My Son is Getting Big

Mason fell asleep in the car this afternoon.

A few months ago this would have been the beginning of a story about the crazy tantrum my four-year-old threw, how I lost my temper and the stressful day we had. Thankfully (really, really Thank God!) today's story has  happier ending.

When I tried to wake Mason up so we could take Emily into her dance class, he opened his eyes, sat up and said in a groggy, angry voice, "I HATE EVERYTHING!"

Then he leaned back against his car seat and fell asleep again. I had to lift him out of the mini-van and carry him. When I picked him up he quietly wrapped his arms around me and about a minute later he said, "I wanna get down now," in a calm voice.

I was holding my breath. Where was the screaming? Surely the tantrum would start any second. I walked along silently, carefully watching Mason. And you know what? He didn't throw a tantrum. He didn't scream.

I realized at that moment that his funny, half asleep declaration of hate was actually a huge step forward. He was, to sound like such a mom, "using his words." He told me how he was feeling instead of throwing a tantrum. I bet during all of the monster tantrums that he threw last summer he was feeling like he hated everything and he just couldn't put his feelings into words.

Yahoo! My son hates everything and he can tell me! Sounds weird, I know, but it's a huge step in the right direction.

The rest of the afternoon continued on very smoothly. After dinner I looked at Mason and said, "You sure are getting big. Do feel like you're getting big?"

"Yeah, I do feel big," he said in a serious, proud voice. "Do you know how I know I'm getting so big, Mama?" he asked. "Because I do what my dad asks me to do and I don't cry about it."

This is one of the days I've been dreaming of, waiting for and praying about for the past year. My son is getting big. I so completely cherish these moments of happy, big boy time with him. I could cry tears of joy just thinking about it.

Help! My Kids Won't Eat Their Vegetables

I bet thousands, maybe even millions of parents worry about the fact that their children don't like to eat vegetables. Kids hate veggies, right? Everyone knows that. Hey, not so fast. That may be a myth. Maybe it's true that some kids wouldn't pick up a carrot stick when they have a bowl of chips available too, but does that mean that they really don't like carrots? I don't think so.

Jenna from Food With Kid Appeal doesn't believe the anti-veggie myth either. She recently held a "Taste Off" at her son's elementary school. Over 300 kids taste-tested several healthy foods and the event was a big success. Check out her blog post describing the tasting event and lots of great information about teaching kids to enjoy their fruits and vegetables.

In our house we have a dichotomy of eaters. My sons and I love to eat veggies and fruit. In fact, I have started calling Mason, my four-year-old, a natural vegetarian because he will always choose vegetables and fruit over anything else on his plate. My youngest, Ryan, is already a great eater too. My daughter and husband tend toward the, "Eewww... it's a vegetable," opinion but I haven't given up on them yet.

I learned a lesson the hard way with my first child - offer a variety of fruits and vegetables (and all types of food for that matter) as young as possible in order to avoid the picky-eater syndrome.

If kids can't remember not eating lots of healthy food there will never be a battle over trying to add it back into to their eating repertoire. For example, Mason is excited when he gets a plate full of spinach salad, green beans, or kiwi because those are the types of foods I've been feeding him since he was a baby.

Unfortunately, I've had to backtrack with Emily because I didn't offer enough of a variety in her first year eating solid foods. Thankfully, she is usually willing to try new foods and has developed a fondness for several fruits and veggies.

So, anyone who is looking for ideas about improving their children's nutrition should check out Jenna's blog. I am always inspired by her ideas and I think you will be too.

This post is linked up with Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday and Life As Mom's Eat More Veggies! 

The Mystery of the Blue Footprints

January 2011 Update: It is the one year anniversary of my blog so I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past year. 2010 was a year of change for me in many ways. My blog documented most of those changes and it fun for me to be able to look back at my writing from the past year. I wanted to honor my one year mark by re-posting one of my favorite first posts below. 

The Mystery of the Blue Footprints

As I was making lunch yesterday, unbeknownst to me, a mystery was brewing in my house. All was quiet around the house. That should have been my first clue that something was amiss.

As I was finishing up with lunch I called to the kids to get ready to eat. At that point I looked down into our family room and saw the evidence of some kind of foul play.

This is what I saw in the hallway.

The crime scene in the family room was even more terrible. Blue ink was everywhere! I used my expert mommy investigative skills to figure out the culprit was Mason. He had the blue feet to prove my suspicions. Not to mention his blue hands too.

Apparently while I thought Mason was playing with legos he was being "artistic" but his creativity went a bit too far. He found a blue stamp pad with some art supplies and decided that his hands and feet made the best stamps of all - unfortunately he didn't stamp on paper. He stamped all over the family room carpet and even the couch. Thank God that the geniuses who make art supplies for kids have come up with washable ink. It took quite a lot of scrubbing and a run with the carpet cleaner, but we eventually got all of the blue ink out of the carpet and off of the couch.

Two important mommy life lessons were learned in the solving of this mystery.

#1 Don't trust a quiet three year-old.

#2 Don't leave art supplies within said three year-old's reach.

All in a days work as Detective Mommy!

This post is part of Alphabe-thursday.