Meal Time Bites...

...get it??? bites??? meal times at my house are not my favorite thing. i feel that there are 2 kinds of people in the world...those that live to eat and those that eat to live. i am the latter. i eat to stay alive, not because i enjoy it. don't get me wrong, i have a sweet tooth that wont' stop, but meals...not my favorite thing. and cooking...HATE it! well, colton and chase are similar to me. they don't particularly love eating meals, but snacks...keep em comin. anyhow, i have been having trouble getting all three of them to eat the same thing and making 5 different dinners definitely does NOT float my boat. chad likes meat; i like fruit and veggies; colton likes mac and cheese; chase likes pizza; aiden likes yogurt...and so on. i decided a while back that i was not going to be suckered into trying to please everyone, so i set rules. rule number 1...you eat what is in front of you. rule number 2...you take the number of bites of how old you are. (however, i don't make chad take 34 bites of broccoli.) january 1st, i added some new rules because, let's face it, it was not going well. new rule number 3...if you complain about the food that i prepared, you must help clean the kitchen. (this means pulling the chair over and washing all the dishes that go in the dishwasher and loading it...they already had to clear the table.) new rule number 4...you must ask to be excused before you can leave the table. making our children aware of the fact that there are many, many kids in our world that do not have food at all is important to me. i will not stand for complaining about the food that we have. chad let colton see some of the kids on the compassion international website that did not have enough food and water, shelter, clothing, toys, etc. and it made a difference for him. we had always told him that there were these kids out there...but until he put a face with it, he didn't really believe us. anyhow, here is how it is going...as soon as we sit down at the dinner table, chase says, "i clean kitchen tonight". colton says, "i'll help." then chase says, "no eat this" and colton makes some excuse about why he CAN"T eat, like it's "too spicy." while paying attention to them...trying to "remind" them about the number of bites rule...(refer to rule number 2) aiden has separated all her food in to sections and has thrown the "undesired" portion of the meal on to the floor. while i clean that up, colton and chase have managed to smear their food around and tell me that they have, indeed, taken their number of bites. how do i argue? maybe they have...i don't know. i need a video camera because i know as well as you do that i am getting played. i look to chad to see if they have eaten their bites or not and he normally just shrugs an "i don't know" shrug. he was busy eating his number of bites. i can't remember the last time i ate a hot meal. i am learning to prefer luke warm. i was thinking the other day about their different tastes and reactions to different kinds of kid friendly food. here is what i came up with...

Mac & Cheese:
Colton-loves it
Chase-hates it
Aiden-loves it

Pizza:
Colton-tolerates it (only without the sauce)
Chase-loves it
Aiden-loves it

Hot Dogs:
Colton-loves them
Chase-tolerates them sometimes
Aiden-throws them

Yogurt:
Colton-GAGS
Chase-loves the kind out of the tube
Aiden-will only eat it if she feeds herself (MESS)

Apples:
Colton-loves them (skin on)
Chase-tolerates them (skin off)
Aiden-loves them

Carrots:
Colton-tolerates them
Chase-loves them with ranch
Aiden-eats a couple and then throws them

Pasta:
Colton-only without sauce
Chase-CRIES
Aiden-throws

Cheese Sticks:
Colton-hates them
Chase-uses them for stirring his water
Aiden-throws

Scrambled Eggs:
Colton-loves them
Chase-GAGS
Aiden-pushes bowl away

Bananas:
Colton-hates them
Chase-tolerates them
Aiden-loves them

Here are the things they all eat without a problem:
CEREAL
PANCAKES
WAFFLES
BISCUITS
ANY KIND OF SNACK

i think i will title this blog...MEAL TIME BITES!!