Kids and Eating (Part II)

20 March 2014

So E has been starting to refuse food. He used to love chicken rice and would eat it all up by himself, now he only wants the roasted chicken skin with rice. If I sneak a piece of chicken in, he spits the entire mouthful out. 

I have resorted to telling him, 'I'm sorry but the skin is stuck to the meat. If you want to eat skin then meat comes along by default.' 

He also has a new found love for the crispy coating on tonkatsu (Japanese pork chop). And anything with a deep fried coating, KFC is also a favourite. 

We have been having talks on 'Real Food vs A Snack' and have implemented a rule where E has to eat 'Real Food' before getting 'A Snack'. 'Real Food' meaning rice, vegetables and meat and 'A Snack' meaning chocolates, biscuits and sweets.

E uses the phrase 'sweets and treats' to refer to snacks. So cute. Except when I need him to eat some rice or he gets a stomach ache because he gobbles up oily and sugary food and neglects to line his stomach with the basic protein and carbohydrate groups. 

E has also been asking for Toblerone at breakfast. Sometimes he screams in my face as I am waking up to demand chocolate or some other equally inappropriate food item for breakfast.

17 August - Looking back while writing this delayed post, I think we have come a long way since March. It is now August and while E still loves his 'sweets and treats', he no longer yells about wanting chocolate for breakfast and actually had a good-sized portion of Korean red bean rice and grilled saba for lunch today. With an apple-flavoured drink which isn't ideal but 'you win some you lose some'.

Papa's Armpits

12 March - The husband and E had an interesting conversation before bed...

The husband and E are laying in bed just before bedtime. 

E says (to the husband): I want to smell your armpit!!

Lifts husband's arm to smell and goes: Mmmmm! Good!

The husband and I are shaking with suppressed laughter. 

E goes: Let me smell your other armpit!

Goes to smell the other side. 

E: Arrrrgh! Chow chow (stinky)!!! You did not take a bath, papa!

Catch-Up Posts

19 January

Elliott picked up my speech patterns and uses 'actually' while talking quite a lot now.

20 January

I came across a National Geographic book for kids about space (part of a series that has animals, dinosaurs etc) and bought it because I thought the bright illustrations would catch E's eye and spark his interest.

Book cover

E saw the book cover and said 'Just like Dr Who!'. He was  watching quite a bit of Dr Who with the husband at the time. We decided not to show him the episodes with the Weeping Angels until he's older, they are pretty scary (to me!).

21 January

I was supposed to meet my mother at Centrepoint after lunch but she was held up in the office and was late. So while waiting, I took E for a walk around the mall to keep him entertained. He totally did not want to take a nap so we had to be constantly walking to keep him content in the stroller. 

Then E wanted to walk so he got off the strollder. After a bit more walking, I noticed he was talking to his stroller. Listening in, I realised he was putting a pretend 'baby' in the stroller and giving it a snack. Then after a few steps, he took his pretend 'baby' out and put it in a pretend Manduca (baby carrier).

20 February

E can almost eat a full kid's meal! 

Last weekend after his Sunday drama class we went to his favourite udon place, Tamoya, and E finished kid's size udon AND a vanilla cone from Mcdonalds for the first time ever.

Chewed Up Candle

So this happened. E ate a red swirly birthday candle because he thought it looked like a candy from the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

It happened back in December 2013 (yes, I know I'm really late on posting about this. Still in catchup mode!). I was lying down for a quick snooze in the bedroom and E was playing on his own with the husband busy working on the computer.

E came into the bedroom looking for me and quietly told me about trying to eat the candle with chewed-up red and white wax all over the front of his shirt. At first I thought I was still asleep and dreaming but when I realised this was really happening and I was awake, I did not know whether to laugh or cry.

I decided to be positive and laugh it off with him while teaching him what edible and non-edible means.

We were going through a tough weekend (kiddo challenging us on everything we said and the husband being busy with work and me down with a headache) but I'm glad I made a conscious effort to treat the matter lightly (it was not a life or death situation) instead of freaking out.

Still finding bits and pieces of wax in the study room to this day (19 January 2014).

Quick update, there is absolutely no more wax to be found as I write this catchup post!

Drama-Free Drama Class

Catching up on blog posts again.

3rd times a charm for drama class!

So, we took E for drama class no. 3 on 19 January and he seemed  more positive. E wanted to bring his dinosaurs so I said yes! (Anything that might help him stay and participate in the class). The teacher, Miss A, took the initiative to offer E a sticker before class. I think that helped smooth the way so that E was more open and receptive to interacting with her. 

But I really think the secret weapon was arriving early before all the other students so that E could explore the classroom setting with Miss A and settle in before the hustle and bustle of his classmates arriving for the lesson. Getting there early gave his teacher a chance to speak with E one-on-one and gain his trust.

We heard some crying and screaming about wanting to leave after class began but we did not interfere as I wanted to see if the teacher could handle E this time. The husband peeked in through a window and reported that Miss A spoke to E and he settled down pretty quick.

Since then until now, E has been attending this drama class on Sundays with no major issues. We introduced a goodbye ritual where E gives (and receives from) each of us a hug and a kiss so we won't miss each other and it has been working!

Hopefully this goodbye ritual will serve us again when E starts kindergarten next year. 

Kids and Eating

This is not a post about how to get your child to eat because frankly, there are tons of other articles on the interwebs about it and I don't want to fight that battle 3 times a day with E. So I try to relax and go with feedback from E on whether he is hungry or full. But we do want him to get used to sitting together at the dining table and having meals as a family so even if he is full, we ask him to sit until everyone is done.

However, some days it's a losing battle for me because 3 year olds just aren't meant to sit nicely at the table all prim and proper. Some days, I feed E as he runs by me pretending to be Iron Man, or a jousting knight in a tourney or sometimes he just wants to run laps up and down the dining area.

So lately E has been pulling a stunt (usually at dinner) where he will eat 2 - 3 bites of food and say he is full so that he can leave the table and play, then when everyone else is done eating and we've moved on to bath time and getting ready for bed he will say,' I'm so hungry! I'm so really hungry, mama!' Then I usually tell him to drink water and go to sleep because the next meal is breakfast when the sun comes up.

I feel pretty horrible saying that to him because as a mother of course I do not want my kid to be hungry! But then again, I'm worried that if I give in now then he will be asking for food at all times of the night and bedtime will go haywire.

This has been going on for a couple months now and I hope E gets the message soon because I love watching him eat his meals happily and be full afterwards.

On a positive note, E tried liver pate from Brotzeit at Star Vista and really liked it. He was eating it off my fork and asking for more when it was finished.

Edit to say that this post was inspired by what I overheard a grandmother saying to her granddaughter in the lift recently. It was very similar to a conversation that I've had with E many a time over the past few months as he grows older and more aware of how yummy 'junk' foods can be!

I've re-constructed the conversation below, please allow for some dramatic license as my memory never really was very good!

Granddaughter: I'm so hungry! 

Grandmother: But you told me you were full and did not want to eat your pasta for lunch? And you had that biscuit and muffin earlier, are you really hungry now?

Granddaughter: Yes! I'm hungry now! 

Grandmother: You've got to be kidding me. Well, we are going to get some yummy cupcakes from the shop upstairs, would you like a cupcake then? 

Granddaughter: Ok!

Reminds me of my never-ending battle to get E to eat more whole foods (e.g. rice, meat, fish, veggies etc) instead of snacks and processed foods.

Act 3 Drama Sampler

I took E to a Drama Sampler class at Act 3 International in December to see what it was all about. For the Drama Sampler, parents were allowed to accompany their children during the class and E had a blast pretending to bake a cake (or brownie?), making a pretend toothbrush and playing a game called Grandma's Footsteps which is what I used to play in Primary school but we called it What is the Time, Mr Wolf?. It's a listening exercise for the kids because they are told when to move and when to freeze like a statue.

1 December 2013

Making a toothbrush

This is the way we brush our teeth

Gargle in the pretend bathroom

And a great time was had by all

After the Drama Sampler, I asked E if he would like to go again, but this time without me in class and at first he said no, then he said yes and it was a consistent yes answer after that. So I signed up for a term (10 weeks) and started prepping E for when class would start. 

I found a great book by accident at the library called Llama Llama Misses Mama about a llama's first day of preschool and E loved that book. He wanted me to read it for bedtime every night for a week. And E is familiar with the concept of school from watching Timmy Time which is about a lamb going to kindergarten.

So first day of class rolls around and we take E who was pretty excited to go. But when it came time for me to leave the classroom, he had a major meltdown and started bawling his eyes out. It did not help that there was another mother in the classroom who absolutely refused to leave and that kind of made E wonder why that kid had their mother in class but not him and he continued bawling. An extra teacher had to go in to comfort him and talk to him and she said he was participating in class but still crying. After class was done, he came out still crying albeit quietly instead of his earlier yelling. 

It was not an auspicious start. 

For the second class, we decided to let E enter the class when he wanted to instead of bringing him into class and just leaving him there crying (which I think was a rather traumatic start for him, at least it was for me!). Both daddy E and I were at our wits end. First we tried coaxing, then reasoning then it was a downward spiral into taking away his TV time, favourite toys and saying we were disappointed that he did not at least try. I even told him that if he participated in this entire class and still did not want to come back at the end of it then I would cancel the rest of the classes. He just flat out refused to go in.

There was a very kind staff member L. who really took the time to talk and coax E. She let him open the classroom door (it's made of opaque glass with a very small clear strip at adult height) and peek at what the children were doing inside. She offered to let me go into class with him or that he could sit by the door and just watch but he refused to put a foot into the room. He refused to enter the classroom until it was sticker time, which was at the end of class, so he got a sticker and lined up with the rest of the children and said goodbye to the teacher. After everyone had left, the teacher, Miss A., let him come in and explore the classroom on his own to try and get him comfortable in the space.

At first I was ready to cancel the rest of the sessions and withdraw E from the class. But I think we'll stick out the rest of the 10 sessions for this term and see how it goes. Daddy E and I are also determined to be more proactive in keeping our tempers in check and not use the word 'disappointed' because it's not E's fault that he is not comfortable in a drop-off class when he has been with me his entire life. 

Fingers crossed for E's 3rd class this Sunday!