We all know it is important for children to have a healthy, balanced diet for them to reach their full potential, physically & mentally. Vitamins, minerals, proteins, blah, blah, blah…
I have a skinny kid. You never would have guessed it when he was a baby. Br was a “triangle” shaped baby (the pin-head didn’t help…) Once he got mobile, eating fell way down on his priority list. Personally, we’ve often had to catch ourselves when Br is acting up and consider “when was the last time this little monster kid ate?” When Br started preschool, we gave them a heads up to watch for that, and remind him to have snack…
With this in mind, Br was having a tough time about when dinner was ready last night. We’d had a busy day (see the “Plumbing” activity, and some other stuff I haven’t blogged yet), plus I was trying a new tactic on the potty training front.
Potty Training aside:
Br has been great for #1 for probably close to a year, but still struggles for #2. I’d read the suggestion if the child has an “accident”, to have them clean themselves up & then have them “practice” what they would do if they feel the urge to “go potty” 10 times. The theory is you provide muscle memory so they are quickly able to respond correctly next time, and, probably most importantly, you make having an “accident” laborious enough they’d rather just go in the potty in the first place. He found the first 3 times amusing (especially as we tried from a different place in the house or outside each time). After that, he kept suggesting we should only need to do “2 more?” (I guess we do a lot of “2 mores”?). Turns out it was a prime opportunity to work on counting backwards & subtraction: “Not 2 more. You’ve practiced 3 times, so we have 7 practices left!”, etc. And we got to do it twice yesterday…
BTW, I think the saddest voice I have ever heard my husband use was when potty training came up when we were out somewhere. He voiced the most pathetic ” I HATE potty training. *sigh*”
So, dinner time: Br wouldn’t eat much. We offered “dip” (ketchup). He tried cajoling, reasoning, veiled threats… nothing was working. Finally, Br randomly perked up and said he “needed chopsticks”. I’d assumed eating was a lost cause at this point, so didn’t bother to protest when he ran to the silverware drawer. Now, we have a number of chopsticks laying around as I am a firm believer if I am eating Chinese food, I must be “authentic” and eat it with chopsticks. ( My husband only eats “Lemon Chicken”, which isn’t authentic at all, and feels no such compulsion.) Br has tried chopsticks on a few occasions after watching me, with little success.
Br returned to his seat, and my husband tried to get him to spear his chicken with the end of one chopstick. That didn’t work. But then Br tried to use the chopsticks…as chopsticks! And succeeded (mostly…we reloaded the plate from his seat a few times)!
He ate the rest of the chicken on his plate, plus I managed to sneak in a few more green beans by exclaiming over how “I bet those would be tricky! Let’s try that!”, followed by the “wow, can you do it again? Oh, I don’t think Daddy saw.. could you show Daddy how you did that?”
Parental unearned success I am claiming anyways: my kid ate a good, well-balanced (literally!) dinner, and got some fine motor practice in as a bonus.
Once again the power of novelty wins the game….