This has been on my mind for some time. We go through periods of time where the boys eat great and I don't have to worry about it at all. Other times, I struggle with what to do.
Eating habits. What do you do? Do you try to coax your kids (toddlers) to eat what's on their plate? I have mixed feelings about this. I have a habit of cleaning my plate just because the food is there and it shouldn't go to waste. Not necessarily because I am so hungry that I need to eat everything in sight. I don't know what my child's stomach feels like so is it fair for me to push him to clean his plate if he's not that hungry? Doesn't that just set him up for the same bad habits I've fallen into, which have caused me to gain and struggle to maintain a healthy weight?
Sometimes we have a dessert that I am excited for him to taste. If he doesn't eat his vegetables, should I withhold that treat? Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I don't want to set him up for resenting vegetables. If he is forced to eat them, won't he soon start (if he already hasn't) to rebel against them? I don't want to set my kid up for failure. There are so many things to worry about as a parent that I never even dreamed of before.
Here's a scenario that happens all too often at our house. I'll fix dinner and Theo will refuse to eat or barely pick at his food. No dessert. We don't force or high-pressure him to eat. Bedtime rolls around and conveniently, he's suddenly hungry. Ryan says he shouldn't get another chance to eat dinner because then he's running us around like short order cooks. Valid point, but I can't let him go to bed with his stomach growling. What if he really is hungry? At that point it's been 7-8 hrs since his last meal and he really might need something. Normally, if I have saved his plate, he will eat it. Sometimes he asks for yogurt. I don't ever allow crackers or cookies in that situation. The doctor actually suggested yogurt or cheese as a bedtime snack when he skips meals. I'm just torn.
Both Theo and Dexter are thin, hovering around the 20th percentile. It isn't like a bedtime snack is going to push them over the line to obesity. But should I be teaching them a lesson by sticking to a hard and fast rule about when they are allowed to eat? I've read a million different things and theories.
What's yours?
~C~
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
ready for change?
Well, well, well. A few things have changed since I last wrote. Like, oh, you know, we got a new house and I got a new job.
What the what!
Yep, we closed on our house (seen here and here) a couple of weeks ago. Some issues came up (I'll talk more about later, maybe) so we weren't able to start in on our remodeling right away. Sunday we said to heck with it and decided to move forward.
And I wasn't looking for a job. I worked in child welfare for 6 years and had no immediate plans of going anywhere else. But another social work job in the mental health field found it's way to me and I couldn't pass it up. No more night shift! I'm going back to living like normal people instead of vampires. Somebody say woot! I start in a couple of weeks. My new employer was kind enough to allow me some time to work on our house.
I have been so preoccupied and busy that I haven't had much time to write. Not a lot has changed with the boys, other than growing taller and smarter and older every day. Theo sounds too old, saying things that he hears grown-ups say, like "last week I was at the store and I saw something and then I went to the car and probably saw everything everywhere..." and on and on and on. I just love listening to his stories about nothing at all. Dex is starting to try more and more words when prompted but I don't feel like he says them independently as much as Theo did at about 15 months. Hard to remember these things!
SO... back to the HOUSE. I'm excited about the changes we've made so far with Ryan's dad's help. We've got lots of bright ideas and it seems like everything is top priority. Who knows when we'll ever get it all done. Here are a couple of before/after photos so far.
Front door:
Library:
What the what!
Yep, we closed on our house (seen here and here) a couple of weeks ago. Some issues came up (I'll talk more about later, maybe) so we weren't able to start in on our remodeling right away. Sunday we said to heck with it and decided to move forward.
And I wasn't looking for a job. I worked in child welfare for 6 years and had no immediate plans of going anywhere else. But another social work job in the mental health field found it's way to me and I couldn't pass it up. No more night shift! I'm going back to living like normal people instead of vampires. Somebody say woot! I start in a couple of weeks. My new employer was kind enough to allow me some time to work on our house.
I have been so preoccupied and busy that I haven't had much time to write. Not a lot has changed with the boys, other than growing taller and smarter and older every day. Theo sounds too old, saying things that he hears grown-ups say, like "last week I was at the store and I saw something and then I went to the car and probably saw everything everywhere..." and on and on and on. I just love listening to his stories about nothing at all. Dex is starting to try more and more words when prompted but I don't feel like he says them independently as much as Theo did at about 15 months. Hard to remember these things!
SO... back to the HOUSE. I'm excited about the changes we've made so far with Ryan's dad's help. We've got lots of bright ideas and it seems like everything is top priority. Who knows when we'll ever get it all done. Here are a couple of before/after photos so far.
Front door:
Library:
(more of a "during" than an "after" pic)
Boys' bathroom (in progress):
 |
| Before |
 |
| Shower door removed |
 |
| Cabinet doors removed |
 |
| I'm staining the cabinets black. So far, so good! |
 |
| Ryan's dad taking out some of the tile. |
 |
| Ready to take the old tub out and put a new one in. |
Obviously the bathroom is where we are spending the most of our energy right now. Can't wait to see the finished product and share it with you!
Finally - our other big project, the kitchen.
With carpet, appliance shed (corner), and brick backsplash.
Ryan's dad, getting me started on tearing out the brick.
No brick, no appliance shed! Looking so much better already.
So there you have it, that's what we/I have been up to. What do you think about the changes we're making so far?
miss you!
~C~
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
the hizzy, part 2: just when you thought it couldn't get any uglier
Sorry for the looong break since my last post about the house. Click the link to see photos of the exterior, entry, living room, library, and master suite. A lot of people commented on facebook (thank you!) and the theme was something like this: "It's not that bad!"
Well. There's a reason you feel that way, dear friends. See, I saved some of the highlights for later, which is today. Kitchen and bathrooms. Don't get me wrong, we love the house. (Right? or we wouldn't have bought it. Right?) It has tons of space and a library! HELLO, a library! But on more than one occasion, we have found ourselves elbow-deep in conversations that go like this: "What were we thinking? Clearly, we weren't."
Let's get started.
The kitchen. Yes, that's carpet you see there. I remember walking around the corner from the living room and seeing the kitchen for the first time. My first thought was: "that's carpet." Then I looked around and saw how spacious the kitchen was, how much cabinet space it has, and how nice it would be to have that center island work space. Initially we thought the little bill desk would be nice but we won't really need it if we make the library our office space. So now we're talking about taking out half of the wall where the desk is to open up the kitchen to the living room and put in a breakfast bar. You know, because that will be fast and affordable. You can kind of tell by the first photo that it's an eat-in kitchen. We like that. We're not the formal dining room type anyway. I forgot to take a photo of the area but it is sufficiently sized.
I'd love to replace the cabinets but I think we will have to settle for painting them and replacing all the hardware. We looked at a granite wholesaler Sunday and found this beautiful countertop for $25/sq. ft. installed! What a deal. I could write fifty blog posts about what I want to do in the kitchen. Better move on.
The boys' bathroom. What is the obsession with carpet? It has to go, stat. I love the amount of cabinet/storage space. The cabinets are already painted a light gray. Thinking about just replacing the countertop and hardware and leaving the cabinets gray. I'd like to add another sink and put in tile floors. Not a fan of the blue bathtub but the gray tile is in good shape so I was thinking about trying to save it to save time and money. Anyone know if we can just put a white insert tub right over that? Have to figure out some creative way to get rid of that safety bar. Maybe replace a few random tiles with brightly colored ones? Their bathroom is quite spacious. It would be one of the first things to remodel, and hopefully before we move in, because it has the only bathtub in the house.
The hall bath, located between the front door and the kitchen. More carpet! Weee! The bathroom is unusually gigantic for a hall bath. Not sure what we are going to do with this space. We have a huge attic with room to finish some space. We are thinking about eventually putting a 4th bedroom up there for guests and possibly using this bathroom as the stairway space. So we might not do anything with this right away. Is that light fixture supposed to be a joke? And why do you need that much storage space in a half bath/hall bath?
I still have to show you the basement and the boys' rooms. They're not bad. The boys rooms pretty much just need paint and new window treatments. I think the basement is okay, but Ryan has big plans for it. I'll post more about it later.
What do you think? As bad as you thought or worse?
xo,
~C~
Well. There's a reason you feel that way, dear friends. See, I saved some of the highlights for later, which is today. Kitchen and bathrooms. Don't get me wrong, we love the house. (Right? or we wouldn't have bought it. Right?) It has tons of space and a library! HELLO, a library! But on more than one occasion, we have found ourselves elbow-deep in conversations that go like this: "What were we thinking? Clearly, we weren't."
Let's get started.
Hi, mom!
The kitchen. Yes, that's carpet you see there. I remember walking around the corner from the living room and seeing the kitchen for the first time. My first thought was: "that's carpet." Then I looked around and saw how spacious the kitchen was, how much cabinet space it has, and how nice it would be to have that center island work space. Initially we thought the little bill desk would be nice but we won't really need it if we make the library our office space. So now we're talking about taking out half of the wall where the desk is to open up the kitchen to the living room and put in a breakfast bar. You know, because that will be fast and affordable. You can kind of tell by the first photo that it's an eat-in kitchen. We like that. We're not the formal dining room type anyway. I forgot to take a photo of the area but it is sufficiently sized.
I'd love to replace the cabinets but I think we will have to settle for painting them and replacing all the hardware. We looked at a granite wholesaler Sunday and found this beautiful countertop for $25/sq. ft. installed! What a deal. I could write fifty blog posts about what I want to do in the kitchen. Better move on.
The boys' bathroom. What is the obsession with carpet? It has to go, stat. I love the amount of cabinet/storage space. The cabinets are already painted a light gray. Thinking about just replacing the countertop and hardware and leaving the cabinets gray. I'd like to add another sink and put in tile floors. Not a fan of the blue bathtub but the gray tile is in good shape so I was thinking about trying to save it to save time and money. Anyone know if we can just put a white insert tub right over that? Have to figure out some creative way to get rid of that safety bar. Maybe replace a few random tiles with brightly colored ones? Their bathroom is quite spacious. It would be one of the first things to remodel, and hopefully before we move in, because it has the only bathtub in the house.
The hall bath, located between the front door and the kitchen. More carpet! Weee! The bathroom is unusually gigantic for a hall bath. Not sure what we are going to do with this space. We have a huge attic with room to finish some space. We are thinking about eventually putting a 4th bedroom up there for guests and possibly using this bathroom as the stairway space. So we might not do anything with this right away. Is that light fixture supposed to be a joke? And why do you need that much storage space in a half bath/hall bath?
I still have to show you the basement and the boys' rooms. They're not bad. The boys rooms pretty much just need paint and new window treatments. I think the basement is okay, but Ryan has big plans for it. I'll post more about it later.
What do you think? As bad as you thought or worse?
xo,
~C~
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