More food fun?

So the last post was about Christopher and food, and this one is too, because he's still having such interesting reactions to how others relate to his food. He's still being defensive (nicely and articulately, for someone his age!), and he varies between eating nothing and then saying he's starving and gulping down 5 bowls if cereal in 30 minutes. But here's the best funny thing to come from this so far:

So the other day, I come home from work, eat the nice dinner Bryan has made, he and I go to our room to sit down for a while, and Christopher follows us in. Christopher - completely ignoring me - walks up next to his Daddy, grabs his shirt sleeve, and looking earnestly up into his face asks, "Daddy, can I have some of that secret pudding you sneaked in here?"

Bryan looked up at me with that kind of "I can't believe he just did that to me!" look. I laughed and laughed. And Christopher held on to Dad's shirt, earnestly hoping he'd get some 'pudding'. What had happened prior to this was that Bryan had gone shopping that day, bought some ICING to eat, offered to share some with Christopher, and upon Christopher's declining to have any, Bryan had hidden it away in our room to eat it later in peace. Only to be exposed by his son.

Food is serious business!

For some odd reason, my grandmother has always had a strange way of teasing Christopher. It generally takes the form of "You can't do that!" in a mocking tone, so that of course he knows that she knows he can, but she's saying that he can't, presumably to reverse-psychology him into doing it. Which I find rather pointless because he's such a great kid that he just does what you ask him almost all the time. But she's always done it, and they seem to have an understanding, so I just smile and let it go on by.

One of the things she always teases him about is food. When we sit down to eat, she'll say something like, "You can't eat all that!!" or "Don't eat all that, then you'll grow and be bigger than me!" or "Look at how much you ate! I'm going to have to bop you on the head and make you smaller again!" He always laughs at her and eats away.

So a few days ago, she starts that as we sit down, and Christopher says, "Grandma, you shouldn't say things like that. I need to eat or I'll die!" I laughed out loud, it was so funny! She rolled her eyes at him, and we all had a nice meal. In which Christopher ate chicken, asparagus, rice, and cantaloupe. Yummy fare for a 4-year-old, huh? (More on the asparagus to come!)

Then today just me and my boys sat down for a family meal, and Bryan said something to Christopher about his food and how he shouldn't eat that because it will make him strong and smart. And Christopher clearly and calmly says, "Daddy, that was rude." I'm still laughing as I write about it!!! Bryan didn't think it was so funny, but I sure did! I think it's so interesting that people tease him about his food - not anyone else, just Christopher - and he's starting to tell people off (nicely!) about it!

Now about that asparagus: I made some with a meal a while back, and Christopher ate his whole plate, so I served him more. He ate all that. So I served him more. As I was serving up his third plate of food, Grandma pointed out that if I gave him any more of the asparagus, Bryan wouldn't have any. I said, "Grandma, if Bryan were here, he'd give Christopher as much asparagus as he would eat. So I'm giving it to him for as long as he'll eat it, and Bryan can have rice today." And so it was. Christopher at 4 helpings of asparagus, and Bryan didn't have any and he didn't mind a bit!

A while after that, Bryan made up a meal and he also cooked asparagus. Remembering Christopher's last encounter with it, he made a lot, and he added a few extra ingredients. When we sat down to eat it, the asparagus was nearly inedible! So I didn't serve Christopher any. When he noticed this omission, he told me he needed asparagus too. I told him it wasn't very good, so I gave him a tiny bit off the top and told him that if he liked it, I would give him some on his plate. He tasted it, made a face, and said: "Can I have some of the first one you made?" He's so much fun!!!

Happiness is a state of mind.

Wow! It has been a looong time since I posted anything! Things are flying by so fast around here. Working is HARD for me, not that the work is hard (compared to being a mother and wife, it's very simple!) but it is hard for me to be away from home. When I am here, I feel like I am always playing catch-up.... feeling like I'm behind on spending time with each of my boys, on helping out around the house, on doing anything that reminds me that I'm human too... I know that all my friends who are working moms are nodding their heads right now in exhausted sympathy.

Really, things aren't bad. I believe that Bryan and I, and thereby Christopher too, have a very upbeat view of life and it's.... difficult moments. Christopher seems much less needy lately and pretty happy with how things are. We started him on a "bathroom chart", wherein he gets a sticker of his choice (there are several kinds to choose from) for each bathroom-related activity during the day - provided it's done right. Cleaning up after him was getting to be irritating as well as unpleasant, and this is doing a fantastic job of training him in bathroom etiquette. Brushing his teeth at least twice a day, using the toilet properly, taking a bath, and cleaning up all his things in the bathroom, as well as not wetting the bed at night, earn him stickers. He has been doing a great job, and is VERY excited for when he gets his whole chart (a week) filled up with stickers and gets a big reward. What does he want? A visit with Caleb! I DO need to get on that, I suspect that Lisa and I could use some sane adult conversations. =)

Alexander is growing and growing. Only a few minutes ago I laughed out loud because he's tired but not wanting to sleep, so he's been flopping around in here -- on my lap, on the floor, on my bed, in his bed -- and I finally set him in his bed and just turned the lights off. I hear what we call "dinosaur scratches" for a while as he stirs around in his bed, not wanting to sleep, and then I hear what sounds JUST like a mechanical dinosaur growl! It was so funny I laughed out loud, and he sat up and looked at me as I laughed. Bad mommy, waking up baby! But it was hilarious! He does sometimes growl, especially when it's food-related (You have something I want to eat, I'm going to growl at you and see if you let me have it!), but this was louder, more irritated, and much funnier than normal. It's fun being a mom, usually.

On that "usually" bit, Alexander still doesn't sleep more than 2 hours at a time, but the night before last my mom took him overnight, and I was SO STINKING EXCITED!!! I haven't had a GOOD, FULL night's sleep (either one of those!) since before he was born! I am sorry to say I didn't get extra sleep that night (unlike Bryan who slept for 12 hours!), but I slept soundly and very well, and I felt fantastic the next day. It was so great. Even the remembrance of what it's like to sleep well was and is enough to keep me going on some of the rougher nights. Someday they'll be back... someday. And last night, having him back again, he slept a whole whopping 5 hours, so maybe we're on to something? Maybe?

Bryan's still in school, and it's going fine. Not great, it's harder for him this time around, but it's going along. And me working, like I said, is tough, but I have hope that it will get us through this rough patch.

On a different note, it's really great to be around so much family. Having my mom, my brothers (usually), and my grandparents around is really nice. I really enjoy this side of my family, they are very laid-back and everyone has their own fun sense of humor. It's nice to be part of a large group of people who get along and who you can talk to, play with, be with, and enjoy. I would say my only sad note is that we don't get to spend more time with Bryan's family. I really like them, and they're so far now that we've seen very little of them. We're also so swamped in just getting through life right now that going more than a mile or two to work, school, and the corner grocery store, is like an epic journey and requires more effort than we can usually muster. Quite a pity, in my own opinion. I miss friends and other family. But I know that this won't last forever. Right? ........

All in all, we are happy. I can't say that things are so good, or anything else that's concretely cheerful, but nothing's terribly awful, and we're happy. And I have a definite knowledge that while you can't always control your circumstances and things happen that are rough, each person can choose how they will act, and how they choose to feel about things. And my little family is happy, loves being a family, and is enjoying the things and people around us.