Thursday, May 06, 2010

Sibling Rivalry


Notice the below post was one week prior to the volcanic cloud over Europe shutting down many airports and travel. I know I said it, but is my boy a genius or what?! A little eery but we will wait on deciding how eery until it happens again! :-)


Today was filled with love, laughter and playfulness of a two year old and four year old sibling along with screaming, fighting, tears and demands from those same siblings. Yes, our house is filled with both and while I hate the later it is the former that makes the other times easy to forget.



After a much needed energy burning excursion to the duck pond, park and library where the kids got along the majority of the time we came home for lunch. I knew I had stretched out our morning too much and I was going to be lucky to get food into my extremely exhausted 2 year old and my picky 4 year old eater before nap time. As I was heating left over Claro's sausage from the night before and was banging around the kitchen looking for other quick serve foods E started demanding chips with cheese (AKA Nachos - yes, she caught this bad habit from ME!). Since I wasn't sure she would even eat before nap I decided to indulge her while trying to figure out what else I could feed them. I didn't even take the time to grate the cheese. I sliced it straight from the cheddar cheese block, layed it on the chips and heated in the microwave (& as any Nacho connoisseur like myself knows, these are both big NO-NO's). She was delighted and started picking up chips immediately and eating away. I had already set a container of green bean baby food in front of her (both my kids still love baby food vegetables and frankly I see no reason why they can't have pureed veggies when they want) and away she went dipping her nachos in the green beans the way I would dip my nachos in hot salsa (make that the hotter the better). There she sat, cute pony tail & beautiful bow in hair, eating her nachos dipped in green beans all with a big beautiful smile while doing her side to side "happy dance". I couldn't help myself, it was one of those times that it just comes pouring out with out even trying, "E, I love you!". Meanwhile, my extremely picky eater L was pushing grilled hot dog pieces around his plate. He looked at me, waited a few seconds and then said, "why did you say you loved E but not me?". First of all, he only waited three seconds. Secondly, he was NOT even eating ... not even a little. Just doing what he does best ... staring at his food thinking about something else, anything else. I explained to him that E was eating well and it made me really happy. I said I love you as a way to express how thankful I was to her that she was eating so well. Enough said. He picked up his spoon and ate. That day at least. *Sigh* the battles of a picky eater. We mother's celebrate even the smallest victories. And yes, he got an I love you too!
**L and E pictures above on our recent road trip to the Arizona Grand Resort . When I showed him the picture and asked why he was making that face. He told me she was hugging him too long and too tight and he doesn't like that. LOL!

3 comments:

KGplus3 said...

Love that post! lol Maybe that's a good way to get L to eat, by telling E how proud you are of her eating. I love the nacho idea too- bet my girls would love them!!!

Anonymous said...

Tracy, I love to read your blogs, and see all the positive spin that you put on things, even when they don't sound so positive. You are a natural at being a mom, and I commend you. Mary G.

Anonymous said...

Ahh... so special.. love it! We are huge Nacho fans here too.. the boys love them.. we often order them out too! Rose's Cantina has some good one! Enjoy! xoxo M & boys xoxo