Origami

Kaylee is a slow eater.  I know I was a slow eater when I was little.  I'm betting Dylan was a slow eater when he was little.  Kaylee beats us both - combined.  One bite.  Distraction.  One nibble.  Forget the food is even in her hand/on her fork, wander away.  Remind her to eat.  One bite.  Distraction.  Repeat.  For hours.

We could get into a long debate about what's better or healthier or whatever - eating solid meals, lots of snacking, forcing a kid to eat "at meal time" vs when they're hungry.  Blah, Blah, Blah.  Let's all agree that there are a lot of ways to look at this, and arguing isn't worth it.  This is a story about how I do it.  I'm not saying it's right or wrong, it's just how we do it.

Now, I realize I could do something more proactive about it - I could try harder to enforce staying in our seat, just eating, with no toys/screens/books.  But, I'm just not like that.   Sitting in near silence (because I'm also trying to teach her not to talk with food in her mouth), with nothing to look at or play with doesn't work for either of us.  I have always read a book or watched tv while eating.  That's how my parents did it, that's what I've done for the past 15 years of living on my own/with Dylan.  And, with Dylan at work during most meals, meaning it's just the two of us, and she's an energetic little thing, TV is really the only way I've successfully been able to get her to sit still and eat.  Especially if I want to be able to cook in a tiny kitchen without worrying about little hands getting into knives or hot stoves.  There are times I get her involved in the cooking, but she's not usually interested.  (For all of you who will say, "too much tv!"  she does have to earn it - she "pays" for it with the stickers she's earned doing her "chores" - like getting dressed or brushing teeth, etc; and, too bad.  It's a lot of tv, but there are worse things in life.)

But, it's slow.  Very slow.  It takes her hours to eat lunch or dinner.  From when I sit her down with an appetizer while I go cook until she finally says she's done eating is... hours.  Even if I when I finish eating I start saying things like, "When you're done, we can play with [insert current favorite toy here]."  She still keeps putting one little bite in her mouth at a time, and if I try to say, "You look like you're done, do you want me to put your dish away so we can play?" she gets upset.

This leaves me with way too much free time for myself.  Even with cooking my own dinner, eating it, cleaning up the kitchen... I still have free time.  But if I try to do anything productive (like clean, do homework, knit the sweater that just needs it's edging done then I could send it off to the baby it's for...) she'll stop eating altogether to see what I'm doing.  I have to stay at the table with her while she eats, or she won't stay.  I have to stay mostly focused on her (singing the songs from the shows she's watching, or reminding her to eat) or I end up feeling guilty or she ends up getting into some sort of trouble because I'm not paying attention.  This leaves me with some very restricted free time.   Lots of time, very few options for how to use it. Lately, I've filled it with origami.

It keeps my hands busy, but most of my attention is on Kaylee.  It's a feeling of productivity without taking away from meal time with her, or doing something that makes her feel ignored.

I made my own Mother's Day bouquet.

Dylan thinks it's gone overboard.

I think he's overreacting.