Monday, January 25, 2010

Mommy Mojo

I totally impressed myself last week getting Zelda to eat. This may seem simpleton to some of you. But, you have to understand that I have no experience with getting a child to eat. Annalee has always been a phenomenal eater. Put something in front of her and she eats it. And, she eats a lot. I can think of only a couple entrees that I cook that she doesn't like.

Along comes petite Zelda who eats so little, and I'm at a loss. The three different pediatricians I've seen at our local practice all say the same thing: she's petite, doesn't need a lot of calories to sustain herself and won't eat a lot because her stomach's tiny. So, I figure that when I do get her to eat, I need to make every mouthful count.

Last week, I was trying to feed Zelda a chicken vegetable soup. She should have been hungry, because she hadn't eaten in a while (and what she ate before that was minimal). I was trying to get this soup into her and she just wasn't interested.

Suddenly, I came up with this idea for the individual items in the soup to talk. To Zelda. These items wanted in. They wanted in to the belly. The chicken, the carrots, the green beans. I peaked her interest. She took a couple spoonfuls. Then, the remaining food in the bowl wanted to get to their pals in the belly. They were begging to get in. To the belly. So, she ate more.

Pretty soon, I had fed Zelda that whole bowl of soup - and she even asked for another one! I was so impressed with myself. See, I'm not one to get creative in this way. Give me a craft and I can work it. Getting clever with kids? Not really my thing. But, maybe that's changing.

The next day, Ron wasn't having luck with Zelda eating. He was easily willing to chalk it up to her just not being hungry. But, I knew that couldn't be the case. That food needed to get into the belly, wanted to get into the belly. So, it started talking, begging Zelda to get into the belly.

And, what do ya know? She started sucking that food down. Forkful after forkful. I almost hurt my arm patting myself on the back.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Blowin' Snow

'I am woman, hear me roar,' went through my mind today as I pushed our 4.5 horse power Toro 2000 snow blower down the driveway to make my first line for clearing.

The thought may seem overkill to some, but for me, I was rockin'. This was my VERY FIRST time using a snowblower. And, I did it all by myself. Just me, the snow blower and the snow. I cranked out cleaning our three-car-wide driveway and part of our dead-end road in less than 30 minutes!

In fact, I was so excited by my accomplishment, I marched back outside when I was finished and took this picture:


And, now, I think I'll collapse on the couch for the remainder of Zelda's nap time. I'm pooped!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Who Jumped Who?

On weekends, Annalee has a tendency to walk quietly into our bedroom - the only sound is of the carpet moving under her feet. She comes around to my side of the bed and asks if she can watch TV. After this happened a number of times, oh, at say, 6 a.m., I started telling her the night before if she could or couldn't watch TV.

So, Saturday night, as I was finally turning in, I realized that I hadn't talked with Annalee about TV viewing for Sunday morning. In anticipation of her morning arrival, and thus a God-awful-early wake-up for me, I wrote her a note:


I laid this on the floor of her room near the door. I figured that when she woke up she'd see it and go right into the family room. I was pretty proud of myself, too, for getting the jump on her.

So, I was shocked and almost incensed when Annalee came padding into our room with a 'booklet' for me - at 5 a.m. Ron told her to go back to bed because 'it's only 5 o'clock.' I echoed Ron's sentiments.

Annalee persevered and handed me the paper, which I stuck on the nightstand. Then, she padded out of our room. And, since Mommy had 'told' her it was ok to watch TV, she went into the family room and turned it on.

I thought this was insane. I couldn't let her start watching TV at 5 a.m., so I jumped up, marched into the family room and told her to go back to bed. It was only 5 in the morning and that wasn't what I meant when I said she could watch TV. Then, I added that if she couldn't sleep, she could read in bed. Which she did. And, then she fell asleep until about 7:45.

I, on the other hand, lay awake for another hour before I could fall back to sleep, thank you very much, Annalee.

When I was coherent at about 8, I picked up that 'booklet' Annalee had given me oh so early.


And, on a separate sheet of paper stapled to the back:


She had been so thrilled by my note that she just had to thank me. And, it was so important to her, that she had to give it to me in advance of that TV viewing. I felt about this big. I shared the booklet with Ron; he laughed and asked me if I felt really bad about it. I did. Of course.

And, then I wondered...

What time did Annalee actually wake up that she found two pieces of paper and a red Sharpie, sat down to write her note and draw the heart, use the stapler and then show up in my room at 5?