Just Eat!

How come parents have so many hang-ups about food? We worry about what our kids are eating, if they are eating enough, if they are eating the right food. We try almost everything under the sun to get them to eat and freak out if they don't. Don't worry. I'm no exception. I have freaked out when Duane gave Wesley an entirely orange snack (orange cheese, mandarin oranges, cheese flavored crackers and, tangerine juice.) Which brings me to my bad mommy confession - part 2.

I keep saying I'm not going to fight with Wesley about food. Yeah, right. Wesley has not been eating very well the last few days (she says after he ate a ton of pita and hummus yesterday.) Breakfast has been particularly trying, so this morning I gave him something completely different - cornbread with butter and honey. He really enjoyed about 3/4 of it, then crumbled the rest on the floor. He didn't want his banana and barely touched his yogurt. Lunch was the same - not interested in his spaghetti, cottage cheese,veggies or fruit.

All he wants is juice. I try to give him milk, but he says "No, no, no. Juice." I'm trying not to give him more than one juice/water combo a day, but Duane just says "Juice is good for you too." Wesley used to only want milk and now I can barely get him to drink it! Oh, there is something he wants as much as juice - his hands. He's been chewing on them and sucking on them something terrible. He has two bottom teeth coming in and I think they are really bothering him, but he's going to end up with hickeys on his hands if he isn't careful.

Dinner was no better. Wesley did pretty well eating fish when we were on vacation this summer. I gave him some fish, black beans and peaches for supper. He tried a black bean and spit it out (twice,) tried the fish and then scraped it off his tongue (twice,) and dropped his peaches on the floor. He jammed his hands in his mouth and starting crying for juice and a cheese sandwich. I didn't relent on the juice, but I did go into the kitchen to make a sandwich for him (bad mommy). The only problem was that we didn't have bread. So Wesley got a cheese quesadilla, which was not what he wanted. He ate a little bit of bit, then began munching on his hands again.

I wanted something in his tummy and I wanted to relieve the (perceived) pain from teething. Duane and I wanted to hold off on the medicine until bedtime, so for the second time in his life, Wesley had ice cream for dinner (bad mommy). Please don't tell our pediatrician!