Why I Need a Dog

For some unknown reason, my kids cannot leave food they do not want to eat on their plates. If Sarah is eating something and she doesn't like it I'll tell her that's okay, you don't have to eat it, just leave it on your plate. But she can't. She will keep moaning and groaning and making a fuss about it until you take it off her plate. It's crazy. Like if she leaves it on her plate the food is just going to magically jump into her mouth, assuming that because it was on the plate it was meant to be eaten. Take it away before it makes me eat it.

The same thing goes for the baby. I've been trying like crazy to teach her sign language so she can tell me two main things. More and all done. So far she doesn't want to do either one. No worries, I did the same thing with the other two and it took them awhile to catch on as well. With both of them I started around nine months, and right around a year when I was getting really frustrated and about to give up they would realize the fun was almost over and start doing it. Amanda refuses to do sign language, even though I'm positive she knows how to do the signs and what they are, instead she tells me she's done in another way. She throws all her food on the floor.

The problem with this is that I am very lazy and I don't really enjoy cleaning the floor. Plus, it's very difficult to clean up wet food. It's much easier if you wait until it dries. So, a lot of the time I don't clean up the food right away. The problem with this, however, is that Amanda puts everything in her mouth, and just because she doesn't want the food now doesn't mean she wouldn't be happy to eat it an hour from now. And she will. She'll crawl right over to the eating area and eat everything she previously dropped on the floor. Yuck!

I'm not sure why she can't just leave the food on the tray if she doesn't want to eat it, but she can't. Usually I take this as a sign that she's done eating, but sometimes she gets really mad when I start to clean her up and take away her tray. It's kind of like, no Mommy, I don't want to stop eating, I just don't want to eat that stuff and I can't have it sitting on my tray. Don't you understand?

I don't know when they get over this "no offensive foods are to be left on my plate" thing. Even Andy has a hard time with it. We have to tell him a couple of times just to leave it there. Is there something the kids know that we don't? Probably not, it's just one more way they can be picky and controlling and make a fuss. That's really what they live for, making a big deal out of nothing to make them feel like they are in control of something. I'd be happy to put them in charge. They can start by cleaning the kitchen floor.