Category: All things Aidan

Professional advice for the picky eater in your life…

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Nothing changes your views on parenthood quite like being a parent!
I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be the mother of a picky eater…SERIOUSLY!
I had this archaic view instilled by my grandmother that children don’t have a say and that they should eat what is offered.
This view was then paired with my new age belief that if you make anything pretty enough it will be eaten-I even passed this advice on to my cousin who battles with her own strong willed picky eater…

My mom found my views funny but in true “Angie” style she let me do my own thing and bump my head if need be. So when I came back to her with tears in my eyes saying that I don’t know what to do with Mr “3 grapes and a provita”, she just smiled and said she understood as I only started eating around the age of 15 WHHHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT!!!!

See I have vague memories of everyone making a fuss every time I finished a plate of food. Seriously I could bring back an A on a test and it would be less of an achievement. It also explains why at every family function my portions are still pretty “kid sized” it’s a well known thing in my family that “Eleanor doesn’t eat” (WHY OH WHY hasn’t that message got to my fat bum!)

Anyway’s so you would think that I would be like “okay he will eat eventually” but I’m not, because along with praise and portion size I also remember passing out LOTS! being sent home from school, not being able to concentrate… I passed out so many times at one stage they thought I had a brain tumor. It was just anaemia paired with too little food and I don’t want that for my little guy.

I know my mom tried her best I even had separate meals, but I just didn’t have a healthy relationship with food and even sneakily threw food away – sorry mom…

In the interest of getting Aidan to have a healthier relationship with food, I started him on proper home made food from 6 months which he loved and ate with gusto…then he turned one!

I spoke to a professional Greta Williams from Nurture Naturally about getting my picky eater to eat…

Greta gave me the following advice, I’m putting it on as a jpeg so you can print it out and keep…

This is where we are on the list of things he eats:
– Squish Puree (the only way you get veg in)
– Thin cut oven baked chips
– Yogurt
– Provita
– Apples (he actually stole this from a friend’s kitchen once)
– Grapes
– Popcorn (this is his favourite thing in the world)
– mini Cheddars
– half a vanilla biscuit here and there
– dry toast
– dark chocolate
– flings/lightly salted lays

he drinks full cream milk, tea, water and the occasional fruit juice

See not the healthiest and apparently he is a vegetarian šŸ™ everything else makes him physically run away or make himself vomit

How do you deal with a picky eater?

*Oh if you want to contact Greta you can over here www.NurtureNaturally.co.za and if you are in the PE area you can even order healthy kiddies snacks from her (she spoke at BabyBlogZA’s mommy breakfast)

I think I prefer tears

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I took two days off to help Aidy adjust to his routine….He is a “school” going boy now and day one is done and dusted while day two is in progress…
I expected some tears and “mommy don’t go” instead I got nothing of the sort…I got “hurt” he looked at me with such hurt and seemed so betrayed it broke my heart…
Actually when I picked him up he walked over to me emotionless and stepped on my foot before allowing me to pick him up…
This morning I dropped him off and he kinda just accepted it, didn’t cry after me but also wasn’t thrilled to be left there he just stared at me with big eyes … fighting off his teachers attempts to lure him away…eventually she took him to ball pit and that helped,but the guilt oh the guilt – here is to things getting better “once he gets used to it”
Is just under 17 months not a little young for emotional blackmail?

Time for the big chop?

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Before and After maybe?

It’s just hair! I know this! you know this! but the fact is, this changes when deciding whether to cut your “baby’s” hair or not, because a haircut somehow signals loss of babyness….

I love Aidan’s curls, we are team “big hair don’t care” but in all honesty even mommy gets a trim now and again and I think it might be time for a trim and then some.

“Team Big Hair Don’t Care”

His curls are super cute, but I think at the current length it’s just not working.
Aidan has a fun habit of rubbing his hands in his hair! you know how your mom had to shout at you to not clean your hands on your jeans? well I need to tell Aidan not to clean his hands in his hair! He also loves playing in sand and making it rain down into his hair (I have combed actual little stones out of his hair).
This means daily hair washing which isn’t ideal for someone with his thick mop, because drying is not a breeze (got this from his mama) and with his recurring chest problems you don’t want him running around with wet hair (even though I’ve heard this is a myth, I’m not taking chances). . .
I guess I just think his hairstyle is going from “cutely dishevelled” to “shame where are your parents”…
It seems obvious, it’s just hair, just cut, but the curls have become “him” in such a big way, I’m still weary of the big chop…

What do you guys think, to cut or not to cut . . .

When naughty happens. . . what do YOU do?

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So the other day we were faced with a question and were surprised that we didn’t have a straight out answer for it.
We were applying for Aidan to attend an Edu-care centre in the area (we want to send  him for half days to socialise with kids his own age and to give my mother – who has been watching him all this time – a little break in the mornings)  and one of the questions was “How do you reprimand your child?”.
 I like that they asked because it means they are willing to follow through on your “beliefs” but I didn’t know what to write. I couldn’t very well writeā€¦Pleading, stare-downs, the occasional tap on the hand and some failed time-outs.
As a general rule (knock on wood, cross fingers, throw salt, no jinx no jinx) Aidan isn’t very ill behavedā€¦He tries my patience though like when I tell him not to touch something he will just stand there close to the object, close enough to make me very nervous while he says,  “no touch”
Or I will say, “Aidan donā€™t you put your hand on that and he will use his foot” I kid you notā€¦He is also very messy just pulling things out of cupboards and throwing things out, for the sake of throwing things out (this includes juice and yogurt) and in shops he will want to put things in other people’s baskets and walk off with strangers.
But for now he is pretty easy to distract and not much naughtiness I can’t control, no tantrums and crying and wanting things he cant have  (knock on wood, cross fingers, throw salt, no jinx no jinx) if he gets tired he just sits down on the floor and says doneā€¦
So I haven’t had to reprimand him muchā€¦but the need is starting to rear it’s ugly head people!!!ā€¦ Like when he tried to stick a metal spoon into the plug socketā€¦Seriously I watched him walk to kitchen take a spoon from the drawer and then walk over to a plug remove the safety cover thing and try to shove spoon in thereā€¦He also went to kitchen got a apple, climbed on a chair then hurled the apple at the microwave. He purposely spilled his juice on the floor so he could lay in it and my favourite oneā€¦ his new habit of taking his plate of food turning it around hiding his food under it and saying DONE! ā€¦ you know that sorta WHY! WHY ON EARTH WHY! kinda thing!
So reprimanding is becoming an issueā€¦
–  I tried tapping him on his hand, the first time he hit me back and burst out in fit of laughter, the next time he was so taken aback that he just cried – that worked well for a bit because after that I could show him the two fingers I used to tap him as a warning and he would just stop what he was doing and throw himself on the floor all defeated – my magic fingers didn’t work for very long though, the fear wore offā€¦
– I tried talking to him, like those mothers people judge in the shops because they are all “Now Johnny we donā€™t act this way, momma disproves of this behaviour and thinks that if you want respect you need to give respect and this is not cultivating respect” Okay I lie more like “Aidan donā€™t you dare” *wide eyes*. . . That works sometimes, but not always
– Then last night when he threw his food on the floor and hid the rest under his plate exclaiming DONE, I thought I would give time-out a try again (The first time he was clearly to young and kept crawling out of the “naughty corner”) But this time he sat on the Ottoman I earmarked for this purpose, he sat there and started merrily humming while playing with his shoelaces, he eventually started moaning and I told him that , that is were naughty kids sitā€¦ so the jury is still out on whether that worked at all.
How do you instil discipline?

Who wore it better: Kid’s fashion vs Hollywood

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I love kid’s fashion! there I said it, Ā kid’s fashion is a parenting plus for me
clothes
This post is especially for my cousins who tease that I like to play dress up with Aidan…. I admit that I do, it’s part of the fun of having a kid…and I must enjoy it while he still lets me dress him… I thought it would be funny to look at some of his outfits and compare it to celebs – just because I can…. So here goes: Ā kid’s fashion vs celebĀ fashion

Who wore it better? Aidy vs Hollywood

Slouchy Beanie: Aidy or Ashton Kutcher

 

Leather Jacket: Aidy or Diggy Simmons

 

Letterman jacket and beanie combo: Aidy or Attitude

 

Letterman Top: Aidy or Justin Beiber

 

Printed scarf: Aidy or Drake

 

Wool Scarf: Aidy or Brad Pitt

 

I think Aidan wins all the way šŸ™‚
*It should be noted I just did this for a laugh by matchinbg picture I had with celebs on the net, Ā I do not have the time or resources to dress Aidan after celebs…Super Cute Though

16 months already?!?

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Aidan is 16 months today- just this weekend someone asked me how old he was and I had to do the math in my head (I can’t do math, in my head or otherwise) and it made me realise I haven’t done an update in ages so here goes. . . 

APPEARANCE:  I actually donā€™t know his height and weight – bad mom, sis on you – up until very recently I thought of him as a shorty (like his mom) but people commenting things likeā€¦”sheesh what do you feed him”, “you are telling me he is not two yet”, “what a big kid” , make me think otherwise – his dad’s genes are certainly making an impact.

PERSONALITY: He is the friendliest most open kid. Socialises very well (breaks my heart that other kids often donā€™t socialise all that well with him, that sad “mommy why wont they play with me” look breaks me every time) He is super busy, and babbles non stop it’s like he runs on solar energy and we are in a desert, NO JOKES

HE CAN NOW:  Run, well he thinks he can. He also understands what we say pretty well, so you can tell him to do things like “bring mommy the remote” and “don’t lick the cat” . . .  his vocab improves dailyā€¦it is so cute to hear his little phrases. “Don’t going Daddy” (his grammar stinks, hehehe)

LOVES: torturing the poor cat, I found some of his toys in a tree so I think this cat is set on revengeā€¦he actually used Aidan’s play area as a toilet after Aidan tried to hit him with a chairā€¦Don’t worry SPCA I stopped it immediately after watching Aidan run after the cat with a plastic chair for a leetle bit it was sooooooooo funny, I mean it wasn’t funny at all


DISLIKES: Eating and sleeping – This has not changed!!!! he doesnā€™t eat or sleep….solar energy I tell you
MOM:  planning for his first day of daycareā€¦.oooooh I see tears on the horizon – Aidan might be a little sad too