day 25: our picky eater and our first fall fire

Marley is the pickiest eater I know.  My mother would probably disagree and tell countless stories of how picky I was as a child.  And as a teenager.  But Marley is the pickiest eater I know.

A few times I had read the theory that if you just let your kids decide what they are going to eat off of their plate, they will eventually make the right choices.  It really sounded like a dumb idea to me.  How would they eat healthy foods by choice?  She can't just eat cheese for dinner every night!

So, we kept pushing it and telling her, four more bites.  And she would whine and sometimes she would win and sometimes we would win.  It was exhausting and frustrating and Marley knew it.

I decided to give the ignoring thing a try.  We would make her a plate of all the food we were having, including vegetables and anything else she claimed to not like.  And every night I would tell her, "Marley this is what we are having for dinner.  You can choose to eat it or not, but I don't want o hear any complaining about it.  If you don't want to eat it, just leave it there."

The first few times I wondered why we were doing this.  She still complained even when I repeated the rules to her.  She didn't eat and then asked for a banana at bedtime when she discovered she was hungry.  I would bring out her leftover dinner and tell her that was her only choice.

And then, one meal at a time, things have gotten better and better.

"I am loving this dinner," she told me as she scooped chicken and vegetable soup into her mouth.
"This is weely good!"
Last night she literally shoved handfuls of green beans in her mouth.  (Yes, she was filling her hands with green beans.  This was a victory and I didn't want to mess up her flow by mentioning using a fork!)

She is not a perfect eater by any means, but one success at a time, we are getting better!

Vivi hasn't been wanting to sleep without company lately.  Maybe it's new teeth.  Maybe it's a runny nose.  Maybe it's just growing up.  But either way, we naps are short and her nights are spent pressed up against me.  So, tonight Asa and I were enjoying a fire and I brought her outside to join us.  She is a busy baby and rarely sits still in my lap.  But she was mesmerized by the fire and content to hang out for a while.