Sunday, June 27, 2010

Maybe we're better parents than we think we are...

Lately the biggest parenting struggle we've faced (at least in my opinion) is getting Ziva to eat good food. The foods she eats aren't bad, they just don't add up to a very balanced diet. There only a few things she will always eat: string cheese, applesauce, and muffins (or any other member of the bread family). I try to make healthy muffins using pumpkin, zucchini, applesauce instead of oil, and whole wheat flour, but still. Only muffins isn't much of a diet. Then there are the things she will usually eat, but sometimes flat out refuses: corn, green beans, oatmeal, peanut butter sandwiches, yogurt, chicken nuggets, ham, cereal. And there are the every once in a blue moon (but don't count on it) foods: blueberries, bananas, carrots. Pretty much any other fruit or vegetable is a never, although I keep trying (I sure hate throwing it away when she licks it and then wants nothing to do with it!). And of course, she is my daughter and a part of the Calvert clan, so she will ALWAYS eat sweets if we let her.

Now here's where I get to the part about maybe we're doing better than I think. I look at that list (and that is truly all that she eats...on occasion I'll give her some of the "grown ups' dinner" if I think she'll eat it, but other than that, what you see is it!), and I think, oh my. But last night we went to dinner with some good friends who were visiting, and Ziva mainly at the french fries from her kids meal, with lots of ketchup (she LOVES ketchup). Now, you can see from our sorry little list of foods that, pitiful though it may be, there's no grease. So she ate a meal of french fries, and then we went to the park for a little bit where she swang for about an hour (probably didn't help....), and then on the way home, she PUKED all over herself and the car seat. And as gross as it was, and as much as I hate cleaning vomit from the carseat, I was encouraged. Obviously she's not used to greasy foods, so at least that's one positive in our parenting. Am I weird?

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