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1. Throw back Thursday picture. I loved having a mullet. This was before Maria’s time. I can’t get away with this look now.
2. The PAC 12 basketball tournament starts soon. The Utes have improved greatly this year. I am excited to see how they do in the tournament. Go Utes!
3. Last night Caleb fought us about eating his dinner. He is usually pretty good about eating, but when he does this he holds his food in his mouth forever and won’t swallow. We put him in his crib for a timeout and say no treats, but sometimes it is still a battle. Any good advice for us?
4. This is a cool video. Do you think this is real or fake?
Hers
1. I am 18 weeks pregnant and my baby bump is bumpin’! Tomorrow we find out the gender of our baby! I am nervous and excited. Of course, all that really matters is that we have a healthy baby. We will share our news on the blog next week!
2. Call me crazy, but I have been craving Pop Tarts. Really, call me crazy because who eats Pop Tarts? I am dying for a Brown Sugar Pop Tart! I haven’t had one since I was a kiddo so I have no idea why I have Pop Tarts on my mind. I haven’t caved in and bought a box. I am staying strong. I hope the craving ends soon!
3. DIY Peanut Butter Chips. Genius!
4. $14.99 at Whole Foods…in a green pot! I HAD to!
5. Currently loving this blog.
6. I finished Season 1 of Nashville. I can’t stop watching! I am kind of surprised I am loving it so much because I don’t even like country music. Good thing there is lots of drama that keeps me hooked! And I kind of have a crush on Deacon…and I am so happy to see “Lucky” on the show. Avery is Lucky from General Hospital. I used to be a soap opera junkie back in the day and had a huge crush on Lucky! I am so happy to see him again:) Ok, enough about Nashville. I know I am late to the game, but I am a fan!
7. Now THIS is a cake!
8. We went out to dinner with some friends over the weekend and they picked a Korean restaurant. It was my first time experiencing Korean food. I was scared, especially since I am pregnant and foods are still iffy for me…but I loved it! I had some veggie ramen soup thing, sesame broccoli, and these sweet cucumbers. My friend ordered for me so I really have no clue what I ate, but it was tasty! 🙂
9. These cookies and this tart are trouble…in the best kind of way!
10. I can’t tolerate mint gum while I am pregnant so I have been chewing watermelon gum! Caleb loves it because I can blow him bubbles:)
1. Fashion trends almost always come back around. Hang in there, a hair style as cool as the mullet will surely make a comeback & the Mrs. will WANT you to have another.
3. I don’t think children should be made to eat. As an adult, most of us tend to like many more things than we did as children. But I certainly would not want to be made to eat something I don’t like, just because it’s dinner time & that is what’s being served. I didn’t ever make my children eat anything they didn’t want to. I would allow them to get something else FOR THEMSELVES, but I wasn’t preparing it. And yes, I would still allow them to have their bed time snack. I didn’t want them to go to bed with an empty, growling belly. If it is something that happens more often than not, I think I would try to find a nutritional supplement that he likes & offer that to him to make sure he doesn’t become malnourished.
Can’t wait to find out what the stork has in store for you! Baby news is such a happy occasion! We just found out last week that our newest grandbaby (#16), arriving in August, will be a girl. That will give us 10 girls & 6 boys!
I had HG (severe morning sickness) at the beginning of this pregnancy (29 weeks now) and my nurses suggested eating poptarts because they are high in calories and easily digested. That was about the only thing I could keep down for a few days. So now I have a quarter of one as soon as I get up. I will probably never eat another poptart in my life once this baby arrives.
Happy 18 weeks… and almost Friday 🙂 My sister-in-law is pregnant— 13 weeks; they found out they are having TWINS! OMG!
We have a 4 year old cutie pie— Bryce– and Josh I can relate to your frustration of dealing with a stubborn eatter at times. I use to make dinner for my husband and I– and something that I knew our son would eat, however; I decided this isn’t a restaraunt, and he needs to eat what we are having for dinner. Bryce and I make dinner a lot together which helps because he then knows well ahead of time what we are having, and when he helps it also helps him eat better. Some nights though are most def. a challenge. I have done time out for not eatting, but that hasn’t prooven to change his stubborn-ness. We now sit down for dinner, he ALWAYS has to try what we are having, and if he decides he doesn’t want to eat… then we allow him to be independent and choose that. However, no snacks after dinner… and boy oh boy does he eat a good breakfast the next morning 🙂 We have stuck to this concept for a couple of months now, and over time his eatting has def. improved. All in all though… they rule the house no matter what… lol.
Hope you all have a wonderful day… and can’t wait to find out the gender 🙂
When Jon David was Caleb’s age, he started spending some time in the corner. Ugh. 2 1/2 to about 3 1/2 was not the best time!! If he’s not eating because he doesn’t like it, I’d always make Jon David try one bite and then he could have something different. If he’s not eating because he’s being stubborn, I’d just stick him in the corner for about 5 minutes and if he still won’t eat I’d assume he’s not hungry. I know that some people worry, but a kid that age isn’t going to let himself starve 😉 Sometimes you have to pick your battles, and choosing which ones is really hard.
I am SO EXCITED to find out what you’re having. My fingers are crossed for a girl 😉
About the food, just let it go. He will eat when he wants to. He won’t eat at other times. If you offer him meals and appropriate snacks (so he isn’t grazing all day), just let the rest go. At you son’s age, there is not a whole lot he can control about his life other than his eating. Please don’t make eating and meal times a fight. It isn’t worth it — for your stress or at the risk of him developing food issues. If he doesn’t want to eat, don’t force it. He will be hungry at the next snack time. It will all work out. Life is stressful enough without creating wars at the dinner table.
I know it can be difficult when a child will not eat, I went through that with seven children. My best advice is to not make food a battle. It will become a power struggle, and Caleb will win. He will eat when he is hungry. Just make sure what you offer him is healthy and also that he is not drinking too much milk because it will kill his appetite. Remind yourself that a parent decides what food is given to a child, and the child decides how much and when to eat.
as a mother of 5, I second all the advice from marsha, and yolanda!!
enjoy this time…. :0)
Now that my kids are in college, I can look back and tell you that meal time fights are useless and definitely not worth it. At this stage, you just want mealtime to be a warm and happy experience. I could go on, but I see that Marsha and Yolanda have already covered my thoughts exactly. As the kids reached school-age, our policy for foods they didn’t like was the “no thank you” portion – a very small amount that they had to eat. I explained that sometimes it took a lot of little tastes before they would like something. Good luck!
I remember telling my daughters baby dr once that she refuses to eat at times his advice was and I quote, ‘she’ll eat when she gets hungry, she wont starve” I worryingly took his advice and sure enough she eat. Love, love, love the hydrangeas! Esp. the pot! Esp. the flowers! lol Possibly your body is craving something that only the pop tart can supply. Right now you have the golden key to eat what you want…please do. You look great btw! Very exciting finding out your little bundle on the way!
Those flowers are GORGEOUS! AH! I am so excited for yall to find out what you’re having. If you feel the urge to tell someone…you know my email ;). Regardless- little man is going to make an awesome big bro. Um I love the mullet hahahha. In terms of the eating battle- occasionally Kay does this too. I’ve tried several techniques that seem to work at different times: 1. If you take x more bites of this, then you can have y (usually try to note make this food- maybe bubbles? Game time on the ipad or 2. I just say well..thats all we have tonight and if you don’t want to eat it, thats fine…but theres nothing else. I”ll leave the food and we’ll go play for a bit and then usually she will return to eat it
I agree with many if the above comments. My kiddo is 4, and she sometimes refuses to eat. If that happens (or we catch her doing the chew forever trick!), she is excused from the table, and can only have water until the next meal. It’s not a fight, or a control or punishment. It’s a choice she can make (& has been making since she was 2!). I do make sure not to have 2 meals in a row that I know she won’t eat, and thus, she’s never gone without more than one meal. This approach was recommended by our pediatrician, and it works for us.
Josh – A mom of three (who are now in there 30’s), I wanted to have enjoyable family dinners. My middle child was a very picky eater. So, I made dinner and we all sat down, if he didn’t like what I had, I said go make yourself a peanut butter sandwich. And, he did and brought it back to the table and we ate as a family. This wasn’t every night, but I didn’t want to get into power struggle with him. Now, he eats everything. Enjoy your family dinners.
My kids begged for pop tarts at the grocery this weekend. I gave in and was taken back to pregnancy number 1 when I would sneak out of bed at night and eat pop tarts. And it was Brown sugar I craved. Odd but true! I understand how you are feeling.
Is that first photo at the Walmart in Frisco, CO? I swear it is. It looks different today, but the background is still the same!
Love the flowers!
I wouldn’t make eating too much of a battle. Kids go through so many phases in their eating and growing, maybe he isn’t hungry. We don’t force our kids to eat (and they eat what we eat)….but if they don’t want to eat we may make them stay at the table and still chat and have family time. We wrap up their plate and if they are hungry later that’s what they can eat. Our kids eat a snack before bed and of course they can’t have a snack unless they’ve eaten their dinner. It’s amazing how many times they will scarf down their dinner when it’s snack time 😉 good luck!
Like many kids, I also sat with a mouthful of food and refused to swallow. When it was scrambled eggs, I would let it ouze out the corners of my mouth (no wonder I’m an only child!). I made my Mom crazy, until she talked to my pediatrician. He said to simply take away my food, and no snacks or treats until the next meal. No child wants to be hungry, and by the next meal I would (gladly) eat my food. Caleb will not starve if he misses a meal or two, and a smart boy like him will quickly learn not to use his food as a power tool against you.
THat’s funny you are craving brown sugar poptarts too. I am also 18 weeks pregnant (had my US yesterday and it’s a boy!) and am craving brown sugar poptarts. I haven’t eaten a poptart in at least 10 years.
You are looking so adorable! Loved the TBT photo!!
If he is hungry, he will eat. That’s all.
Josh, the hover skateboard video looks ligit to me. If it is, it will soon be a hot commodity.
Those flowers are beautiful! I love hydrangeas. And I’m a massive Nashville fan too! SO good. Deacon rocks. I’ve actually downloaded a lot of the music. And thank you so much for linking to my snickers ice cream cake! 🙂
We never made eating into a battle of wills with our two boys. However, our rule was that they always had to have at least one “polite bite” or “no thank you bite” of whatever it was that evening that they were choosing to avoid. We never made them a separate or different meal. Now at ages 8 & 11, they are great eaters of every kind of vegetable & most every other food.
That’s so weird! I totally craved pop tarts when I was pregnant, and I never ate them normally. Hmmmm
Thanks for sharing, Maria!!
I also craved PopTarts when pregnant and I had a boy. I craved blueberry and brown sugar ones. Weird. I wonder why PopTarts??