By Jove, I think she’s got it!*
I finally figured it out. Sabrina ate a good sized breakfast with no prodding on my part.
The morning started as many other mornings have. As I was changing Sabrina’s diaper, I asked her what she wanted for breakfast. She said she wanted banana, eggs, toast and coffee. (I vetoed the coffee request as I do every morning. I figured we should wait until she is potty trained before beginning her first addiction.) She has taunted me this way before – acting as though she will actually eat the requested foods only to laugh maniacally and say “Silly mommy.” This morning, I was too tired to play breakfast games. I gave Sabrina her banana while I made eggs and toast.
Most moms of 2 year olds know that toddlers will eat all sorts of things off of your plate that they will never eat off of their own plates. Moms also know that at a certain point, a toddler will no longer allow you to feed her because she wants to do it herself. With both of these things in mind, I sat down with the plate of eggs and toast. I took a bite of each and Sabrina promptly starting saying “bite please”. So I fed her a bite of eggs off my fork and gave her 1/2 the slice of toast from my plate. She continued requesting bites until she had eaten 2 eggs and a slice of toast. She didn’t even realize she had eaten her entire breakfast with me feeding her. Not once did I say “Eat your breakfast.”
Score for November: Momma: 1 Toddlerhood: 237.
*Monday morning trivia – source of the title quote?
Professor Henry Huggins!
🙂
Good work getting her a good breakfast. We actually let our kids have what we call “kid’s coffee.” It’s actually a German non-coffee product called Pero, that tastes quite coffee-ish and that some of my kids love. My oldest though started asking for Earlgreyhottea when he was about that age and has preferred tea ever since.
Breakfast isn’t the problem around here. It’s dinner. And I know what you mean about hearing yourself say it over and over and over and over. It gets old.
Professor Henry Higgins, to Colonel Pickering, in reference to Eliza Doolittle.
scratch, scratch, scratch..
thats the sound of me taking notes.
Yep I hear ya! That trick tends to work for us too! Or we act like we are going to take a bite of her food if she won’t. That works too! Of course every once in a while she will call my bluff when I am getting ready to take a bite of her meat (which I won’t as I don’t eat meat) and she just ignores me like she is saying go ahead mama! Then I am in trouble and she wins!
My Fair Lady!
And Emily is the same way. Won’t eat it if it’s on her plate, but if it comes off Mommy’s plate or Mommy’s fork, it’s delish. *sigh* And her feeding herself…what a mess!!! But as long as some food gets in her belly, I think it’s all good.
My absolutely favorite musical in the world is My Fair Lady! I had been in many plays in high school and college, but never got to play my dream part: Liza Doolittle.
Professor Higgins, pompous a##, said this to Col Pickering when Liza finally pronounced “ai” correctly in her daily excersizes. The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plains.
So the eating routine, that’s a tough one. With my two year old, it’s drinking all her drink (juice, water, milk) before she finishes all her meal. Oh well, so sad, no more drink until you finish your meal. At school they don’t even give them their drinks until they finish their lunch. Me, I’m too lazy to go get it in the kitchen, so she gets her thimble full with her meal. She sees Mommy and big sister drinking with their meal, so she thinks she will too. More Mommy, more. Nope, not until you finish eating.
I’m mean. Like Henry Higgins.
I heart My Fair Lady. Such a great movie.
We also started giving Kaylon very small portions, so he has to ask for more. If we put too much on his plate, he won’t eat it. But give him one or two bites, he eats them, and then asks for more. Yes, it’s a pain in the butt getting more food, but before he knows it, he’s eaten way more than he would have if I had lumped it all on the same plate. We still have our occasional battles, especially if the meat has sauce or something else on it, like teriyaki sauce. But if it’s plain, he’ll eat it right up. Smart little bugger.
Kaylon knew that St@rbucks meant coffee before he turned 1. Sad, I know.
love my fair lady!
my kid knows mommy drinks coffee in the mornings and wine in the evenings… i’m waiting for the school to call me any day to discuss my habits and additions 🙂
It is hilarious that she asks for coffee.
I so need to try this because my little Olivia wants nothing to do with food!! She’s 27 months and I can count on one hand what she really eats or even tries for that matter!
my kid would NEVER have been pretending to drink coffee since she could talk.
her mother is so anti caffeine.
Im wiped….made it through weekend.
far more fun than Id anticipated…and YES some of what id anticipated as well 🙂
LOL! Yay, Momma!!!
lol. you are one smart mamma (well, 237 or whatever tries later…but still, you’re smart!)
I just love you Michelle –you are the cutest!!! 🙂
I have been doing with Serena for a while now. It works with many other things too.
I wonder if the system works for brussel sprouts, anchovies, etc…it would be interesting to find out.
Great idea!! Isn’t it fun when we outsmart them???
Reese eats “my” salads that I happen to leave on the table all the time!!
Congratulations! We found that with our daughter too. She’s 8 years old now and she still wants to eat what we order at restaurants. At least they are eating.
Too funny! We have a problem with Getting Anna to eat as well. We have found that if we offer it to her brother she will gobble it up in no time! Mean I know!!!
YOu go Michelle!!!! Don’t you wish someone had told us all the games we would have to play in order to get our kids to do stuff!!!
I thought I was a big fat smarty pants because as an infant my daughter would eat anything. Then she turned one and the picky area of her brain snapped on and I have dreaded meals ever since because I am too embarrassed to ask the pediatrician if a toddler can survive solely on blueberries.
Wow…that’s awesome…way to go, Mama! That is a large amount of food too!! God bless.
Hooray for you. I’ve starred this to come back up for me in two years!