Food Wars

K was the easiest baby ever.  He slept like a champ, he had a happy disposition, and he ate anything. I always worried about having a finicky eater but I really thought it wouldn't happen.  Jon and I aren't picky at all and I cook a wide variety of stuff.  I assumed that if we exposed K to a variety of foods, it would never be a problem.  Around 18 months he decided he would not try things.  Even food that he had loved as an infant. His favorite thing in the world was yogurt and now he won't even consider it. Mostly it was anything that would make his hands gooey or felt strange on his hands. I am wondering if it is because he began using utensils at such an early age. 

We eat healthy food, so it wasn't like he was saving his appetite for fast food,snack cakes or cookies. His snacks are cranberries, nuts, cheese, etc. Since his snacks were healthy, and he LOVES most breakfast foods, I didn't push the dinner issue. I didn't make him anything different than what we were having.  I would give him a piece of fruit in addition to dinner.  He would, 9 times out of 10, eat only the fruit for dinner.  He would not even try a bite of anything else.

After nearly a year of this, and an episode of The View where they had a guest who said that if children aren't exposed to a certain food by the age of 3 they may never like it, we decided we needed to do something. So we resorted to bribery, which works surprisingly well.  It was slow going at first.  Every night the bribe is different, it may be a couple of M&M's or his favorite show, and there is still protesting at the start, but we have seen major improvements.  K has cleaned his plate for almost a full month now and his protesting is minimal. To be fair, had he gagged or been visibly disgusted by a food we wouldn't have had him eat the whole thing, but he hasn't.  Last night we had pulled pork tacos with a spinach blue cheese, dried cherry, and almond salad and; after he finished his, he helped me eat mine.

 Tonight we had chicken and broccoli stirfry over quinoa.  

 We started out at his table

and moved to the dining room table but, as you can see, he ate it all. This is month has been so major for us, it has been a frustrating journey at times but we are making strides.  It is so important to us that Kane eat a variety of healthy food and enjoy it as well.

Outdoor fun

After a very long winter, we are extremely ready for summer.  I have big plans to spend the majority of our time at home outdoors.  A few weeks ago we bought Kane a playset and he has been in heaven ever since.  If we aren't on the trampoline, we are on his playset.  I still think the trampoline is his favorite.  We are going to have many playdates this summer at the house and I have no doubt K's play area will get a lot of use.

 K's sweet set.

 He is doing such a good job on the big kid swing!

 Jon and his friends spent 12 hours putting this set together Saturday, Sunday morning K didn't even get out of his pj's before he was outside playing.

Trampoline time.  We love the trampoline and, barring bad weather, we are on it almost every day.

Tulips!

Today we went to the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival in Lehi and it was magical! I love tulips and K likes to run free and there were plenty of open spaces for him to run wild and free.  Also, we went with some of our friends so he had plenty of buddies to hang out with. The weather was perfect and the flowers were in full bloom.  It is my probably one of my favorite events to go to in the spring and this year did not dissapoint.

 Having friends come is not only great company but it gives us the rare opportunity to get a family photo!

 My little cheeseball.

 Here is a merry go round made of bushes, I thought this was incredibly creative.  I bet it looks better when it blooms.

 Who doesn't just love fields of flowers!

 K running with his favorite friends!

One last cheese shot. 

It was such a lovely day.

Playroom Part 2

The playroom will always be a work in progress but it seems to have a nice enough variety now to keep K busy, so I guess we will call it complete...ish.  It's a great space for him and it's nice to see him learning through play.  I love to see his wheels turning.  

 I plan on using those grey chevron curtains in his rooms as he grows, I just love them!

 He loves his marble maze, which is a great toy but detaches regularly so I get a brain workout as well. The kitchen is also a favorite.  It's the perfect size too because his playroom is fairly small.

 The tent serves as a quiet space/reading nook.  We spend a lot of time in there.  The goal is to hang some bookshelves on the wall for easy access.  Right now he just has a pile in there that I rotate.

K is starting to draw more and more and he seems to really get use out of the stop sign chalkboard in his playroom.