Outsmarting the Picky Eater

Cade is terrible about being a picky eater. He is incredibly over-sensitive to the sight of food, so even looking at something that someone else is eating will make him throw up... he got to the point where he was literally only eating frozen waffles, grilled cheese, and milk. We started him in a toddler class for kids who have eating issues, and things have gotten SO much better. They saved my sanity. I thought that I should pay it forward and pass on some of the tricks I've learned...

1. Shake it. Make milk shakes out of everything. No really, everything. Cade loves the raspberry/avacado/sweet potato blend. Mix it with half and half for extra calories. Instant Breakfast mix will add some vitamins and nutrients too.
2. Dip it. Mix pureed vegetables into ketschup or ranch dressing. Let them dip pretzels, chips, or crackers into it. Nutella is an awesome dip too.
3. Glam it up. I top everything with cool whip, sprinkles, or mini m&m's. You can also use fun cookie cutters to cut out sandwiches.
4. Name it. Don't say "eat your fruits and veggies"... say "eat your CARROT SWORDS or BANANA WHEELS." Be creative.
5. Play with it. I'm not a mom who cares about playing with your food. I think it's a great opportunity for pretend play, and it helps take Cade's mind off of the stress of it.
6. Let peer pressure work for you. Cade does 1000% better if he sees other kids eating it too. We love lunch play-dates.

We still aren't to the point where I can make one meal for the whole family (wouldn't that be something?!), but at least I'm not having to wash pukey clothes after every meal!

Tiny Tubes for C-Man

We went up to Primary's on the 4th for Coleman to get tubes in his ears. Little buddy hasn't passed his hearing test yet, so his doc wanted to put tubes in to rule out any chance of fluid causing the hearing loss. I felt like I was playing house, with the little-bitty hospital gown, blood pressure cuff, and oxygen mask! Coleman was very brave through the surgery, and so was I :) Thank goodness it was only 15 minutes long. They hardly gave me enough time to worry. Coleman did look cute though in his tiny gown...

But holy cow, if you ever are feeling sorry for yourself, spend a day at Primary Children's! I promise your problems will not seem so bad after all. We will go back in one month to have more hearing tests for Coleman, but come what may, we're very very blessed. We know Heavenly Father loves us, He loves Coleman, and that everything is in His hands.

Happy Halloween/October 2010

We kicked off October with a visit to the pumpkin patch... a very muddy pumkin patch.


Cade was ticked that his hands were muddy, but he did like the wagon ride! He was more excited about the cars passing by than the pumpkins...


Still mad about his hands being dirty...

We also had the first snow this October. Cade sat at the window signing "snow" (that's what he's doing in the picture below) and just watching the snow fall for most of the morning...

Then it snowed again a few days later. Cade laid in the window this time to watch it...

We carved a pumpkin with Cade this year. He was fascinated that the top came off. He kept pointing to it and signing "hat".

We were an LSU superfan family for Halloween (I know... we went way out of our comfort zones!). The boys had matching outfits, complete with capes, masks, and foam swords.