I have always tried my hardest to make sure that you are eating balanced. It's been a challenge. I'm constantly fighting against holidays, grandparents, birthdays, vacations...I thought we were doing a good job until one night at dinner I had made mini meat loaves. I thought you would be thrilled to have your own loaf! I just knew you were going to gobble it up. I set it down in front of you and Hunter said, "Where are the donuts?"
I kind of laughed because that could only possibly be a joke since we never have donuts for dinner. Then Hunter started crying. Not a fake I want my way cry, actual crocodile tears.
So, once again, just when I think I have things figured out you two throw me a curve ball. There's no way we're going to have little boys crying at the dinner table for a donut.
I looked up the current food pyramid for toddlers, which I typically have hanging on the fridge anyway. Then I had Daddy take the information and make it look like a plate of food with empty boxes for each serving. The plan was that every time you ate a serving of fruit you would get a star, etc.
Step two: I took you shopping. Before we left we sat down with your new charts and talked about how we could get stars. There were many questions about why we need to eat vegetables and fruits. We settled on the fact that we need to eat healthy so we can grow as tall as Daddy, which seems to be pretty important to you these days. We went to the store, food charts in hand. I let you guys pick out everything you wanted so that you would have plenty of opportunities to earn all your stars. It was a pretty expensive shopping trip, but very fun. Connor carried around a cucumber through the whole store. He kept calling it his vegetable. Then we got some fishy crackers as a reward. If we earned all our stars we could have some fishy crackers before bed.
We didn't earn all our stars. In fact, it's been over a week and we've yet to earn all our stars. You just don't eat enough to get it all in. However, I'm happy to say that you are very aware of what you should be eating and you are making excellent choices. Hunter will say things like, "I want a fruit star" or "That's a junk food star."
Connor asks "is this a hot dog star?" "is this a vegetable star?" before he puts anything in his mouth. He doesn't want to waste a bite on something that might not earn him a star.
I love how I can give you a star to teach you things. You get so excited about them! This has been really fun for all of us. I love you!!!
Mommy
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