i like a few things that we have done with lanna. for instance, she loves to go to bed and take naps. we have never used bedtime as a tool for bad behavior. when she lays down we talk about how wonderful her bed is and how comfortable her pillow feels and how her sheets are so much cooler than ours are. she eats whatever we eat, and i rarely have to make those extra 'kid type dinners' (although i like to) because she would much rather eat exactly what we eat. if we have something that she cant eat, we do make her those kidalicious meals and she is just fine with it. she feels very special to have a side of yogurt with her meal. she will sit there and giggle about how she got the yogurt and somehow the yogurt fairy missed her parents and she was the only one who noticed. same thing with cottage cheese. she will dip anything you hand her in cottage cheese. yes, even my camera. i do not credit this to her being 'super flexible' as much as this is just the option that we gave her. we never introduced the mac and cheese, the hot dog, the PB&J until just recently. i hoped that she could adjust and like food that we eat as well as the food that she would later be introduced to. lucky for me, this worked. not all kids will abide by this however, i just feel fortunate that she did. i had to do it, because who else is going to sit down and eat a whole wheel of brie with me and make fun of me?
a few nights ago i needed a dinner idea as my menu was at it's end. i asked her what she woudl like to eat for dinner and she replied "salad". nathan says, wow, that must have brought a tear to your eye just now..." and yes, it actually did. the kid loves onions. ONIONS. can you believe that? it's important when introducing any foods, or in just general food talk to never add any "yucks, ew's or grosses". just keep them to yourself. if you plant that in their head that something is gross at such an early age, they may never like something their whole lives that could be so good for them, and they may have loved otherwise. their taste buds are barely developed and they can tell right away when they don't like something, and they don't need the added encouragement. its perfectly fine not to like something, and i notice a lot of kids here and there that don't like something because mom has said it's gross. sadly little jimmy will never try green beans. oh well, his loss. more for me. this is definitely not something that we could have just now started. she is too smart for that. she like what she sees me eating and i just tried my best at an early age to be eating what i wished that she would. if they start eating veggies regularly before they can form opinions, chances are it will be too late to be "gross" by age 3 or 4. age 5...well, they will be tricking you full speed ahead by then.
on to the weird part. we have...i hate to say we "tricked" her, but we totally tricked her. she thinks carrots and ranch are a dirty little treat that only good girls get, she thinks that cucumber slices are 'magical pickles' that give you power, and she thinks nutragrain bars are 'cake'. now, she knows what real cake is, so relax. but a nutragrain, whew. that is special cake. when she goes to bed she asks for a "creamsicle vitamin" - that's a tums. i could go on and on, but i won't. if she ever asks you how many green beans she needs to eat to be tall enough to someday be 'let into disneyland', the answer is "a whole lot more". (because green beans make you taller)
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