We Love Potatos!!

On Thursday, August 13th, Darrel and I declared russet potatos a safe food for Zac. It’s his 18th safe food, and we couldn’t be happier!

For his part, Zac adores potatos. He gets excited by mashed potatos, thrilled with hamburger hash, and ecstatic over French fries.

For our part, life is So. Much. Easier. Now. 

In fact, I’ve come dangerously close to “burning us out” on potatos and beef due to my overjoyed slacking off in the kitchen. One day last week I realized I’d made some version of beef and potatos for every single meal  over the previous 4 days.

I think I lost my mind a bit over the sudden cooking ease I was experiencing!

Beyond that, though, we discovered Zac’s first PACKAGED food! 

As Darrel and I mentally created the packing list for our picnic lunch one day, I said “…I’ll grab some potato chips for you, me and Jed, and I guess I can make some cookies or muffins for Zac.”

Darrel suddenly sat up and responded excitedly, “Why not give the chips to Zac, too?”

I was dumbfounded. The idea of feeding Zac something that wasn’t made completely from scratch just…did not compute!

But the potato chips in question have only three ingredients: potatos, olive oil, and sea salt. All safe ingredients for Zac!

So we took the leap and, well, Zac loves him some potato chips!

And they seem to love him right back.

And I love having a pre-prepared snack food for in-town errand running emergency food backup.

Ahh…it’s a nice step on our journey towards some kind of normality. 

(The photo for this post is of Zac eating his first ever potato chip. He loved it!)

Mr. Zac is doing incredibly well all across the board. We just learned that his speech therapist thinks he might be released from therapy soon! The last 5 weeks or so has seen Zac blossom from a nearly mute child to a veritable chatter-box!

Not only that, but it turns out Zac is quite the little manipulator. I guess three years of watching how things play out has taught him all the right buttons to push.

Now, instead of just falling on the floor and crying when he’s upset, I get to hear him cry, stick out his lower lip so far he might trip on it, and tell me “You hurt my feelings, Mommy!” through his tears.

The first time it happened? Oh, yeah. Mama felt some guilt. I hugged on him and loved on him and tried to make him feel better, apologizing all the while, and came up with a compromise that made me look weak…just to make up for hurting his feelings.

Yesterday might have been about the 45th time he’s said that to me over the last two weeks. 

It’s kind of lost its effect, much to his chagrin. 

Now I just nonchalantly say “Yeah, well, you’ll get over it.” Then I remind him to do whatever it is that I told him to do that “hurt his feelings”. He’s not happy with my quick ‘catching on’ to his game!

Kids. Ah. Such fun.

Other than the emotional blackmail, I couldn’t be more thrilled with Zac these days. The only thing that is a little sad is the fact that he has now told me twice that he doesn’t get any milk when he nurses. He admitted that he just wants to nurse so he can have one-on-one alone, snuggle time with me. (Sibling rivalry, much?)

I’m not sure whether to believe that completely, though, since every time he is hungry he immediately starts screaming to nurse. Is it just habit that has him wanting to nurse when he’s hungry? Or is he still actually getting a little milk and knows boobie is faster than me cooking him food?

I don’t know the answer to that, yet; I will say that I won’t be surprised in the slightest if Zac is weaned by the end of September. <sniff sniff>

We started a green bean trial last night. Actually, we tried to start it on Sunday, but he ended up taking a late nap and was very cranky at dinner. Consequently, he refused to even try a green bean.

Last night, though, we managed to talk him in to it with the help of Daniel Tiger.

All I have to say is GOD BLESS the writers of Daniel Tiger! They have an episode where the kids go to a garden to see all the yummy foods growing there and to taste them. Katarina Ballerina doesn’t want to try one of the veggies, but Teacher Harriet convinces her that “You’ve got to try new foods ’cause it might taste good!”

Now, whenever one of our kids turns up their nose at a food? All we have to do is say “Remember what you learned from Daniel Tiger and Katarina Ballerina? You have to try new things at least once – you might like it!” and they give it a try.

Many times they do NOT like the food, but every now and again, they do. Last night with green beans was one of those times.

After reminding him of Daniel Tiger, Zac ate one single green bean. Suddenly, he was “Yummy, mommy! I like this!” and very proud of himself that he tried it. “Me tried new food! It’s good!”

We shall see how the rest of the trial goes.

Oh, and you may have noticed my total absence here lately. Well, I may have finally bitten off more than I can chew.

We started homeschooling on August 4th. It’s going incredibly  well, but it’s quite time consuming for me! My work schedule may be a tad reduced, but it is still not anything resembling part time. So working full time, juggling regular life, food issues, and now homeschooling on top of it? Might be one ball too many.

It’s infuriating, because I have SO many things I want to write about! I keep making “draft” posts with topic ideas; right now I have about 30 draft posts that are just waiting to be written.

Well, I’ll keep trying. Hopefully after a few more weeks I’ll have a better balance for my new ‘job’ and can start picking up balls again. Namely, blogging.

Oh, and I’m very excited! Tonight is the boys first gymnastics class!

I’ve mentioned living way out in the country before, so you can imagine my joy to discover there is a bona fide, award winning gymnastics/dance studio about ten minutes from my house! Even better, enrolling both boys in a weekly tumbling class costs less than just having Jed in martial arts!

I’m praying they both like it and that it isn’t “too loud” for Jed.

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How have you been lately? I miss you guys!