Josh has been a little weird about eating his meals lately (esp. dinner), so we've been experimenting with no snacks, no milk until after dinner, etc - trying to do what we can to make sure he's hungry at mealtime. Last night he refused to eat the yummy leftover green chile chicken enchiladas. We knew he liked them because he'd gobbled them up a few days earlier. We'd prayed for a peaceful dinner, not really believing it possible, but thought of the verse that says "with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible". There's been quite a racket lately with Josh having fits about eating and Brielle starting to yell whenever she spots that baby food jar - one is upset about having to eat and the other that it's not coming fast enough! (By the way, I've been using our food mill for Brielle lately (thanks, Faye) and she's been loving eating the same food as us...beef stew earlier this week, enchiladas last night, and baked ziti tonight - so weird for her to be sooo big! Dan says, eating comes naturally for her - it's true and it always has!)
Anyway, desperate to eat ourselves and stop the noise, we decided to let Josh get down since once he's decided he's not eating, food tends to start hitting the floor - it's not pretty. Once down, he preceded to pitch a fit, wanting to sit on my lap while I attempted to feed Brielle and myself. So, he got some "crib time", which actually works wonders at calming him down. We put some toys in there and leave the door open and amazingly he quickly calms down and is MUCH happier than he was out in the living area with us. (Last night he made a "choo-choo" out of a Thomas the Train Engine and a truck and rolled it all over the bed and his legs - very cute!) I figured he'd eat later if he was hungry and put his food back in the fridge. Peaceful dinner was achieved - Praise God!
He still wasn't hungry after crib time, so we headed to the park (with his leftovers in the bottom basket of the stroller, just in case). I was determined that if he ate, he would eat what I'd fixed and wasn't taking any excuses! We had fun at the park and met some other nice families - all with big brothers and baby sisters, actually. Still no sign of hunger, so we went home, did baths, put sis to bed, read books...I'm thinking that he's just going to go without dinner...but, as I put him in the crib, he started signing that he was hungry. I was afraid he'd wake up in the middle of the night if I tried to put him down hungry, so out he came and back into the high chair...three happy, peaceful bowls of enchiladas later, he was finally full. (Needless to say, Daniel was pretty surprised when he woke up to get ready for his night shift and Josh was still awake at 8:45pm.)
So, all in all, it was a victory - everyone was happy - and tonight he ate with us, no crib time required - yay!
**I forgot to mention that the reason he has two spoons is that he fed himself with one while I loaded up the other one so it was ready as soon as he was! Pretty smart kid!
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