My Child is a Seagull

He totally is.

Specifically the seagull from Finding Nemo.

You remember the one:

Cute.. but LOUD and the minute they get possession of anything it turns into this:

Yep, the "mine" phase has hit Austin big-time.

I blame it on another kid in his class who started saying "mine" about a month ago.. none of the kids were saying it, then suddenly they all started following suit.

Mine!

Mine!

Mine!

Mine!

Miiiiiinnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

Example 1- driving in the car home yesterday. We are both quiet, Austin is gazing out the window, then suddenly he looks at me, holds his toy truck up and goes "MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE!!!!!!!!!"

Um. Ok.. wasn't trying to take it from you, but thanks for the info.

Example 2- dropping Austin off this morning. He runs over to the slide, climbs up and yells "MINE!" as a little girl tries to join him. A lecture on how it is not his, and its everyone's and he needs to take turns follows.

Example 3- Austin playing with Henry the other night. Flat out steals Henry's skunk toy out of his mouth, holds it to him and says "MINE!" and then throws a hissy fit when we take it from him and tell him it's Henry's. You actually WANT the smelly dog-drool covered skunk that bad, kid??

Sigh.

I knew this day would come, but damn. I'm already tired of hearing "MINE MINE MINE!!!!" about everything that is in Austin's hand, in the same room with him, or in his sight radius.

Unless its food he doesn't like. Then he's happy to mush it up and hand it back to me.

Kids.

When Daddy is Away.. I Make Grandma Come Stay!!!

Last weekend Neal had his annual long weekend golf trip so I invited my Mom up to help wrangle my kid hang out with us.

She got here Thursday night and we went out to Mexican for dinner. Eating out is not my favorite thing with Austin. 1) because he is still a picky eater and doesn't want what is offered to him and gets antsy in his chair and 2) gets so curious about where we are, all he wants is down so he can explore.

Of course he was on his best behavior for "Gama" and sat in his chair the whole time, AND ate (most) of what we gave him to eat.

The next day Gama stayed home with the little booger while I went to work. I tell ya.. driving the 25 mins to work in a QUIET car has become a luxury. I may or may not have driven a bit slower to and from work. Ha.

My Mom had to give Austin a time out that day, because he hit her 3 times. Of course he started to cry when she put him in the time out spot and acted sorry.. while when Neal and I do the same exact thing he laughs and runs out of the spot like its a game. Sigh.

Later that night we put him to work doing dishes:

Saturday we were up early and off to one of Austin's fav spots- the zoo! Getting there early is the key... way less people, and the animals are usually pretty active:

I think we were at the lions half the time, he loves these statues!

Just like his Mama- loves the penguins!

Zoo train!!!!!! 

I feel like this before I've had my morning coffee too, Ms. Lion.

We saw EVERYTHING at the zoo and had lunch and Austin got a little lion to take home. He had a blast and fell promptly asleep in the car on the way home.

After the zoo I left the napper at home with my Mom and did my weekly grocery run (ugh) and came home to a hyper kid who woke up way too soon from his nap. I guess he didn't want to miss out on too much Gama time.

Sadly, Gama had to go home Saturday afternoon. If only she would move in with us. How awesome would that be??

Thanks for spending the weekend with us Gama! We love you!

Little Austin Updates

I wanted to do a Monday Musing yesterday but got too busy and realized all I had to write about were things pertaining to my kid. So funny when you become a Mom.. its just kid, kid, kid all the time. J

Just some fun things I wanted to put down in writing to remember about Austin:

-he is saying his name now! He says “Aus-tis” or “Aus-sis” or “Aus-tee.” It’s pretty adorable. And he always points to himself. He’s starting to like to identify people.. he’ll point to me “Mama!” the Neal “Dada!” then himself.

-he weaned him off the binkie! Kinda. He still gets it to sleep, and in the car because let’s face it. He turns into a nasty grunting creature in the car and Mama needs some sanity while driving. He’s done really good though.. I was nervous because he was SUCH a binkie kid I thought for sure it would be a huge struggle. But he is getting a kick out of throwing it in his crib each morning and saying “bye bye” until bedtime.

-he is really into puzzles lately. It’s nice to see my crazy busy little guy sit quietly for long stretches of time, playing with a puzzle. I’m glad he has the ability to be still! Haha.

-I tend to be the subject of his sticker placement. He has a big sticker book and he loves to put them on my neck, of all places! Last night I forgot to peel one off and Neal was like “do you know you have a sticker on your neck?” they are like toddler hickies.

-we went on a friend’s boat a few weeks back and Austin didn’t know WHAT to think. He just clung to me while the boat was moving, and just stared in awe. He didn’t like the water though, we’ve got to get him in swim lessons to get him used to big bodies of water.

-this is just pure cuteness. Austin saying “cheese!!’

-I went to a baby shower last Saturday and a girl there was talking about her daughter named Austin. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought for sure I picked a MASCULINE name that would not cross over into girl-land... but apparently Austin is starting to pop up as a girl’s name?????

-the new thing is to go pick out a book to read, then bring it to one of us and present it while jumping and saying “book!” He can get about a ½" off the ground now when he jumps! I’m sure scaling and jumping off the couch will follow soon.

The Toddler Food Trap

Maybe we should have just stuck with purees forever.... 

I said I’ve never do it..

But it happened anyway.

I fell into the trap of feeding my kid special “toddler” food and became a short-order cook.

Anyone who  has kids, or any parenting website out there (if you dare actually read those things) regarding toddler nutrituion will tell you the same thing: your kid should eat what you eat. Don’t give them food just for them or you will create a picky eater.

Yeah.. well… whoops.

Here’s how it happened…

First off, I work 40+ hours a week, and have a 30 min commute each way to work. So I’m gone from the house for about 11 hours a day. That leaves little time to prepare anything too complex or fancy.

Second off, the first half of the year Neal is coaching baseball which means I come home to an empty house and a hungry kid to entertain and feed at the same time.

Third off, my kid is already picky. The second we introduced anything beyond purees back when he was about 8 months old, he started refusing food, spitting it out, turning away and gagging. Broccoli pureed into oblivion? Loved it! Broccoli with some chunks. GAG GAG GAG. 

It was a battle from the beginning of “real” food with him.

We had to coax him to eat real food so it was easy to fall into the trap of “feed him what we know he will eat”…. Which meant he ate different food than us, because we just wanted him to eat period.

I’d come home from work, set him up with his dinner of Toddler Food:

-hummus/crackers

-string cheese

-chicken nuggets

-griller meatless patty

-applesauce

-PB & J

-mac n cheese

And that was about all the variety he got for months. I just didn’t have the time or energy to create diverse foods for him and the few times I tried, he refused a single bite and I melted down into tears and an anxiety attack over my “kid who won’t eat a f***ing thing” and all the time I wasted trying to make meals for him.

In an effort to save my sanity I gave into the Toddler Food trap.

I knew it wasn’t good or the way I wanted to parent but I didn’t know what else to do. He’d come home from school and be STARVING (at least he’d act that way) and make such a fuss I HAD TO FEED HIM IMMEDIATELY.

So while he ate his Toddler Food, I’d pick up the house, do dishes, or start me and Neal’s dinner which we would eat much later, or even after Austin went to bed.

It bothered me. A lot.

I’d see friends’ kids eat awesome, eat everything offered, have this diverse palette and here I was…. Struggling to get my kid to even TOUCH fruit or veggies (literarlly… he barely touches them and recoils his hand as offended) and going nuts worrying about how I was raising “that” kid who would be in 5^th grade and only eat cheese.

I snapped and told Neal one night that a new rule was starting in our house.

No more Toddler Food.

Austin was going to eat what we ate for dinner, when we ate dinner, and that was it. If he didn’t eat, then he’d spend some days hungry and get the picture. At least I’d hoped this is what would happen.

We started this 2 weeks ago and how is it going?

Meh.

Out of the last 2 weeks I think he’s had 3 days where he ate our dinner great and I felt so happy and proud! The rest of the time, he picks it up, puts it down, says “no” and proceeds to squirm out of his highchair and fuss.

Sigh.

But I’m sticking to it, and there have been a lot of nights where he has had no dinner, and well.. he hasn’t starved yet. But he hasn’t quite gotten the gist of this new situation yet either. I think he is manipulating us a bit because he’ll scream with hunger the minute we get home, so he will get a snack to tide him over until dinner. Well sometimes the snack is bigger than we meant.. and then guess what? Dinner is refused and Austin got the cheese stick he wanted.

Well played, kid. Well played.

So time to amp up the strictness of this… he has a snack at 3:30pm at school. I KNOW he is not starving to death when we get home at 5:15. So he is just going to have to wait until dinner.

We’ll see what happens… last night was a big fat mess of Austin screaming for what seemed like forever, wanting to be in his high chair and acting hungry, then refusing dinner and screaming louder. It was a lot of fun. Believe me.

And I hate to see him not eat anything at night.. I have a feeling it’s going to be a battle since he is so stubborn.

So yeah… I screwed up. Somewhere along the line I didn’t introduce food the right way, or at the right time or in the right texture or who the hell knows.. but now I’m digging myself out and sucks.

Who knew it was such an “art” to start kids on solid foods?

Any moms out there have tips?

Oh wait.. that’s right. Every kid but mine eats everything on the planet. Nevermind. J