Making our own pseudo corn dogs!

They turned out okay and everybody liked them but I would probably do it differently the next time. We had to lay the hotdogs down because they were too tall to stand upright but it was a little weird just having a hotdog in the middle so I would probably actually cut up discs instead. I might also make them more bite-size and use smaller tins.

10# of lobster

As a thank you to the grandparents for watching the kids, we bought four lobster—two insanely huge ones (probably 3.5# each) and two regular-sized ones.

  

We don’t have official lobster implements…but these worked fine.

   
   

Katie’s attempts at getting a picture of our huge lobster tails. 

The lobsters were so huge that one claw was the size of a regular lobster’s tail! Neither of us could finish the whole thing.

Throwback to 2003: 

  

Tonight’s pizza!

I’ve been experimenting with pizza dough in the stand mixer so we’ve been having lots of pizza and breadsticks. For pizzas, we often just use whatever leftovers we have…and the kids get cheese or pepperoni. However, tonight we both got leftovers: mac and cheese for the kids (hope they like it) and chimichurri, steak, and pickled onions for us. Of course topped with cheese.

   
 

The verdict? Owen loved it, Katie tolerated it. Ours sounded better than it tasted but it wasn’t bad. But unfortunately the crust was overdone (not sure why—I did everything the same as previous times when it turned out).

All the pics from my day at once.

She always wants to comb my hair but I only let her on days that I wash and condition it.

He said it was costume day so we did this (he can’t get in/out of his costumes by himself).

ABCs while shopping.

This is what she was busy doing while I wasn’t watching. And this is her pout when I tell her she needs to pick them all up. 

She tried a ham and cheese (no condiment) sandwich—and actually ate most of it!

I decided to make my all-time favorite garlic toast today because the bread was on sale B1G1 at the store.

“Mama, I want to put the water in please.” Except 98% of it didn’t make it in.

 

Outdoor lap selfie!

The little stink beat me!!

The last straw. 

Owen pushed my very last food button tonight. From now on he eats what we eat for dinner. And I predict he’ll go hungry for a few days.

That’s what I posted on Facebook after an extremely frustrating dinner. What happened? Well…as you all know, we’ve had issues with Owen and food since just about the time he started eating real food, but really about the last three years. We’ve tried SO many variations of feeding and mealtimes over the years that I’m honestly just at my limit.

So.

As per our current normal dinner rules, all Owen has to do is eat a tiny piece of what we’re eating (there’s a promise we won’t give him something we know he hates or won’t like (like pasta salad or sushi)).

So tonight was grilled chicken, steamed broccoli, and garlic bread. I know he doesn’t love chicken but will eat it. I know he doesn’t really like broccoli but he has eaten his one piece before without too much issue. And I know he loves the bread. His “extra” favorite foods were his yogurt and fruit.

Of course he saves the broccoli until last so it’s cold. And then when we remind him he needs to take his bite, he whines and takes the minutest nibble ever (I think I saw a tiny green speck on his tongue). We remind him he needs to eat the whole bite (it’s only like a 1/2″ piece). We go through the same spiel about how it might not be his favorite food—or even one he kinda likes—but he needs to take his one bite because that’s our current deal. Then he whines that he doesn’t have any yogurt left to dip it in—and we tell him that’s why he should eat it first. He then proceeds to play with it to avoid eating it and drops it in his water.

Well, I’m condensing the story a bit, so by this time Tom and I are at our limit so we fish it out and and say he still needs to eat it. He throws a fit so we take away his video game privileges for a day. He keeps on and then loses video games for the rest of the week. He loves his weekend video game time with daddy, so that causes a tantrum and he says he’ll eat it. I say it’s too late—he had plenty of time to eat it before now.

Now, I normally never reverse a decision, but after some quick back-and-forth we said if he ate it, he’d just lose his game time tomorrow. He said okay, so we were nice and gave him a fresh, non-water-soaked piece. And you’d have thought we were asking him to eat dog crap for all the gagging and whining he was doing. There was more drama about the stupid piece of broccoli…and that was the final straw.

We had already had this talk (months ago) that he had to do the one-bite thing or else we were switching to the eat-what-we-eat plan. That he was getting older and mommy was tired of making multiple meals at each meal time and he was old enough now to eat what we were eating. So he had been warned it would come eventually…so it just happened a bit sooner than planned.

We told him there can be foods he absolutely hates and doesn’t want to eat—and we won’t make him eat those—but they’ll be limited to a small list. If he doesn’t eat what we’re eating, he’ll be hungry. Plain and simple.

Oh, and Katie will be following the same plan, too. I’ve been thinking about it, and I just can’t go through three more years of this with her. And since Owen is doing it, it makes perfect sense.

Tom and I still need to discuss the exact terms, but we can decide specifics as we go. All I know is it is not going to be fun.

Slip & Slide & Corn & Fish

We bought the kids a $6 Slip & Slide and finally got it out today. The water from the hose here is COLD so it took a bit for Owen to actually get into it and get wet. And Gramma was peeling corn for dinner and Katie wanted some so she was wandering around eating raw corn on the cob and LOVING it. 🙂

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Daddy cooked Owen’s fish and Owen even tried a bite! He was SO proud of his fish!!

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Owen picked Mexican!

When Tom came home, Owen said he wanted to go out to eat! Since it was HOT and I didn’t have anything planned AND we needed to run to Home Depot and/or Lowes, we said okay and asked where he wanted to go.

His immediate response was the place with the TV, which means the sushi place. He says “I loooooove sushi. I will eat it again.” While that sounded great, we knew he likely wouldn’t actually eat it (though he would try another piece) so we asked if he maybe wanted Mexican for Taco Wednesday. Oh yes, he liked that idea, too. So he thought a minute then picked Mexican.

I thought he’d actually get a quesadilla because he has had one before and really liked it and has talked about wanting to try one again…but he decided on a taco. I forgot to request no lettuce, so I had to pick that off. And he wasn’t thrilled with the white cheese, but he ate it. And he even tried a bite of my rice and said it was pretty good so I put some on his plate—he only ate about two bites, but I was still impressed!

That said, he wasn’t overly thrilled with the taco, because I’m sure the meat was seasoned way more than he was used to (at home, it’s just plain ground beef). But he ate most of it. But was also eying Katie’s remaining PB&J crusts…which he eagerly finished.

So overall, a win.

Taco Wednesday

Owen has said he likes the tacos at school so we thought we’d try them at home. I just did regular ground beef with barely a hint of salt and pepper because I’m pretty sure the school doesn’t use any special taco seasoning (and Owen usually complains about things like butter or S&P).

So, we were supposed to have Taco Tuesday but I forgot an ingredient…so we had it tonight!

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Success!

I also had him try “nachos”—tortilla chips he loves with the exact same ground beef and cheese and of course he said he liked it but didn’t even finish one chip. GRRR.

Baby steps. Baby steps. After all, he’s eating TACOS!!

My mother’s day do-over!

Since Mother’s Day was spent house hunting/traveling, I officially declared MY Mother’s Day would be this weekend. 🙂 So our day started with a trip to Costco, Owen’s face-painting at the farmer’s market…and then since it was a GORGEOUS day, time spent outside using the deck/pool/yard/playset (we’re trying to use it as much as we can since we will have NONE of it at the new house)…

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We were playing music outside.
Owen: DJ Shuffle is in the house!
Us: Whaaaaa?!?!

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Owen hurt himself with that jump/landing, but felt a little better when I showed him the cool picture I got of him in mid air!

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While we were outside, Tom went and got the mail…and my mother’s day present (that I ordered for myself!) had arrived! I LOVE IT SOOOOO MUCH! (It’s an 11×14 wrapped canvas.)

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Then Tom grilled super yummy BBQ chicken (which Owen tried and liked!) and I made a huge batch of our favorite tomato and basil bruschetta and we ate on the deck!

And even though I got these from Owen awhile back (done at school), I forgot to post them, so there’s no better time or place than right now!

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I love his answers! And he didn’t do too badly…though I can’t believe he said salad instead of any other number of things! 🙂

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So overall I had a GREAT mother’s day do-over!

Katie’s first popsicle

A mommy group friend invited us over after school to play on their waterslide (that Owen LOVES). Katie enjoyed it, too, along with the swingset and the trampoline.

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Owen also ate a Popsicle—almost. He ate about half of it then wanted to save it. He was a bit upset when I said it wasn’t possible (it was about 85°)!

A friend making Katie laugh with funny faces!

Who knew a PB&J would be such a hit?

We went out for a sushi dinner and I made half a PB&J for Katie hoping she’d eat it. BOY DID SHE EVER! She loved it! She’d take a bite, set it down, have a drink…it was adorable!

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She also saw Owen try soy sauce (we dipped a clean chopstick in it) so she had to try, too. Then she dipped it in eel sauce off our plate and LOVED it.

Here she is just being cute at the end of the meal.

He likes grilled cheese!

After he professed his love for “cheese toast” we explained that grilled cheese was just toasted bread and melty cheese…and he was willing to give it a try!

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Of course he dipped it in yogurt! And I know he loved it because he asked for a second sandwich (I gave him a quarter of mine)!

You can see in the vertical picture that he set his Legos up to watch him eat! And he told me they were all jealous of his sandwich!

Fudpucker’s

I stayed home so Katie could take a real nap (i.e. in total piece and quiet) while everyone else went to Fudpucker’s in Destin.

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The food was taking longer than expected and the gator show was about to start, so they sent the kids off by themselves to the show.

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Then it was back to sign their names—and add some drawings—to the wall…

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And then Owen tried—and liked!—alligator!

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But got pizza for his lunch!

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And then it was time to feed the alligators!

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And a few photo ops:

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Then it was off to get ice cream!

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And a gun that I’m sure he wanted but he did not come home with:

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Tom said Owen had a great time! And Katie had her very best nap all week—just over three hours!

RIP awesome Dawson Crocs Boots

I hate when companies change a good product. Owen has Crocs “Dawson” boots that I LOVE but he’s outgrown them.

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Of course when I go to buy a bigger pair (easy, right?), that style has been COMPLETELY redesigned and now instead of boots they are slip-ons that look just like most other Crocs. 😡

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And if I decided I wanted those? Oh well, no one has them in stock or they aren’t available in Youth sizes (at this point I don’t even care—the point is they aren’t available in Owen’s size).

It took me forever to find a perfect pair that wouldn’t be super warm (since we rarely need winter boots), came up high enough in case there was snow, would work for rain, and weren’t super expensive. And now I have to do it all over. Similar ones by Keen are twice as much. No thanks.

Ugh.

Ribeye. Who knew?

So tonight Tom grilled us steaks and we made Owen a frozen pizza—a typical dinner routine because Owen rarely eats what we eat.

So after he finishes his pizza, he says he likes steak. Huh? Yeah, he says he loves steak—as if he’s had it before and why don’t we know this…?!? I’m pretty sure they don’t get that at school so I have no idea where he decided he liked it. But I’ll take it!

So he proceeded to eat pieces of both of our ribeyes like it was going out of style.

But lest you think he’s becoming more normal…he refused mashed potatoes until we bargained with him (offering chocolate) and even then he made a face like he was tasting dog poop.

But I’m concentrating on the ribeye. He are ribeye. And loved it.

Welcome home dinner outing!

Daddy wanted to go out for sushi and of course I’ll never argue with that…

Getting ready:

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Then we stopped at Owen’s school to get Tom registered (for pickup and drop off) then had time to go to the playground!

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“I’m stepping on your heads!”

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DINNER!

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Less than 10 minutes later:

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Katie tried a bite of sushi and ate it but didn’t want more (but she’s been in a phase of only eating 1-2 bites of something).

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Them we went next door for frozen yogurt! Katie was wiping daddy’s face.

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Gee, what a surprise–Owen likes hot chocolate.

I tried to get him to try it a week or so ago and he flat out refused. REFUSED! I told him he loves chocolate and chocolate milk, and this was just was warm chocolate milk. Nope. I promised he’d love it. Nope. I promised him a piece of chocolate if he tried it. Nope.

/urge to throttle him

So today I was drinking some again and he said he wanted to try it.

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And imagine that—he loved it. 🙂

Owen tried FIVE new foods today!

I’m thrilled when he tries one new food. Amazed when he tries two in a day. Three is rare. Four is unheard of.

Today he tried five. FIVE!

  1. Grits with ham and cheese (had two bites!)
  2. Craisin and white chocolate scone (didn’t like)
  3. Ham and string cheese wrap (loved!)
  4. Lemonade (didn’t like)
  5. Hush puppy (said he liked but didn’t finish a second one)

GO, OWEN!

Knock me over with a feather.

Owen ate five pieces of turkey lunch meat with his lunch. Before today he’d only eat ham. And before that (just two weeks ago with Grannie and Papa) he wouldn’t even consider tasting any of it. I LOVE THIS CHANGE!!

First I had him try a bite. And he said it wasn’t bad…it tasted like turkey. Well, yes. 🙂 But then he said it was like ham. Whatever it takes, buddy…whatever it takes. Then he asked for another piece. And another. While he was still eating the other stuff I’d given him (apples and cheese and crackers). Then he asked for another. AND ANOTHER.

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Cauliflower!

Since school started, Owen has been better about trying new foods. He often comes home saying he tried something new—and I generally confirm it by looking at the teachers’ notes on the menu (remember, I’ve asked them to notate what he eats). This has led to him also trying new foods at home (though he often says “No, new foods are for school!”)…or at the very least, we don’t have to FORCE him to try something.

So, tonight at dinner.

Me: Owen, I’d like you to try cauliflower.
Owen: No thank you.
Me: Yes, please.
Owen: I don’t want it.
Me: You’ll earn a badge and a piece of chocolate.
Owen: A BADGE AND CHOCOLATE? BOTH?!
Me: Yes. I’ll eat it with you.
Owen: Let’s race.
Me: Okay, go!
He eats his 1/2″ piece while I eat my 2″ piece.
Owen: Mmmm. Who won?
Me: I think you did—I’m still chewing!
Owen: Yay!
Me: YAY! Owen tried cauliflower!
Me & Owen: YAAAAAAY!!
Owen: Yay for myself!