Breakfast, lunch and Dinner

What use to be my favorite times of the day have become my worst nightmare.  Its really easy to spoon feed a child when they are young, like 1.5 or younger.  In my experience they don't make that much of a mess, the bib catches most of it, they sit in one spot, they eat what you give em.  The minute they start talking is when it becomes more difficult to just sit down and have these 3 meals.  Everything is an argument!  In the morning is not so bad because they just woke up and  their hungry so they will just eat what I give them.  Usually cereal or pancakes, or waffles, or oatmeal.   But from then on my kids will just have constant energy throughout the day.  At lunch, my 4 year old will slowly eat one bit at a time while running around crazy.  And even though I try to set the tone by turning off all games and  start leading them into the kitchen they feed off of each others energy and keep constant commotion.  Oh, and even though I give them the same food to eat they both fight to eat off of one plate.  What the hell is that all about!  Is it a territorial thing, please someone explain!!!  So that brings us to dinner.  At this point in the day I am getting exhausted from whatever activities we did through the day but, I still make it a point to have a great meal ready or workin in the oven for my wife when she gets home.  I know she loves it when I cook but it becomes a living hell trying to get our kids to eat something new.  And the more we argue, the better my kids are getting at negotiating!  Its funny but stressful sometimes.  Now I can except it if my kids would eat one bite and say they don't like it.  Fine, i'll make you something else quick.  Like mac n cheese, grilled cheese, or fish stix or something.  But to justify doing this they got to at least try one bite!  Come on! Just one bite!  You can't just look at it and say eewww!  And then I end up quoting one of his bed time stories "how does a dinosaur eat his food".  "They try every new thing at least one small bite".  Sometimes it works and sometimes not.  And forget about eating out for dinner.  Thats even worse.  We just don't go out hardly anymore.  Unless it is just my wife and I.  My kids will destroy an establishment in no time and cause the biggest scene.  I love it but I hate it.

The power of Candy

Now when I was younger I remember going to the local candy shop with about .75 cents and coming out with a handful of bazooka joe, a bag of bravos, and a small drink of some color with no name on it, you know with the tin foil top.  No restrictions, and no one there the tell us what we can and can't have.  Oh, fundip was another one of my favorites.  Well, those days didn't last long because the owner of the shop was thrown in jail and shut down for having poker slots in the back next to my favorite arcade game double dragon.  But even with no real parental supervision, we were all very active kids so we burned off all those calories quickly.  Basketball, handball, and generally walking everywhere was part of our daily routine hangin out.  It was never a dull moment where we grew up.  Now having said all that I allow my kids to have candy when its available but,  I make damn sure they get off there asses and play outside or ride their bikes around the block, go to the park, go swimming, walk the dogs with me.  Just keep them active enough to not want to sit at home playing games.  If you read my previous blog about video games you already know what happened to my Wii.  I mean eating all their dinner and brushing teeth and listening are just basic instructions that I expect my kids to understand in order to have this privilege.  It also helps that I got them in a gymnastics class thats only once a week but they love it.  You know what bothers me too, they make it so easy for kids now to just sit at home.  But if you want to go play basketball or something you have to pay a membership fee for some half ass gym where nobody plays.  My favorite thing about growing up where I was, is that there was so many other people around and it was easy to get involved with activities being played.
Sorry I got side tracked.  I taught my oldest son how to make a tiramisu.  We also made birthday cakes and brownies and junk.  I'll post some pics so you can all see.  Halloween is awesome now with my kids being old enough to understand it.  Last year Carmine had so much fun and got so much candy!  My neighborhood is great with that.  Everyone gets involved.  Almost every house we knocked on, we got something.  I am pretty psycho about checking every piece of candy though before my kid eats it.  I have to make sure there are no holes in the wrappers and all the candy I allow them to take must have a proper label on it or I'll throw it out.  I'll take you back one more time here.  When I went trick or treating growing up, apparently there were reports of some unknown people poisoning candy and giving it out to people.  So my parents beat it into our heads not trust anyone and thoroughly examine every piece of candy we got.  Lindsey will laugh at me and comment on my psychotic behavior sometimes but, I can't help it.  After so many years it just becomes natural to think like this.