Ordinary Days

Today was one of those nice ordinary days. Nothing special happened. Lots of noise occurred. Happy children abounded - for the most part. I didn't blow my cool too often. It was nice. [big grin!]

I have to brag about my oldest son for a bit. B is ten. Some days he acts it & most he doesn't. I say this in a loving manner. His age seems to mean his brain shuts off on occasion. However, he showed amazing maturity today - at least I think so.

We have been working on the extreme picky eating behavior of our two oldest boys now for about a month. VERY slow progress is being made. A happy occasion occurred last Friday when our last hold out on pizza - yes, pizza! - finally succumbed (with a lot of help from Mom & Grammy!) to trying it. N screamed he would not eat it & then (once it was in his mouth & he chewed) deemed it "good!" It was pretty funny to see.

However, I'm digressing. Last night I made homemade beef stew & homemade bread (whole wheat) for dinner. Our new rule is they have to try what we have as a family dinner or no dinner. We never used to eat a family dinner. I would make the boys a separate meal early (around 5pm) & then something else for my dh & myself. We decided to change that (something my dh has been wanting me to do for a long time) and so they have been going to bed hungry on more than one occasion. Their appetites in the A.M. are pretty amazing. [big grin!] So last night we wanted each of the other boys to try one small bite of carrot. I'm talking a third of a baby carrot. It was tiny! N managed it okay. B outright refused. Then we saw J (who is 2) copying what B had done (covering mouth, shaking head 'no', etc.) and J is our best eater! DH decided that as a punishment B could not watch any TV or play on the PC today.

My boys don't watch TV all day - obviously - we do have school time. [grin] But I do let them watch for about an hour or so in the morning - while I'm waking up & again at lunchtime & then in the evenings. I had completely forgotten about dh telling B no TV. At one point I had told B to go in the living room as he was underfoot in the kitchen. I had also thought it odd he had sat at the table this am reading a book instead of lounging on the couch. That's when he told me he couldn't. HE had remembered his punishment all on his own.

Yes, he didn't try the food. No matter what our coaxing is like, he still isn't going to do it unless he wants to. However, he took his punishment well. He even did well when dh got home tonight & the rest of us where in the living room. I was on the PC. DH & the other two boys were watching America's Funniest Home Videos - one of B's favorite shows. No complaining. He did good with it. I'm sure he felt some withdrawals from it all, but he did well.

Of course, what he doesn't know is I now realize how much more creative he is without ANY TV at all during the day. More changes will be coming in regards to that! He did his schoolwork easily today in the time I gave him, he read an extra dozen easy reader/picture books & started a drawing notebook. I was certainly happy.