Where is she from????

The other morning after Lydia has a bowl of dry cereal (yes, she's still not drinking soymilk), she asked for something else to eat. I offered the gamit of fruits and breakfast foods but she wasn't interested!!

She opened up the fridge and pulled out some rice leftover from the night before!! I offered to at least heat it up for her, but she wasn't interested!!



She finished the whole bowl:) So tell me.... in what culture/area do people eat cold rice for breakast???

I should take the opportunity to update about Lydia's picky eating. She has actually been doing a lot better about trying green foods. She'll eat raw carrots and cucumbers and cooked broccoli:) And although she isn't crazy about green beans she'll put down a few without gagging to get a special dessert!

They all go through a picky eating stage. I tend not to worry too much, although I'm a Mommy and want my kids to eat their veggies and have well balanced diets:)

So for now we will praise for all the green (and other veggies) that the kids eat up! Hoping that they will eventually LOVE veggies b/c they are always on their plates... LOL!! Isn't that a theory out there??

New Allergy Friendly Eats!!!

It seems like in the last week or so we have found MORE yummy "new" foods to eat. I'm not a part of one of the major food allergy support groups, so many times I literally stubble upon new foods:)

A week ago Brian was at Walmart reading labels on all the pre-packaged desserts that have NEVER been "safe" for us. But lo-and-behold, Brian found Mrs Freshleys Honey Buns... only the Honey Buns so far... no MILK, EGGS or peanuts!!! Amazing! So far Christopher has been the ONLY taker on this sweet treat:)

On Valentines Day we visited with friends and ate at a new Chinese restaurant. Chinese food is always a little "scary" because it seems all the accidental peanut exposure stories have been from mall Chinese food.....

anyway, I questioned the cashier and was assured they didn't use any peanut products or egg in ANY of their rice!! None of the kids even got red when we ate... ahh, relief and a new restaurant!

This week we found So Delicious ice cream at OUR local Walmart! The kids decided they wanted to try the chocolate flavor first... so Christopher did! He has eaten ice cream after EVERY meal this week.... LOL

he LOVES it!! Yay, we can have ice cream now:) We're getting closer to "normal":)

Sometimes I'll get free samples in the mail. Thrifty and Chic Mom always has some fun ones:)

Yesterday I got this tiny little box of a Total Cranberry Crunch. I LOVE that Total has 100% of tons of vitamins and minerals, including calcium, too bad MOST Total cereal has MILK....

but NOT this new kind!! And guess what child got to have Total as her evening bowl of cereal?? Yes, Lydia!! So if I can get just half of a serving in her... that means she'll be good on a handful of vitamins and minerals!!

Oh, I made a pasta recipe that was on the back of my whole wheat pasta! I was expecting some fussiness just because the veggies, meat and sauce were all mixed in with the pasta! But the kids did great and Brian confessed that he was looking forward to the leftovers this afternoon for lunch!! WOW... looking forward to leftovers is a good sign:)

Happy Eating:)

What's Up, DOC??

So you've read about our ongoing food saga... LOL... Lydia is just not eating much. But she still is eating, so Grandma doesn't have to worry... her parents are softies too :)

Tonight I was cutting up carrots to cook for supper. Lydia walked into the room and I offered her one of these cute little cut-up carrot pieces... NOPE wasn't going to have it...

SO I told Brian to watch.... I went back into the fridge, grabbed a whole carrot, rinsed it off and gave it to Lydia. She said "welcome" and walked away munching on the WHOLE carrot???? Why does she like WHOLE, unpeeled carrots??? not sure, but she WILL eat it, well at least some of it!!

So for dinner she had raw carrot and a couple bites of cooked carrots. Then before they brushed their teeth, Lydia ate 3/4 of a bagel??

The Battles Continue.....

As a side note... I am battling Picasa... I don't know why it is acting up again?? So excuse the uneditted pictures until I re-install the program!! GRRRR....

Showdown with the "Picky Eater"

Yes, the "Picky Eater" is still lurking in our home... it always appears at dinnertime... usually on the face of my littlest one:(

It seems like Lydia is getting more and more limited in what she'll eat. She's turning up her nose at anything we put down in front of her... like this afternoon she didn't even eat her hamburger, refused a chicken nugget, NO appleasauce and just nibbled on her french fries (after everyone was done)???



Since meals are already noisy and too busy we have decided not to create more craziness by "forcing her to eat". But we DO limit if she can have a biscuit or more fruit if her main entree isn't touched. Occasionally she'll eat a bit to earn an apple slice or biscuit....


This weekend we had a SHOWDOWN:) We ate dinner and Lydia didn't TOUCH a THING!! She said at dinner she was hungry but she never ate.


After dinner the kids and I made cookies. Lydia was offered her dinner again in order to enjoy the cookies:) She took the news pretty well but DIDN'T EAT!


Brian was starting to get a little worried about sending her to bed hungry... so he offered her the dinner again... NOPE ... "picky eater" wins again!


Finally as Christopher and Anna were brushing their teeth and I was cleaning the cookie mess, Brian came into the kitchen holding Lydia in her PJs! He said that he just couldn't send her to bed hungry..... so we offered her Cheerios with soymilk (she has YET to drink ANY soymilk EVER). Good 'ole Daddy!!

The "picky eater" gladly accepted the offer:)

She piled Cheerios on her spoon and stuffed it into her mouth! HUGE bite after HUGE bite!!

I've worked in a "soup kitchen" before... and this kid ATE like she had missed a few meals :(

So.... who WON the SHOWDOWN???

Not sure.... but I think it's a good compromise with our stubborn 2 year old. She's NOT going to eat the sweet treats and drink up juice if she won't attempt to eat her dinner. I think Cheerios with soymilk is a good alternative right now... protein, calcium and good carbs!

We have also started to limit her juice! So she'll get her 2 cups (mixed half with water) and then she'll have a choice of water or soymilk. So far she is a water fan... but it's been then all the sugar and empty calories of juice....

Anyone got some "out-of-the-box" getting kids to drink milk ideas???? I've already tried chocolate... she spit it all down the front of her ruining the shirt she was wearing... never thought chocolate was that powerful...

Our Newest Singer

Singing is very "in" at our house lately. The kids will play "church"! Each will get a book (AKA a hymn book) and start to sing their little hearts out. I'm thinking this has become such a new game soo quickly b/c the kids have started sitting in Sunday evening service and sometimes part of Sunday morning with me:)

Ok, back to "playing church"! They each get a "hymnal" and sing. But they are never really singing any planned song it really comes out very strange:) Not really words, just sounds and notes,etc!

This morning i caught Lydia "practicing"..... ahahaaa... what have the older ones taught her???

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This has really, really encouraged me to start teaching them some kiddie songs and hymns.... it would be much more beautiful to have them actually singing songs that use real words and encourage our hearts :)

Picky Eater strikes again

Lydia is such a picky, picky eater!!! I am having a time with her and her "I don't like that!"


On Monday night she refused to eat ANYTHING on her plate. As we were all finishing I asked her, "Lydia are you hungry?"


She responded, "Um-uh" and shook her head yes. She had licked her chicken and made so at least she attempted to try it.... right???


Anyway, her answer broke my heart and I did something I swore I wouldn't do for my kids..... I gave her a bowl of Cheerios with soymilk.


I have been against just giving them cereal because my younger brother was always given a bowl of cereal when he refused to eat his meal. And now as a college student, he is still so picky.... now this might JUST be his personality and have nothing to do with giving him cereal.... but I've always wondered....


But how could I let me little down from the table knowing that she was hungry??? I know that if she was really hungry, she would have eaten her dinner and not been so picky...so I know that argument well....


What do I do with my picky eater????