Little Snack Thief

Elijah has such mind of his own, and he can be sooooo stubborn sometimes, so when he decided to stop eating for us and throwing a fit every time we tried to feed him, I was at the end of my very short rope.
I really wasn't sure how to handle this new wave of will power. But I started reading (for the second time) Child of Mine by Ellyn Satter (I would whole-heartedly recommend this to anyone with children, good eaters or bad). It was one of the textbooks in a class I took for my undergrad. Boy did I miss a lot of the details. I realized I was doing everything wrong with Eli, and mealtimes were just becoming a power struggle. So, I stuck to my guns and did what the book says and sure enough, in less than 2 weeks time we have had a complete turn-around. Yesterday Eli was actually kicking and screaming with excitement as I placed his food on his plate. Amazing. Toddlers I guess can be some of the most difficult to feed, but once I let him be in charge of if, and how much he ate, he had a breakthrough. Wow, *sigh of relief*.....now I just need to teach him some manners, just because Mom gets excited when he wants to eat his snack, doesn't mean his friends will be equally as enthusiastic about him eating theirs...

"maybe if I look the other way, he'll never know......"

Oops.. Busted. I love Conrad's face in this one,"sneaky little kid get your hand out of here"

I also love how I narrate the children's thoughts with quotes...I dialogue the unknown thoughts of children. You all do it, you know you do...worse for those of you who do it with your pets....you know who you are.
Just one more from our afternoon at the park on the lake.....the weather was just too nice to stay in-doors.