FOOD!

In the past 2 months the kids have really started to make up their minds on what they like, don't like, and what they love to eat (their 3 LOVES right now are hot dogs, pizza, and corn-on-the-cob). About 2-3 weeks ago the "orphan effect" started wearing off of Michael. He realized that there will always be food and that there is often a choice involved with food. With that he started telling us all the foods that are now yucky. He no longer likes eggs, oatmeal, pot pie, chicken, hamburgers ... those are just a few that come to my mind right away. He will still eat these foods, but he makes faces and sometimes (gasp!) even gags.

Liliana, on the other hand, has been expanding her palette and is willing to try and eat more and more new foods. We have learned with her to always start with her least favorite and work our way to her favorite foods. Otherwise, she won't eat the other food because she knows there is something better available.

We have tried some foods again that the kids previously didn't like. Mac and cheese is a food that they previously refused to eat and now enjoy. In fact we went to Noodles recently and they devoured a shared bowl of their Mac and Cheese. In light of this, we decided we are going to try grilled cheese again with the kids. Having easy meals for me to make for lunch, like these, makes it much easier to come up with something to eat besides their beloved hot dogs.

Today we had PB&J for lunch. Liliana was eating, but rather slowly. Michael and I were having some chips with our lunch and Liliana decided she wanted to play with the chip-clip that had been on the bag of chips. Next thing I know she's using the chip-clip as chop sticks to eat her sandwich. I tried to get her to eat it with her fingers, but she refused to eat it unless it was on the chip-clip.

For dinner tonight we had corn-on-the-cob (for the 3rd night in a row). We discovered that Michael thoroughly enjoyed corn-on-the-cob over the 4th of July weekend when we went to Famous Daves for dinner. So, we thought we should buy some and let him have it again. The first night he ate it all up. The second night he finished his cob and then at 1/2 of a second cob. Liliana wanted in on the action, so I cut some kernels off for her to eat. She ate them and loved it (probably the butter and salt). I let her try eating the few kernels that we left from our cobs and she thought it was really fun to eat them off the cob. So tonight we gave both Liliana and Michael their own cobs. Michael, of course, finished is with no problem and Liliana nearly finished hers all by herself. I cut off a few kernels at the end because it was getting dangerously near bed time.

A few pics:






Overall I think the kids are doing great with food. They are willing to try new foods and will tolerate eating a few bites, even if they don't like it. Matt and I are getting a little more daring as well ... trying new foods with them so that we can expand our meal choices and start cooking some of our favorites again.

On a random side note - we have received the results to all but 1 of the "tropical disease" screenings that Michael had done a few weeks ago. All have been negative, except one. He does have toxocariasis and is being treated right now. They will re-test him in August to make sure everything looks good then.