle of a blizzard too! I sure am glad I’m not delivering my baby in the midst of this nasty storm. I’ll be happy to celebrate with my favorite boys over gluten free funfetti cake tomorrow.

Stay safe through the storm, if you’re in the Northeast!

She Says… Dinnertime Confessions

No, I don’t mean confessing that I’ve barely cooked dinner the last few nights, despite loving to cook (which, cough, may or may not be true, cough). I mean a different kind of dinnertime confessions.

We’ve been doing “family dinner” for a while now. And while sometimes (OFTEN!), it is quite the scramble to get a hot meal on the table at 5:45pm after a full day of work, it is always worth it. The past few days Benjamin has been away on a trip so it has just been Owen and I (hence the little to no cooking). We sit at the barstools in the kitchen instead of in our dining room and chat.

It is HILARIOUS to “chat” with a 2 year old.

Over the last few days during our one-on-one gossip sessions, I’ve gotten to hear all kinds of dirt. “Carter had cereal for breakfast.” “Caleb’s mommy has a baby in her belly!”. “I pushed Tristan on the playground today.” “I got a sticker from the sign language teacher. Do you know the sign for butterfly, Mommy? It’s like dis.” “Look – green beans on my fingers!” “My plate is purple. Corin LOVES purple.” “After dinner can you play with me upstairs?” “Old McDonald had a farm…” “Can we set up a playdate at Keira’s house? She has lots of toys? We should ask her Mommy.”

I jump in and ask questions and respond to each statement. We actually converse. It’s amazing. He answers questions so honestly and matter-of-factly, it just kills me. The other day at school, for the first time IN HIS ENTIRE LIFE (I think), he didn’t nap. Like, not at all. When he got home I asked him, “Why didn’t you nap today, buddy? What were you doing instead of napping?”. “Talkin’ to Tristan”. Ha. At least he’s honest.

These little dinnertime chats have become my favorite part of the day. I love hearing what things he remembers to tell me, or the questions he asks. The questions are so honest and so brilliant and such a glimpse into the fascinating world of the two year old brain. This morning on our walk to school he noticed a certain dog (who usually barks at us) wasn’t outside. I said he was probably still sleeping. Owen asked, “He has a night light?”. I told him no, I didn’t think the dog had a night light, but that I didn’t really know the answer. “He has a lovey?”. I told him maybe. Maybe that dog has a lovey.

I hope this is the beginning of many, many family dinners where my kids tell me everything on their minds. (Ha. In a few more years? Not likely…).

 

She Says… A Delicious Thanksgiving, With or Without Gluten

Given that Benjamin’s celiac diagnosis came right before Thanksgiving, I had to quickly come up with a gluten-free Plan B for almost every dish I usually make for the big day. We hosted 11 adults and 3 kids, and only 3 out of the 14 were gluten free. But still,  it was really important to me that everyone was able to eat [almost!] everything, and no one got unintentionally glutened in the process. Not the easiest task, but certainly easier to do at MY house than at someone else’s.

We have gone back and forth spending Thanksgiving with Benjamin’s family or with my family. This year, we got a little of both (though not all of either — too many families, too little time!).

My brother and sister-in-law, their two kids (Tori, almost 2, and James, 4 months), and their dog Charlie drove up from Philly to spend a few days with us. I was so happy to see them and to have some of my family represented at the Thanksgiving table! As I said in my last post, we had a blast while they were here, showing them our favorite playgrounds and pulling all of Owen’s toys out of the cabinets.

On Thursday afternoon, some of Benjamin’s family joined us for Turkey Day. I supplied the turkey, stuffing, rolls and cranberry sauce, and others brought vegetable side dishes. This worked out so well for the gluten issue — they didn’t have to adjust their dishes since things like mashed potatoes, butternut squash and peas don’t have gluten anyway. We even made gravy from the turkey drippings with gluten free flour and no one noticed the difference!

The pie baker in the family was even up for trying a gluten free pie crust so the non-gluten eaters even had their very own pumpkin pie. I don’t know how she did it, but man, it was delicious!

Turkey: I was surprised to see that several of the turkeys available at my grocery store were pre-brined or flavored with things like “artificial flavoring” (even the organic ones!!!), which often is wheat-based. Thankfully I found one brand that had a big “gluten free” icon on it and was able to find a perfect 20 pounder to take home. We prepared it according to our recent family tradition (started last year — side note: Owen looks like such a baby in the pics from last year!) of wrapping it in bacon. It doesn’t get much more delicious than that.

Stuffing: I vaguely followed this recipe for Apple & Onion Stuffin’ Muffins for both my gluten and gluten-free stuffing. I sauteed a ton of onions, celery, apples and spices. Then I kept my two bowls of bread separate, split the sauteed veggies and apples between them, and then added gluten-free chicken broth until they were the right texture to bake. For gluten stuffing I just used a bag of good ol’ Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix, and for the gluten free stuffing I made a batch of homemade French bread and dried it out. Both were delicious, if I do say so myself.

Rolls: Easy peasy bake ‘n serve rolls for the gluten-eaters, and from-a-box gluten-free cornbread muffins for the gluten-free. Hey, gotta cut corners when you’ve got so much going on in the kitchen!

Cranberry sauce: I like a tart chutney rather than a jellied cylinder, so I make my own by throwing a bag of cranberries, a washed but unpeeled orange (sliced into quarters) and a little bit of sugar to taste in the food processor. I could eat it with a spoon it’s so delicious. And believe me, I did.

We had so many leftovers I’m STILL eating turkey with all the fixins for almost every meal. Tomorrow is my cut-off, though. Whatever’s left goes in the trash and I have to return from my turkey-infused haze back to the real world!

She Says… Celiac Update

I’m not sure how many of you are actually interested in the nitty gritty of Benjamin’s celiac diagnosis (and Owen’s likely diagnosis, though we haven’t done the blood test yet to be sure), but I wanted to keep some notes here for others dealing with this disease and other food allergies. I also want to spread awareness — there is a lot of bad information out there about the hows and whys of being gluten free, and now that my family is in that boat I realize just how vital it is that everyone understand what the diagnosis means and what we can do to treat it.

First things first, there is a difference between a wheat allergy, a gluten sensitivity, and celiac disease.

Celiac Disease: Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder where the body reacts to gluten by attacking itself and causing damage to the small intestine. This inflammation of the lining of the small intestine leads to malnutrition (due to the inability to absorb vitamins) and puts celiacs at a much higher risk for many issues like other autoimmune disorders, cancers, and even pneumonia. In addition, many celiacs have violent physical reactions to coming into contact with gluten, even the tiniest amount.

Gluten Sensitivity: An individual has undesirable symptoms when he/she eats gluten (fatigue, indigestion, constipation/diarrhea, gas, etc.), but does not have celiac disease. Although bothersome, there is no inflammation or damage to the intestine. Some people with gluten sensitivity can have very extreme physical responses to the tiniest amount of gluten, while some responses are quite minor.

Wheat Allergy: The body launches an exaggerated response to wheat proteins (which may show up as a rash/hives, wheezing, swelling, etc.) but the damage to the small intestine is mild.

Benjamin’s blood tests confirmed the celiac diagnosis and an endoscopy (where he swallowed a camera so they could see the inside of his intestines) was done to see the extent of the damage to his intestinal villi. This procedure and the biopsies they took indicated that Benjamin has extremely damaged villi — they were worn down completely, whereas healthy villi stick up like little tiny fingers. That means we have to take immediate and extreme action to eliminate all gluten from his diet.

At first I thought, “Oh, that won’t be that hard, since Owen already eats gluten free. There are gluten free versions of everything. You’ll be fine.”. But what I didn’t realize is that it’s not just about the obvious sources of gluten like flour, cereal and bread. It’s not even about hidden sources of gluten like in marinades and soy sauce and some flavored yogurts. It’s not even just about reading labels like “produced in a facility that also processes wheat”. We have to be extremely aware of cross-contamination too. That means getting rid of every sponge, plastic utensil and tupperware in our kitchen because they likely have gluten proteins on them. It means getting rid of every nonstick pan because the nonstick coating is porous and may be harboring gluten proteins. It means new baking sheets and even a new toaster. It means reading every label in our pantry and getting rid of, well, almost everything. It means questioning and Googling every brand and every ingredient before taking it off the grocery store shelf. It even means changing chapsticks and shampoos and hand lotions.

Phew. It’s a lot.

We did a major kitchen cleanout and got all new nonstick pans, kitchen tools and baking sheets over the weekend. We reorganized our cabinets and removed all products with even the smallest trace of gluten in them (except for a few boxes of cereal and some granola bars for me — those I can keep relatively contained and I fear that I can’t live without them!).

The great news is that while celiac disease can’t be cured, you can literally regenerate the intestinal villi and essentially reverse ALL of the symptoms and increased likelihood of developing future issues by sticking to a strict gluten free lifestyle. Unfortunately, unlike those with gluten sensitivity, Benjamin will never be able to “cheat” once in awhile or risk being glutened. If he’s not sure about a particular food at a restaurant, he can’t eat it. Bottom line.

Benjamin and I are both struggling with his diagnosis. He is mourning food he’ll never eat and the crazy things he’ll need to do before he can eat out in public again. I am mourning having to write a 10 page email when someone invites us over for dinner, and not being able to bake homemade bread (yes, yes, I know there are gluten free flour blends and mixes, but they are NOT THE SAME). But we’ll get through it, and then it will just be… life.

 

So… anyone want to invite us over for dinner?

She Says… Toothpicks are Magic

Owen is generally a really good eater. I’m well aware that this “phase” (if you can call it that) may end, and it may be soon, so I am grateful for it every day. That’s not to say that we don’t have nights where he says “All done” before the plate is even put in front of him. Or that we haven’t had phases where he just threw his food on the floor instead of eating it. Or those meals when I actually give him a choice “Do you want this or this” and he just says, “NO FANKYOO”. Because we have.

(Sidenote: His three favorite phrases recently are “no fankyoo”, “OH YEAH!” and “no WAY” instead of just no, yes and no. Every time he says them, I just about pee my pants laughing. What can I say? The kid is a comedian.).

He’s just a toddler. Exerting his independence. Usually, even when he says “no fankyoo” and pushes his plate away, he’s reaching for it a minute later because he’s actually hungry.

But I recently pulled a new trick out of my hat. And it’s like his kryptonite. The kid can’t refuse it.

TOOTHPICKS.

Owen likes to eat “big” things. He always has. Instead of an apple slice, he wants the whole apple. Instead of little squares of toast, he wants the whole piece so he can bite it. But just when I was catching on to this trend, he switched it up on me. In the last week or so he would leave big things on his plate, and sometimes, if he was feeling helpful, ask “Half?” (as in, “Will you cut this in half you stupid woman?! I can’t fit it in my mouth!”). Except even when I cut them up, he still didn’t want them. It was like knowing that they were big once upon a time was too offensive for him to eat the little bites at all.

So the other day, out of nowhere, I remembered a tip that my sister had mentioned when we were visiting her and her kids over Thanksgiving. “Toothpicks are magic. My kids will eat anything off of toothpicks.”

I was skeptical about giving my active/sometimes wild and unpredictable/tough little toddler a spiky stick. He uses an adult fork a lot of the time, though, so I figured it was only slightly pokier than that. When I brought out the first toothpick, I gave him a demonstration on how you eat off of one (aka NOT eating the toothpick). Immediately, he grabbed one. Delicately he put the little square of wrap sandwich with hummus and turkey in his mouth and removed the toothpick, just like I had done.

He grinned from ear to ear.

He used the toothpick to poke every last bite on his plate. The next day at lunch I served up his whole lunch on a bunch of little picks, like hors d’oeuvres. Sweet potato cubes, zucchini bites, red kidney beans, even avocado (which he hates recently, presumably because of the slimy texture) went right down the hatch. We’ve even done peas lined up on a toothpick just for fun.

He likes to hand the toothpicks back to me so I can line them up on the counter, one by one. He says, “Mo’ too-ticks?” when I only give him one.

Toothpicks are magic, my friends. Magic.

She Says… Dinnertime Woes

Remember when I wrote about how we are doing our best to institute family dinners? I’ve made great strides in coming up with meals that can be ready quickly so we can eat by 5:30pm, and cooking dinner together (usually with me cooking as fast as possible, Owen climbing in and out of his learning tower and Benjamin making sure he can’t get his hands on a hot pot handle or sharp knife) has become one of my favorite parts of the day.

Owen hops up next to me and we talk about what we’re making. He usually samples whatever I’m chopping (Bonus! He chomps away at veggies and foods he wouldn’t even try if we were sitting at the table) and bangs his own spoon around a bowl and arranges ingredients on the counter. It’s usually a bit crazy, but I love a little crazy.

So the preparing dinner part is going great. It’s the eating dinner part that is going through a bit of a rough patch.

We wash hands, grab our drinks and sit at the table. Usually that involves Owen shouting “Noooooo!” while running away and crying “Nook! Nook!” (milk) while we wrangle him up to the sink to wash his hands. What is the big deal with washing hands? Why does he hate it so? The world may never know. The learning tower has helped with this recently, since he likes climbing up and doing it himself instead of having us tie him down hold him and wash his hands. Anyway, once he washes hands, he gets milk. And we sit down.

He usually points at his plate happily for about 30 seconds and talks about all of the food. The second I dig into mine, however, he’s all, “All done! Done. All done, Mommy.”

Uh, what? Didn’t we just sit down?

“Doggie? Doggie?” He leans over the edge of his seat to peer under the table where the dog is laying silently. “Yes, buddy. The doggie is under the table.”

“All done!” He does sign language and moves his plate gently off of his tray and onto the dining room table, out of his own reach. “DOWN! PLAY. Toys. Doggie.”

“No, Owen, it’s not time to get down. It’s time to eat dinner! Mommy and Daddy are eating dinner. Yum, yum! Isn’t this chicken delicious? Did you try a piece? Oooooh, look how green that broccoli is! Can you find something orange on your plate?” Yes, I am crazy.

It’s not the food that’s the problem. I mean, he’s been going through a weird week or so of eating what with the ear infection and stomach bug (forgot to blog about that, but we got a minor version of the major stomach bug that’s been going around on Monday), but he’s generally a voracious eater. He’s especially good at just trying new things, even if he doesn’t like them or doesn’t eat more than one bite. That’s my goal at every meal — to get him to try one bite of everything on his plate. However much he eats is up to him.

No, the problem here is not food (as far as I can tell). It’s that he just simply doesn’t have the time to sit and eat. There is too! much! fun! to! be! had! Oh, to be a toddler.

I’m struggling with how to respond to his protests. Of course I want him to eat dinner so that he is nourished and not hungry at night. But honestly, he eats pretty well the rest of the day. It’s pretty much just dinner that seems to be the issue. He’s growing perfectly and beautifully, so I’m not worried about him not consuming enough calories. I also want him to grow to love family dinner time, and not think that he’s being held captive in a chair. I won’t be able to strap him down forever!

I know in theory I should be letting him make his own food decisions. If he says he’s done, he’s done. That’s generally how I’ve reacted for the last week. I encourage him to eat a few more bites, but then if he demands that he’s done, he’s done. But it’s after we let him be done that I don’t know what to do.

• Ideally I would like him to be able to sit in his chair and just be at the table, even if he’s not eating. Eventually I believe this will turn into eating, if he’s sitting in front of his plate long enough. But the talking and engaging around the table every night is important too, and I want him to be a part of it. But is that asking too much of him right now, especially after a long day at daycare when he just wants to play with me?
• I have considered letting him get down and play, but maintaining that Benjamin and I are still eating dinner, so we are going to sit at the table. (Subtext: Don’t you want to sit at the table too?) We tried this one night and he literally spent the next 3 minutes whining and climbing up my leg while I did my best to ignore him. I gave up and said we were done.
• The other night I asked him if he wanted to sit in my lap instead of the high chair. He did, and he ate a few bites off of my fork and then played pretty happily while I finished my dinner (eating over his head). Now, every night since then, as soon as he gets in his chair, he’s reaching for me, shouting, “Yap! Yap! Mommy! Yap!”. The lap idea backfired. That’s not the way I want to be eating dinner every night!

I’m going to chalk this up to this too shall pass. But in the meantime, I think how I react to this behavior is pretty important. I want to be calm and have a response prepared. I want to be consistent and set behaviors that will someday turn into happy family dinners.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Stories of similar woes? Other things that backfired on you that I shouldn’t try?