Micah ate dinner!

Tonight, Micah ate a bite of everything we put on his plate.  He had a steamed carrot, 2 steamed snow peas, a piece of steamed broccoli and about two tablespoons of homemade macaroni and cheese.

Why is that significant, you ask?

Because Micah only eats certain foods.  In fact, 3 months ago, he had reduced back down to about 6.  None of which were healthy and none of which were a protein source.

We backed off for a while on increasing his diet and just let him be.  We also added a protein drink for kids that we called his "chocolate milk" just to get him some nutrition and stabilize his blood sugar.  Finally he started branching out again on his own with a little coaxing from us.

When you have a kid with food issues, it consumes a lot of your time and energy.  Every meal, every bite has to be carefully measured.  Sometimes a food simply being at the same table or in the same room would be too much.  Micah approaches our dinner table with trepidation.  He carefully examines each item on the table looking for something he will eat.  And I always have something on the table I know he will eat because otherwise, he won't stay and cries through our dinnertime.

At this point, Micah's food issues are part sensory and part fear.  Taking a bite of a baked nugget you have eaten since toddlerhood only to find yourself gagging and puking on your mom will make you pretty fearful about what you put in your mouth.

But tonight he ate.  He has NEVER eaten 4 cooked vegetables at one sitting.  I might get a nibble or a touch to the tongue of one, but chewing and swallowing...no way.  And mac and cheese that didn't come from the blue box...NEVER.

I didn't really think he would eat anything, actually.  My only request tonight was that he at least try to taste things and then I would get him his food.  I also attempted to bribe him a bit with the promise of a piece of Christmas fudge if he actually ate everything on the plate.

Apparently my bribe worked.  Suddenly he was willing to try and although he did gag a couple of times, he powered through and cleaned his whole plate.

He was so proud of himself.

Go Micah!

Friday's Random Bits of Nothing

It's been a long week.  A very long week.  Lots happening and lots to do.  Gotta love the holidays.
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We finally heard from the neurologist and Micah has an appointment...in April.  Yep.  You read that right.  April.  The day before he turns 4 in fact.  Meanwhile, he's still doing whatever it is that he is doing although, seemingly, not as often.  (or I could be having a kind of week where I'm too busy to notice.)

On a positive note, we aren't seeing near the effects of his horrible food issues.  He doesn't eat enough protein throughout the day and therefore has many highs and lows from his body processing the veggies, fruit and carbs he does eat.  So, we started giving him some Boost Kid Essentials over the course of a day to keep him more level.  He calls it his "chocolate milk."  Dinner is no longer a battle and he is actually picking up some of the foods he dropped earlier this fall.
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Hannah's teacher started her in a reading group.  She's now bringing home high frequency readers and learning sight words along with the phonics I as teaching her at home.  It was a big boost for her to hear from her little kindergarten friend, Margo, that she is bring home the same books each week as well.
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Jason is continuing on his downward spiral.  We believe it is simply a culmination of life in general, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with.  It's hard to parent him effectively when he's being so darn oppositional and dishonest.

Intellectually, I know that these are left over and learned behaviors from those attached-challenged days and the only way to turn this around is for him to have enough, purge all those emotions he is building up inside of him and start making better choices.  And it doesn't help that he's feeling BAD about himself for doing all of this and bottling all that up as well.  I can consequence and talk and limit until I'm blue in the face, but he has to make the change here.  This can take as long as a week (which we're well past now) of over a month (looking that way).
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Today is my 10th wedding anniversary and if I can get my scanner hooked up, I'll post some pictures of the blessed event.

Although we celebrated last weekend, it's still a special day.  When I was at Target buying Micah's "chocolate milk," I picked up a bottle of wine and a card.  We'll have about a glass a piece while I fold laundry and he fiddles around with his guitar before becoming so tired we can't do anything but fall asleep.  Romance is overrated for parents.  Sleep is the in thing.
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Love, Lola and Laughs

This past weekend, Andy and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary a bit early.  The Fabulous Food Show was coming to Cleveland this weekend and we have been trying to go for the past 3 years.  This year everything worked out so we could go.  No one was sick or tanking things and my mom was more than willing to babysit for the weekend.  So, Andy made reservations at Lola, Chef Michael Symon's restaurant in downtown Cleveland, for late Saturday night with reservations at a hotel not too far from the convention center.  

We left midday Saturday. Wanting to not only get on the road, but to also get away from 3 overly excited children who knew they were about to be spoiled to death at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  The drive from Columbus to Cleveland is fairly boring, but we didn't care.  Because for the first time in a LONG time, we got to talk, really talk about things that mattered without little ears listening or voices chiming in.  It's something that many parents find rare, but we find near impossible given our kids and their needs.

We took our time and even stopped about an outlet mall to do a little shopping.  We got to the hotel at around 4 and decided to just relax.  We ordered a romantic comedy, laid down and just watched a movie together.  It was fun.  It made me remember our times back before kids when life was a whole lot simpler. 

Dinner that night at Lola was exceptional.  The food was amazing and the service incredible.  I can totally see why Michael Symon is such a celebrated chef.  Every dish, every course was so well done.  Our Beef Cheek Perogies were litterally melting in our mouths and the pork chop I had was divine.  (Andy said his scallops were amazing as well. )  By the time we finished dessert and coffee (also amazing), it was already pretty late so we heading back to the hotel.

The next day was the Food Show.  Andy scored us some 3rd row center seats for Bobby Flay that morning when we realized our tickets didn't have a reserved chef demo attache to them.  We say him first and really enjoyed getting to see him live. He is just as fun and knowledgeable as he is on Food Network.  We took a TON of pictures and some video because Bobby os one of our kids 2 favorite Iron Chefs.  

After Bobby, we walked the show a bit, sampling some stuff here, getting brochures and ideas there.  We tried a WII game called Cook or Be Cooked and I destroyed Andy in the head to head battle over bacon and eggs.  The game was cool but not something we'd get as it's too hard for the kids to enjoy.  Still, the guy running the booth gave us some chef's hats for the kids that we know will be treasured.

Wandering back towards the Main Kitchen Theater, we realized that Michael Symon was about to start and we were able to sit in the back bleachers and see him.  It was super amazing to see him and we were just so impressed with his cooking.  His food isn't full of techniques and such that you need fancy equipment or a culinary degree for.  It's simple, food done well.  (Very, very well)  The kind of stuff Andy and I could easily do at home.

After leaving the show, we managed to get a place in line to have him sign a copy of his cookbook.  He's the other favorite chef of our kids.  We met the little boy that he pulled on stage during the show and found him incredibly fun.  He reminded us a LOT of Jason and spent the time in line shooting the breeze with his family.  We had our book signed to the kids instead of us, since we knew how cool it would be for them.  We also told Michael that our boys argue over who gets to be him when they play Iron Chef.  He got a good belly laugh out of that.

By the time we headed home, we were tired and really missing our kids.  I think they would have loved this show and is we can pull it off, hope to bring them next year.

Autumn Nights

Tonight we ended the weekend with a bang. We got the fire pit going, invited over the neighbors and hung out talking, making s'mores and listen to our kids play.

We also made a new discovery because we didn't have enough Hershey bars.  Our neighbors cut some Fun Size Snickers in half and we used those instead. OH MY GOODNESS!!!  Those were the best s'mores EVER!

I can't think of a better way to spend an Autumn evening.

Pumpkin Seeds

One of the best things (for me anyway) about Halloween is roasting the pumpkin seeds from the Jack-o-Lanterns.

This year I went simple, coating them in a small amount of oil and a few dashes of salt.

My hope is to pass on my love of pumpkin seeds to my kids. That is if I don't eat them all first.