Getting the Christmas Tree

This year is a little more fun than last year. B is a little older and a little wiser. He sees that there is a tree in our house! Mike was so excited to take him to pick out a tree and wanted him to help him set it up and decorate it which is all good except that he is only 1! He can only do so much. I was cute though seeing B put the mitten decoration on it and playing with the lights, but for the most part isn't too concerned with the tree or the light. Good for us because he doesn't really mess with it a whole lot either. Here are a few pics of the tree decorating ordeal.

The new "meal time".

Meal time is so stressful. Every since he learned that he doesn't have to eat something if he doesn't want to, feeding him has been a bit of a challenge. It seems like food just isn't his thing. We have tried everything to get him to eat, but the only thing that seemed to work was to place a "puff"on the spoon with the "real" food we wanted him to eat. He sure does like those puffs and at the time I didn't care. At least my kid , who is always on the low side of the growth chart, was eating. But, he wasn't pooping either. Every time he would poop it would be hard or he would strain and strain and cry without success. I didn't know what was causing it. Was it the cow's milk we switched to? Was it lack of water in-take? Was it an allergy to a food? Was it a more serious GI issue (which of course I convinced myself)? So after a night of crying and an enema later I decide off to the Dr.'s we go!



I told the Dr. that I thought it was not right do have to give your child prune juice, Miralax, and enemas this much and most of the time those didn't even work (we will get to that later). She said "Laura, quit crying and pull yourself together". Ok she didn't say that, but I did cry and that is probably what she was thinking. While she was talking I kept feeding puffs to B to keep him quiet so I could listen to her. In a nutshell this is what we are now doing.

1.) New motto= Parents Provide, Children Decide. Meaning- I provide the food (place it on his tray and walk away) he decides if he wants to eat it, if not next meal/snack is in a few hours. Sounds like tough love huh? It is. But, if my girlfriend or sister was having the same issues that is the same thing I would tell them. So why wasn't I practicing what I preach?

2.) He needs to feed himself. He is 1 and this is good practice for him. Who cares if he is dirty or the floor gets dirty (gulp) I don't. Plus, now he feels like he has a little more control over his life and he likes that.

3.) I can actually get stuff done around the house. I can't make him eat anyway so why hover over him and get frustrated. I get a lot of stuff done now and its nice.

4.) No more puffs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So how is it working? Well, the first meal time with this strategy was hard. He threw just about everything on the floor and ate very little. It is now progressively getting better and better. He has normal bowel movements everyday and I am not as stressed out over meal time. The question is how will his weight gain be?


Here a sneak peak at my big boy eating!

No Milk For You!

B has been so constipated lately. He is miserable. All day long sometimes he will cry and strain and cry. I felt bad for him so...I gave him an enema. I know, I know, but it really helped me when I was pregnant with him and couldn't go. I got the smallest dosage I could find and this is after all else had failed. Needless to say he is fine. No harm done. In fact, 20 minutes after I gave it to him he was a new man, back to his normal hyper self. After talking to other moms and my sisters I attribute this to the recent transition to whole milk. I think he is still too young for it and will wait another month and slowly introduce again. So, back to buying formula. I rather cough of the money for that then see my baby struggling (obviously).

Trick or Treat

This was a lot more fun than last year. My boy is sooo cute. He made the cutest little monkey. Here he is trick or treating for the first time

Sitting by our pumpkins that Mike carved. This year we also roasted the seeds and put some cajun seasoning on them. YUM!
Here is his stash. Dad was so proud.
Some families just put candy out on their porch.
But the real fun was watching him walk up to the house carrying his bag. AWWW I almost cried.
Heading home with the goods.

Smarter than I thought

After we collected candy from the trunks of cars at the fall festival we decided to leave and put B to bed. He was a little cranky in the car so I gave him a twix bar to play with. I figured he would hold it and chew on it but it would be fine because he couldn't get it open. Well, it got really quiet and I noticed he wasn't getting bored with it. He was "playing" with it a lot longer than I thought. This couldn't be right so I jumped in the back seat while we sat in the Taco Bell drive through and turned the light on to see this...

And now he know what candy is.

Fall Festival

The other night we took B to the Fall Festival at our church. They had tons of stuff to do from games, to train rides, Trunk or Treat, jumping castle, the works. He just loved running around the church and checking everything out, mostly the decorations. Next year he will like the games more I think. Of course we had to use him to get free candy for dad.

(Trunk or Treat)

(waiting in line to play a game)

The shirt says it all.

Nanna always finds the cutest clothes for B man and this isn't an exception. I thought it would be funny to put him in this onesie and go into Mike's office and "check in on him". It is kind of hard to read but next to the tie is a fake name tag type thing that says "I'm the boss". He just wanted to make sure dad was on task.

But it is so true, B really is the boss of us. It is his schedule all the time. Its what makes him happy that we bend over backwards to do. Sometimes I wonder while I am in the library literally getting beat up by my one year old that I think "this is crazy...pull yourself together and show him who is boss here. Take control back!" This doesn't seem to work too well because in the end when your in public you do anything to not make a scene. But at home its a different story (at least I should hope or else we are screwed later).