'Tude With Food

I wholeheartedly believe that depriving my child of (most) food for one day is NOT abuse! I'm sure that sounds absolutely deplorable but let me explain myself...

Saturday we, as in Sarah, Christian, and myself, spent the day with Matt's parents and sister. We went downtown, saw Grandma and Grandpa M, played in the backyard, took naps, Anne and I went to a movie, and we visited with Great Aunt Cheryl and her husband Bob, and Great Grandma Wava that evening.

Now you see there wasn't that much eating described above. This is because a certain little boy with no name IT WAS CHRISTIAN!!!! felt that he didn't need to eat much of anything that day. Breakfast was at the diner downtown. He wanted nothing to do with the blueberries I gave him and didn't even eat a whole slice of french toast. While Anne and I went to a movie, Nancy fed Christian lunch and she said he had one BITE of a hotdog and ONE blueberry...nothing else. Then for dinner we had Cheryl, Bob, and Wava over to Matt's parent's house for chicken enchiladas. Christian decided that he wanted to just eat chips. I let him have about three and told him no more until he ate the chicken. A little fit was thrown and he shoved his plate away, tried to take other people's (ie. Wava's) food, and wanted down.

The mean Mommy I am decided that I would make him sit there until we were all done with our dinner. I repeatedly asked him to eat his chicken and he refused. So then I was even more mean and figured he could sit there and watch us eat cupcakes and ice cream cake. Yep, I said it. I made that poor little boy watch us eat cupcakes!! And they.were.good. Alright, they were downright sinful chocolate-y deliciousness!!

My poor little Christian bawled as we all got to eat dessert and I told him absolutely no cupcakes until he ate his chicken. He still refused. So he was done and he was denied all food for the rest of the evening. I even told Grandma Linda when we got home later that night that she was to not give him a single snack before bed. He went to bed hungry.

I'm sure all you Grandma's and Aunties felt bad for Christian and wanted to let him eat but he has done this too many times since being in Sioux Falls. Poor kid is going to need to eat Flintstones vitamins pretty soon if he keeps this up.

Sunday morning came and I was hoping that it would be a new day. And it was! He got a banana and a small bowl of dry cereal before church and ate it all but one tiny piece of the banana. We were going to IHOP (but it ended up being Denny's because IHOP was SUPER busy as it just opened) for breakfast after church was done and didn't want to fill him up beforehand. There was no need to worry though, the kid shoveled food into his mouth like he was starving! Oh, silly me, he was starving!

I ordered him a sampler off the kids menu. Three chicken nuggets, three mozzarella sticks, and a bowl of fruit. Grandma Linda was also going to share some of her pancakes with him if he wanted them. Christian ate all three nuggets, two of the cheese sticks, a little bite of fruit and at least one of the pancakes. He hardly stopped to talk, let alone take a few breaths. Just one bite after the other.

Since breakfast at Denny's was a late one we didn't do anything for lunch. He had some chips about 2:30pm and that was it. Dinner was tacos. Now he usually eats these but as with everything else I was for certain he would eat, and didn't, I was skeptical about him even picking one up and taking a bite. But almost two entire tacos later he was full and didn't want any more. HOORAY! "Depriving" him of food the day before worked. He was hungry enough to not pass up some good breakfast or dinner goodness.

Now let's hope he loses this 'tude with food while we are here. He is skinny enough the way it is!