Pure Genius!

Back from hiatus…


So Little Man is almost two (in two weeks! I can’t believe it!) and in true 2 year old fashion, he’s decided to exert his blossoming independence in one of the few ways he can… Refusal to eat veggies!

Gone are the days when my little potato would sneak broccoli florets off of my plate and devour them. Gone are the days of peas being consumed with reckless abandon. Siiigh.

After a few months of eating none of the veggies offered to him, I have found a sneaky way to get him eating veggies. No, this isn’t a recipe from Deceptively Delicious, though I do find that cookbook intriguing. Instead, it is far simpler and requires NO cooking on my part. What is this miraculous solution? Well, let me give some back story.

Last year, I stumbled upon a cool company called Revolution Foods. Not only are they an awesome company that is trying to improve the way our kids eat, but they have some awesome products. One of those awesome products are their Mash ups,

which are squeezable fruit packets. Awesome! I can toss one in my bag and give it to Little Man anywhere. He LOVES his “squeezies.”

Fast forward to two weeks ago. I was desperately trying to come up with a way to get Little Man to eat veggies, and I stumbled upon these beauties from Ella’s Kitchen and Plum Organics:

SQUEEZY PACKS OF VEGGIE/FRUIT BLENDS!!!

I’m so enamored of these little beauties. Granted, they are technically stage 1 baby foods, but Little Man doesn't know that! He thinks they are his "squeezies" and has sucked down his veggies like never before!

Thus far, he’s tried almost all the veggie flavors and has only rejected the Broccoli, Peas & Pears by Ella’s Kitchen (I tried it, it was pretty nasty). I’m so beyond excited-- I get a toddler who eats some veggies AND something to bribe him with? "You want some squeezie? you gotta eat some chicken first!"

Sometimes I think I might be a genius!

My son is part spider monkey

I was making dinner yesterday and Little Man was playing in the dining room. I turned my back for about 20 seconds (literally turned, got spaghetti out of the cabinet, put spaghetti into boiling water and stirred) and when I turned around THIS is what I found:

Co...Sleeping???

Thursday night, Little Man woke up screeching at 12:33 a.m. As Diesel had that Friday off, I gently kicked him in the calf and said "get the boy." Off he went, ever so slowly, to calm the howling beast. It got quiet for a little while; then the howling began afresh and Diesel returned to bed. As the fevered nature of Little Man's squalling denoted that he was not, in fact, going to cry himself to sleep, but rather would be working himself into a sweaty lather, I hauled my tired (sick) self into his room.
I scooped him up, sat down in the glider and began rocking him. He dozed off, so I tried putting him back in his crib. He was having none of this. The screeching recommenced. I went through the rock-crib-screech pattern for a good 20 minutes, to no avail. So, in an effort to get any kind of sleep, I lugged him back to our bed.
Now, in theory, bringing him to bed means that I tuck the little darling in between Diesel & I and we all cozy up and sleep soundly until the morning (isn't that right, Dr. Sears???). NOT IN MY HOUSE!!!
First, of all, Little Man does NOT like to be covered. Any thing mildly resembling a blanket will be kicked off. He insists upon sleeping on top of the covers. This is difficult when Momma & Dada would like to remain covered.
Secondly, he wriggles and kicks and hits (both as he's trying to fall asleep & in his sleep).
Thirdly, he--and the dog-- like to sleep perpendicular to Diesel & I, which means our two "babies," totalling a whopping 45 lbs together, end up taking the lion's share of the bed, as Diesel and I cling, valiantly, to the edges of our bed.
Fourthly (is that a word?), Little Man insists that IF he must sleep parallel to us, he HAS to sleep ON my arm. Which means I lose feeling in my hand and can't ever find a comfortable position (do I extend my arm and sleep with my hand on Diesel's face? Leave it standing up in the air, hastening the tingling in my fingers?).
Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good snuggle with Little Man, but trying to co-sleep with him has not been successful since he was a swaddled little potato. Now, it is rather like trying to sleep with an over-active spider monkey, yet I keep trying. Why? Because I hold the hope that one of these, rare, times that he wakes up in the middle of the night, I'll be able to bring him back to our bed and we'll cuddle up and drift off to the land of nod.

Ya Gotta Start Somewhere!

So I've decided to start blogging. Exciting, right? Why? Because I'm constantly amusing (and confounding) myself in this journey they call motherhood and figured it didn't hurt to share!

Heck, I've got 1 year, 1 month and 18 days of experience at this. Yup, that is right, 414 days of maternal bliss (what we call that heady insanity that comes from a total lack of quality sleep for over a year)... That makes me an expert, right?

Some upcoming topics to whet your appetite for more momma-musings:
-Why I heart diapers.com (and how did I not know about this site sooner?)
-Diaper pail putridity (or why I can't wait to get back to cloth diapering)
-Baby snot fountains (cute, cuddly, full of boogers)
-Meet MY grandson... oh, yeah that is my kid & his/her spouse (on becoming 2nd best in Mom's house)
-Wish I had read that sooner (a better late than never review of baby literature)

So far, motherhood has been the most exhausting, most rewarding job I've ever had. And I'm so amazed that in a mere 414 days my baby has gone from this:

To this: