Davis' 1st Day Pre-K 4

Davis, today was your first day in Pre-K 4! 

We packed your bag the night before with your school folder, a blanket for "rest time" and a change of clothes. You didn't understand why you needed a change of clothes. I told you it was just in case you got dirty or had an accident. You told me, "but mom, they have bathrooms." 

You were very excited about the first day of school, so excited that you woke up early. You crawled into bed with us around 4:30am and had a hard time falling back asleep. Once you did finally fall back asleep I tried to let you sleep as late as possible. 

Before you woke up, I boiled you some eggs and poured your bowl of Cheerios. I packed your lunch and made sure to use your new Ninja Turtles water bottle. When Duke and I came into your room to wake you up, you jumped up out of bed immediately and you were excited to see the sun was up.

Getting you dressed and out the door was pretty easy this morning, as if you'd been doing it all summer. Taking pictures was also easy! 

We were the first to arrive in the ramp drop-off line and you were excited to see two of your previous teachers already on the playground, Ms Erin and Ms Amy. We sat and talked in the car for about 5 minutes before they started letting kids out of the cars. You told me that you liked your new teacher and you planned on playing all day. You were a little nervous that your new teacher wouldn't have as many fun toys as Ms Amy did last year, but I assured you she would. You also asked me when you would see Sam (your best friend) because he's not in the same class as you this year. 

I can't wait to come pick you up today and ask you all about your first day in Pre-K! I'm so proud of you Davis!

Vegetables

I used to take pride in how well Davis would eat as a baby. I could get him to eat all kinds of veggies...peas, broccoli, edamame, carrots, etc. I remember thinking, wow, I've gotten his taste-buds to like these vegetables early on and he's going to be eating them forever. Wrong! 

He quickly proved me wrong and my healthy-mother-of-the-year award started to drift further away. So we have resorted to veggie packs (aka Ella's Kitchen Organics) and hiding vegetables. Davis assures me he eats vegetables, "Mom, but I DO eat vegetables. I love corn!" Yes, Davis, I know you love corn but it happens to be one of the least nutrient filled vegetables, but I'll take what I can get. So we always have a bag of frozen corn and some fresh ears of corn on hand. 

I've become a pro at hiding some veggies here and there...if I make pizza, I hide butternut squash in the red sauce. Enchiladas have zucchini. Burritos have spinach. And then we always put a vegetable on his plate. And this brings us to last night...

I made this breaded chicken recipe and cut the chicken up in tiny pieces, calling it chicken nuggets! I found something new to try over at Skinny Taste and made some very delicious Broccoli and Cheddar Skinny Potato Skins. With the extra broccoli, I covered it with cheese and melted it for Davis. Yum Yum! We don't usually make Davis eat everything, he just knows that once dinner is over the kitchen is closed, so he better eat. I also don't force him to eat things he doesn't like, but we do encourage him to at least try one tiny bite. And that is what happened last night. We requested one tiny bite of the cheesy broccoli. 

We sat at the table for a good 15 minutes waiting for Davis to take a bite. Tears were streaming down his face. "I don't like broccoli, I like corn! I can't eat it! I just can't!" We were sticking to our guns, afraid to give in. We tried everything...changing the subject, talking about a fun bike ride after dinner, but it didn't work. Whether he ate the bite and actually liked it wasn't even going to happen anymore, I knew the negativity had all gone to his head. I was ready to give up, but Forrest was adament. I told him I needed to google this issue and read some other parent's inputs before deciding what to do next. That is, after all, what all good parents do, we google! 

All of a sudden, Davis took that bite. Ahh! We were so proud! It was like potty training days all over again, we screamed with joy. Davis was laughing and excited with us, at first, then there was some shaking of the head, then some coughing, and then pure disgusting vomit. All over his plate. 

In conclusion, all for the tiniest bite of broccoli, Davis threw up his entire dinner. We went on a bike ride and when Davis came home he ate half a watermelon. The End.

I would love any and all tips and recipes from moms in the same situation!

The stuff 4 year old's nightmares are made of

I miss those predictable nights. Once Davis started sleeping through the night (as a baby) he was easy to put to sleep and we knew we wouldn't hear from him till 12 wonderful hours later. It's a different story now.

I could go on and on trying to analyze and figure it out...he's older, he's in a big boy bed, he doesn't nap, he naps too much, he didn't get enough activity...who cares really. All that matters is that Forrest and I are walking zombies again and I'm freaking out because we have a newborn coming in just 4-5 months!

Each night is unpredictable...a different reason for waking up...a different hour...and you never know if he will fall back asleep.

Last night, I heard him start to cry around 3:30am. I wanted to ignore it, but the sad little whimper just kept coming through the monitor. So I got up and checked on him. He was half awake when I went into his room so I decided to just lay next to him and rub his back, hoping it would calm him down and make him go back to sleep. As he looked at me, I asked him what's wrong. Through tears he responded, "my crocs are broken." I quickly explained to him it was a dream and his crocs were fine. And there you have it, a 4 year old's nightmare.

Looking back, I shouldn't have gone into his room. He probably would have fallen back asleep on his own. I'm paying for it now, Davis was up at 3:30am and never went back to sleep. Neither did we. Fun times.