Wouldn't be right to not have at least some gratuitous G photos!
These are our wedding china. I love them. I'm sad I didn't have more disposable income six years ago and I didn't buy the entire set. They are discontinued now. It breaks my heart when I see them and I think of the pieces I don't have. But now they are safe.
Here. Which brings me to the start of the mini-tour you are getting. Why my favorite things (so far) about the new house ... a photo essay.
The butler's pantry. A nice little gateway from the kitchen to the dining room (yes I'm one of the few people that still wants a dining room). In my old house you had to walk a wierd series of steps to get to the dining room. Not so in this house.
The other side of the butlers pantry ... the butler's bar? We don't have one yet but we'll have a beer fridge or a wine fridge or some combination there in, in that space right there. I never in a million years thought I'd have something like that in my house. This was truly a nice to have and not a need to have by any means (duh).
The set up is not what I would have always wanted (originally I wanted just a large range with maybe 6 burners, now I have 8). I mean it's wierd to have two stand alone stoves side by side! But my friend that saw it that knows such things thinks it was so they could have 8 burners and two full size ovens without building custom equipment.
A laundry room - with a view. That window makes me happy. I have no idea why.
The foyer. It's a mess right now and oh yeah those baby gates are hot! But usually, cleaned up and pretty ... it's a nice little entrance.
A huge master bedroom. I have no idea what I will do with all this space. But I like it.
Cieling fans. In every room. In Texas this is clutch. I love this feature of this house.
There you have it. My favorite things (so far - I mean I haven't tried the jetted tub yet!) about the new house. It's still a mess. Nothing is going where it should go, I'm positive, and I'm still trying to organize. But I don't plan on moving again. So I have plenty of time.
But, bar none, my favorite thing about this new house ... is how well my son is eating in it!
I'm not sure what it is. Is it just because we're no longer all displaced and out of sorts? I mean really his furniture isn't here yet so he's still in a pack n' play and his clothes are hung in the closet but they aren't where they are supposed to be. He's still sort of camping out here. Is it the dog? I don't know. But he loves that dog. And he started eating better when we brought her to my friends house to stay with us (after I got back from NM).
The first three weeks the dog stayed with my brother (thank you!) and G lost 1/2 a pound. Coincidence? Probably. Maybe he just decided three weeks of starvation was probably a bit much and decided to eat? I don't know. But even when he was eating at our friends house, I was having to feed him.
He'd sit at the table but he wouldn't touch his food. I'd have to sit next to him and spoon feed or hand feed him. But I will gladly do that, I was not complaining.
Here ... he's using his utensils again. He is drinking normal amounts of juice, and not filling his tummy with it as he was doing weeks past. He's eating grapes, strawberries, watermelon, chicken, peanut butter sandwichs, cashews, peanuts, almonds, granola, with gusto. He had four chicken nuggets at lunch yesterday.
Four. That's completely unheard of. He typically eats one to two. Yesterday he ate four of them and some apple slices. Today for breakfast he had two 2.5oz yogurts, a few bites of my toast, and some fruit. For lunch, he ate just about his entire sandwich, some fruit and some chips. For dinner he had the typical two pieces of chicken, about 20 grapes, watermelon and strawberries. Then he had two oreo cookies and hersey's kisses. And he still drank about half his milk.
That may not sound like a lot to you. When I list it out and count the calories in my brain it's not a lot either. Maybe 800. But it's a flipping miracle. And from the picture above you can see ...
he was feeding it to himself.
I think the increase in appetite from today and yesterday is from swim lessons, honestly. Which we are doing four days a week. They are the "survival lessons" as they are sometimes called, and teach the swim float swim method. They are somewhat controversial in that the kids don't start out loving them, and they push the child pass their comfort zone rather than more baby/kid led classes which don't force skills until the child shows an interest. At least that's my interpretation. Why did we choose these classes? Because floaties are evil and I want my child to know how to float on his back and these classes work. He has a very healthy interest in swimming and wants to swim "like a fish" with the big kids. So this is what I'm doing.
But if swim lessons do this for his appetite ... I will do swim lessons everyday. Of course, the flip side of that is he's burning it all off so he needs to eat even more than he's getting. But se la vie. Half the battle with G is getting him to enjoy food, and on that front we have definitely made progress the last week in the new house.
I don't know the reason, only G and God know that. Maybe it's (the EE) a seasonal thing and it's not bothering him at all so he feels more comfortable eating. This time last year G's symptoms cleared up too. They started coming back with verve in October.
Irregardless I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth and I'm stocking up on the things he's eating and I'm trying to get him to try new things (tonight we tried spagetti - fail).
So food police take your crap about obesity to someone else's door and unless you're going to help me figure out how to raise my child's BMI (an uncommon problem, I know) shut. up. Everything these days is about limiting this and cutting calories for our kids. I need the opposite! I need high fat, high protein foods that he will enjoy and try. And, dear readers, I know none of you (except the few that have seen it) believe me that he just refuses to eat for days on end (except for cups and cups of juice and a handful of crackers every two hours or so). But trust me ... he does. And he literally loses weight within days of his self imposed diets. It's very frustrating. So please don't offer me suggestions like avocado (tried) or I'm trying to think of another super food that you'd recommend and the only one coming to mind is almonds and he actually eats those. I'm one of the few mothers that has to supplement his milk with fat and carbs. I
add fat and carbs to his food. So the food police and their rules? They don't apply to me.
I have to keep telling myself that.
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