Your Done

Warning: This post is about nursing. If that makes you uncomfortable, skip it.

So Sleeping Beauty has never been that great of a nurser. And she often gets distracted, and pulls away before she is done. To cope with this I have started counting. As soon as she pulls away I start counting down from 10. If I get to 1 and she still hasn't re latched, I say "your done" give her her "plug" and set her on the floor.

Well Guy has caught on to this and enjoys telling her she is done. Only problem is he doesn't wait until I reach one. I start counting, and he will interrupt with "your done."

Well this morning I was feeding Sleeping Beauty, and I knew she wasn't all that hungry, because it hadn't really been that long since she had eaten. She had just woken up and thought she needed to eat, so I was feeding her. Anyway, Guy woke up and came into my room. He started talking to me, and it distracted Sleeping Beauty. So she broke her latch, and looked to see him. He started counting.

"One, two, three, your done." She then turned back and started nursing again. He said, "no your done. Mommy, pull your shirt down. " He then came over and tried to pull my shirt down, while she was still nursing. He then picked up her plug and tried to break her latch again to give it to her. As soon as she looked away from me he stuck it in her mouth, and said "your done." Because I knew she wasn't really all that hungry, I let her be done, and put her on the floor so her brother could play with her.

No more boosters!

So ever since Cinderella was about 18 months old she has been sitting in a booster seat at the table. Guy joined the ranks when he was about 18 months as well. Well yesterday Cinderella asked if she could have her booster taken off her chair and just sit on a regular chair. I told her that was fine, and that I would take it off and clean the chair. (I'm terrible about cleaning under the boosters and they can get really gross.)

Well yesterday I didn't have a chance to take care of it, and she remembered at breakfast this morning. I told her I would try to take care of it today. Then Daddy suggested that she could just move her chair back into a corner and use a different chair. She seemed to think this was acceptable and so he helped her move it. After he joined me again in the kitchen, I looked over and saw, Guy get down from his chair, push it into a corner. Then he walked around the table, took my chair, and slid it back to his place. I think he wants to be done with a booster too. Don't you think?
This last picture is in here because Sleeping Beauty wanted her picture taken too.

Breastfeeding. Hmmm

When Cinderella was born, she had a hard time breastfeeding, but we made it work. Mostly because I knew we couldn't afford formula. I then successfully nursed her until she was 15 months old.

Guy had absolutely no interest in nursing. I pumped for a month and gave him bottles. By that point I was really overwhelmed with the pumping, and set it aside, and gave him bottles of formula until he wasn't interested and could drink from a cup when he was a year.

Sleeping Beauty however, has been a completely different story. She has had a hard time with nursing, and I have had moments that I have been tempted to just wean her onto a bottle, and give up the whole breast milk think. I had just about decided to do that, when I changed my mind and decided that because it is hardest for her to nurse when we are in public, and there are distractions, that those times I would give her a bottle. Also when we had a baby sitter, she would have a bottle. Other than that, I would nurse her.

Well she has suddenly decided she doesn't like bottles. She has been fine with them for the last 4 months, but lately she has decided she just wants to nurse. Now if she will do this without problems, I don't mind. But it was nice that she would take a bottle before. Now she won't.

Last night I got bit of a stomach bug. And was vomiting when it was time for her to eat. So Daddy tried to give her a bottle. She wanted none of that. He finally got her to drink an ounce, then she fell asleep.

I just find it interesting to see how different babies are, and how they behave. Oh well, I guess it is bye, bye bottle.

Snack, and lunch ideas anyone?

So lately Cinderella doesn't eat lunch. Not really. I make her a sandwich or some other kind of food and she barely touches it. I think the snack she gets at preschool is maybe filling her up quite a bit. But I'm not really impressed with how healthy (or maybe I should say not healthy) those snacks tend to be. She won't eat veggies raw, and she pretty much just licks the topping off any sandwich I make, regardless of what kind of bread or grain I use. Bagels, bread, tortillas, pitas, English muffins, etc. She will maybe eat the fruit I give her. And usually she drinks her milk.

So I have been thinking lately, I don't want put so much effort into making food for her that is just going to stay on the table. But I don't want her to be hungry if she is, and I would like for her to get some nutrition in what she eats, not just empty calories, or lots of sodium, fat and sugar. You know what I mean? So I was thinking maybe snack sized portions, but I need some more ideas. I was wondering if anyone has any snack or light meal ideas, that kids tend to eat well, that are nutritious? Preferably something that doesn't take a ton of work, because it just isn't worth it, if she isn't going to eat it. And Guy is following her example a lot of the time, so I guess it applies to him too.

Garden Spaghetti

So my kids are picky eaters. Cinderella won't eat anything that looks like a vegetable, except corn on the cob. She does like things that are made out of veggies as long as they don't look like veggies. Like spaghetti.

So, we have had a bunch of yellow squash in our garden this summer. In trying to figure out a way to use it, I decided to make my own spaghetti sauce.

I cut up a yellow squash, an orange bell, 3 large tomatoes, and put them in a pot with a can of diced tomatoes with the juice, and a couple cans of tomato sauce. I then simmered them stirring occasionally, to keep them from burning. Once everything was soft I put it all in the blender and pureed it. You couldn't see any of the veggies, but my sauce was really thin so I added a can of tomato paste, and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. It made a really yummy sauce, and my kids ate it up. Yum.

So how do you hide veggies to get your kids to eat them? Or do your kids like veggies?