The Noodle

I won't pretend that I know everything there is to know about parenting.  All I can say is that I know what the 'perfect' parent is supposed to do, but it's easier said than done.  I've come to the realization that everybody is just doing the best they can.  So to kick off my first entry I wanted to start off with an incident that happened last night.  Mealtime.  Doesn't really matter which one, but it seems like 1 out of 3 meals will be a struggle.  Lately it's been lunchtime, with Aiden in particular.  He just doesn't want to eat.  Little background on Aiden:  he never ate baby food.  Complete texture aversion, even the slightest bit on his lip would make him gag.  He has basically put himself on a liquid diet.  Anyway, well I thought I'd be really clever and use a cookie cutter on his sandwich.  Since I'm not a baker, all I had was a gingerbread man and a Christmas tree.  Phew, one for him and Ella.  The first couple of times it worked!  They both loved the new way of eating and I thought I had it in the bag.  I had mentioned to my mother-in-law about my limited number of cookie cutters.  Next thing I know she shows up with not 1, but 2 boxes of cookie cutters!  One is an animal assortment of 50 and the other 101 random things.  So now I've gone from 2 to 153 cookie cutters.  Oh, grandmothers, what are we going to do with you?  As good as these intentions were, I now have two new problems on my hands.  They want to dump out the box(es) and pick a new cutter for everything that can be cut, and  I have no idea where to store them.  It's been a week now since the cookie cutter overload, and Aiden has lost interest.  We're back to eating peanut butter on a spoon now.
So with this aside, there still is the issue of yesterday.  Now, I'm not one to serve my kids only organic foods, and make them happy vegetable faces out of tomatoes and celery sticks.  Like I said, we're all doing the best we can.  So, we have a rule here at our house:  If you don't like dinner, fine.  All you have to do is take one bite, say you don't like it, and you get a bowl of cereal.  Nothing else.  Just cereal, that's the only other option.  I'm not hard core enough to put them to bed without eating.  Last night was Zitti.  Simple pasta, sauce and meatballs.  Ella decided when she saw the noodle box that she didn't like it.  She ate her bite and got her cereal, no big deal.  Aiden had a royal meltdown, and ended up sitting for 2 hours with a cold, sticky, sauceless noodle sitting in front of him.  We went about our evening cleaning up, giving the girls their baths and putting them in bed and yet there he sat.  Anytime we'd come near he'd start up again with the crying.  I was ready to hit the lights and leave him there and act like we were going to bed too.  Thanks to my wonderful husband, he finally got him to eat the stinkin' noodle...and Aiden ate his cereal.  He went to bed an hour late, but I went to bed feeling proud of us for following through.  On the other hand, was that too harsh?  He's 2 and I'm 25 but we are equally stubborn.   I was so glad he ate the noodle.  I honestly didn't know how this would end up.  What was I gonna do, give him his blanket and pillow and let him sleep at the table?
Mommy 1   Aiden 0