to eat, or not to eat, that is the question

...that we ask cj now when he's being picky at mealtime.

last night was our church's Sunday School Christmas program.  but before that, we had to eat supper.  and cj refused to eat.  again.  no amount of coaxing, not even telling him that he'd have a cookie (and cookies are his FAVORITE treat!) after the Christmas program if he ate was enough to get him to try the yummy ravioli my husband made for us. cj wouldn't try his peas either.  so he didn't eat.  and he got really hungry during the program (thankfully, that was after he was done with his part).  we stuck to our guns and the poor dear got no cookies, no snacks...nothing but water.  (maybe he's learning that no amount of crying will get us to change our minds about this rule!)    

as for the Christmas program itself, the boys did their parts very well and their mama was more than a little pleased.  bubba played a piano solo that he started working on a week ago.  (nothing like deciding at the last minute that you want to participate after all!)  and you'd never know he hadn't been working on it for weeks.  yes, the kid has talent.  (and his mama can't help but be a little bit proud.  i do teach him the piano too, after all!)  bubba also had a vocal solo during the song "We Three Kings" that he did quite nicely and a short recitation as part of his class's part of the program.

 

cj also did his part with the pre-k class just fine...he even said his line "A is for all He stands for" into the microphone.  a week ago, i wouldn't have guessed that he'd actually do it!  and when the younger kids (pre-k thru 2nd grade) sang their songs, he even tried to sing along.  :D

one good thing about cj's not eating supper is that he was more willing this morning to try a new food.  T, the wonderful daddy that he is, helped cj eat some apple.  yes, Grandma, you read that right.  cj ate real, fresh, apple this morning!  the trick with this kid is honey.  give him a little honey to dip it in and he'll eat it!  i think he ate at least half the apple.  it was amazing!  top it off with trying a second new food...Grape Nuts cereal with a little milk and honey (of course!) just the way T was eating it this morning and i'm currently in a state of shock.  :D  cj even asked for more!  you bet you can have more, kiddo!

my week in review

i was on the phone last night, talking to my mom, when i heard the cutest thing...cj was singing "twinkle, twinkle, little star."  (he doesn't often sing all by himself.)  i wish i could have captured it on video!  but i did manage to get him to sing it again for grandma, who also thought it was incredibly adorable!

(a sort of recent photo of cj...dressed up like a pirate for the day!)

otherwise, it's been a rough week for us.  parenting can be so hard sometimes.   cj has become the pickiest eater i know.  things that he would eat--and even liked!--6 months ago are suddenly "yucky."  i know this is a relatively normal stage for a 4 year old.  he's asserting his independence and all that.  but the kid has been living on junk food for too long.  and he is old enough to understand when he's doing something he shouldn't--like disobeying his parents. so we now have a new family rule regarding meals.

you eat what we eat or you wait until the next meal where you will be offered either a repeat of the meal or something equally healthy.  (no more skipping dinner and then eating a poptart for breakfast! ha!)

and that means no more making separate meals for each of the kids unless we're eating up leftovers.  that goes for bubba, too, who hates pizza!!  so on monday night when we had pizza, bubba had to eat a little sliver of it too. and he did! (and it didn't kill him...go figure!)  after he ate his required amount, we allowed him to make himself a piece of toast (with yummy nutella on it!) to supplement.

same rule applies to cj, but he has been a bit more stubborn about it.

cj has never "liked" fruit or even juices.  but then again, he's rarely even tasted any!!  and the veggies he used to eat have slowly become foods he won't touch.  so this week's battle was basically over peaches.  we wanted him to just give the peaches a try.  NOPE.  this kid would rather starve than eat a tiny piece of canned peach.  in fact, he only drank water all day Thursday!  (all it would have taken for him to eat something else would have been to try the peach.)  anyways, after reading Dr. Dobson's advice about this issue in The New Dare to Discipline and checking out the Sonlight Forums to see what other parents do in this situation (i knew someone else must've been through something similar and chatted about it out there--sure enough! lots of parents had been discussing the same type of situation just last year), i knew we were on the right track. but i could see that my son is just stubborn enough to not eat for days.  after much consideration, i decided to try a compromise.  instead of eating a piece of peach, i asked if he would just taste the juice from around the peaches.  he agreed to taste the peach juice.  with his water in one hand a spoon that had been dipped in the peaches in the other, he did it!  and he even said "it's not so bad!"  (but he wouldn't go for any more.)  i know it might not seem like a big accomplishment.  but to us it's a beginning--a breakthrough of sorts.  i'm just praying that he gets used to the idea of trying new foods--and quickly!

top that off with a second round of potty training him (the first round was a total failure--he was totally unwilling) and it's been a very long week.  but at least he's not throwing a tantrum every time i ask him to go potty this time around!

as for homeschooling...seems we get further behind every day.  so today, even though it's saturday, i hope to make time to do a little catch-up on our read-aloud book Little Britches.  

hope your week was better than mine!!!

on a completely different topic:  11 years ago today was my "due date."  dear, sweet bubba, however, didn't listen to his mama's pleas and decided to wait until the dr. induced her the next week.  having birthed a child--my firstborn son--at Christmastime always makes me think of the Christmas story..."And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn."  Luke 2:7 KJV

stocking stuffer:  baby bubba on Christmas day, 1999...getting ready to go home

i hope you will take time this Christmas season to be a little bit like Mary:  "But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart."  Luke 2:19 KJV  how truly amazing, that "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16NIV