The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Just the two of us

Happy Monday!  It was just me and Maxwell holding down the home front this weekend as Robert had to go out of town on a work retreat to North Carolina.  Lucky duck!  Cool mountain air, golfing, boating, steaks…it’s rough being Robert sometimes!  I didn’t mind though because I got to stay home with my best buddy and had grand plans for a really fun weekend.  Unfortunately we had two things that tried hard to spoil our fun – puke and rain.  Luckily the puking (Maxwell, not me) didn’t stick around past Friday but the rain stuck around all weekend long.  Even though it was pretty dreary outside, I tried not to let it keep us cooped inside the whole weekend.

On Sunday morning, despite the drizzle, Maxwell and I went and had a little picnic at Overton Park and then played on the playground.

He loved the see-saw, just like last time.  and, yes, I was on the other end with my camera in tow!  talent!

Then, for whatever reason, Maxwell started shaking his head back and forth really fast over and over.  He was cracking up and it was so funny to see his hair just swinging all over the place!

silly boy!

Everything was pretty wet but I had taken a beach towel to dry everything off.  A little rain didn’t stop us!

Even though it was pretty tiring playing single mom all weekend, I’m glad I got some good one on one time with Maxwell before #2 gets here!  Not much longer now!

Finally, happy birthday to Maxwell’s Aunt Jen yesterday!  hope it was a great one!

Friday Funny

My mother-in-law sent me this earlier this week and I just have to share.  I don’t know about you but I’m missing the Olympics!

The top 9 comments made by NBC sports commentators during the Summer Olympics that they would like to take back:

1. Weightlifting commentator: “This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing.”

2. Dressage commentator: “This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother.”

3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: “I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father.”

4. Boxing Analyst: “Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious.”

5. Softball announcer: “If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.”

6. Basketball analyst: “He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn’t like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces.”

7. At the rowing medal ceremony: “Ah, isn’t that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew.”

8. Soccer commentator: “Julian Dicks is everywhere. It’s like they’ve got eleven Dicks on the field.”

9. Tennis commentator: “One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them…Oh my God, what have I just said?”

In other news this Friday, don’t you love it when some days your hair has a mind of it’s own.  On this day, I think Maxwell’s hair had the mind of a 90’s California surfer dude.

Dude!!  That is au naturel!  No hairspray needed!

Happy Friday!!!

Gone Fishin’!

Maxwell and Susan had another big adventure this week – they headed over to a neighborhood lake to do a little fishin’!  This is what I came home to find left for me in the kitchen…

Hilarious!

Although Maxwell practiced with his fishing pole before they left…

he preferred to just sit and feed the animals by hand once they got to the lake.

He wasn’t feeding many fish though.  It was mostly turtles that were eating the bread!

Susan even caught a turtle on her line!  She said it was pretty funny trying to get that snapping turtle back in the water!

The adventures for these two never stop!

ps – how cute does he look in his little blue jeans?!  🙂

My little chef

My latest food idea – make Maxwell the chef and maybe he’ll eat it!  Sounds like a good idea, right?  Last night I made these little quinoa pizza bites thinking they would be good for him – small, bite size, tastes like pizza – how can it go wrong?  I then thought that if I let him help me make them, he would be more inclined to eat them.  Again, how can it go wrong?  My little sous chef was so good at helping me scoop it all out into the muffin tin…

and then he stood up there and played and helped me cook other things.  When they were done, we pulled them out of the oven and talked about how they were hot but they were going to cool off and be great for dinner.  Well, know what he ate for dinner?  One cracker.  One little cracker.  Wouldn’t even take one bite of the food he helped me prepare.  I give up.

Oh well!  Enough about my food frustrations…time to clean off the ole iphone!

At least his picky eating isn’t making his chubby cheeks go away yet!  I love his cheeks in that picture of him playing with the ipad on the 3rd row down.  Guess I better keep him full of Moe’s burritos if I want to keep those cheeks!!  See you tomorrow!

Food Glorious Food

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I think I would enjoy motherhood a lot more if I never had to feed my child.  Maxwell is PICKY.  Now, is he way worse than other kids?  just as picky?  better?  I have no idea because I have nothing to compare it to.  All I know is that trying to figure out what he will eat on a daily basis can drive me bonkers.  I just want him to get good, nutritious things in his body but he doesn’t always agree.

A list of the normal “kid” things that he won’t touch…not even touch to his lips.

Fruit – all kinds, no matter shape, size or color.  He will not eat a single piece of fruit.

Most vegetables – unless in the form of a jar of baby food which I definitely still let him eat as part of his dinner.  It’s no different than applesauce, right? Anyway to get those carrots in him!

Mac and cheese, pasta, rice, chicken nuggets/fingers, cheese…the list goes on.

He’s also gone anti-milk since we stopped giving him a nightly bottle about 3 months ago.  This kid used to beg for his milk in a bottle every morning and night and now I literally cannot get him to drink one ounce from a sippy cup or regular cup.  I’ve tried it hot, cold, with chocolate, vanilla flavored, in a special cup, with a straw, everything.  No milk is drunk.

These are some pictures from one day when I gave him some vanilla milk.  He actually tasted it and liked it!  Or so I thought.  What you see below is one of about 3 sips of milk he took.  And that’s about all the straight milk he’s had in the past 3 months.

Luckily he’s a GREAT yogurt eater and we do our best to give him smoothies, calcium fortified OJ, make his oatmeal with milk, etc.  I also give him a cup of milk every single night with dinner just hoping that one day he’ll choose to drink it.  I can’t tell you how much milk I’ve poured down the sink.  It’s so frustrating that I’ve even considered going back to giving him a nightly bottle but my pediatrician says not to do that.  Don’t worry, we’ll be discussing this at his 2 year checkup at the end of the month.

The things he will eat?  There are things – enough that he’s never going to starve.  Susan and I are constantly trying to get creative with ways to incorporate the foods he will eat with new things for him to try.  The problem is that he’ll often eat something one day and then just say “no” the next.  I tell ya – when you prepare a meal for him and then set it down and hear that little “no”, it is maybe the most defeating feeling on earth.  Because once he says “no”, you’re in a losing battle.

Things he will eat include almond and peanut butter, yogurt, any type of cereal/cracker, bagels, Morningstar Farms corn dogs, a specific chicken sandwich that I make him with flatbread and pesto, beans – he does love beans usually!, and a variety of breakfast items like veggie sausage and oatmeal.  There are more things, sure, but these are the most consistent ones.

One thing that he will always eat consistently?  A black bean burrito from Moe’s!

Go figure!  Susan discovered his love of these and he will eat that whole thing without stopping.  Oh, it makes my heart happy to see that!  Of course, if I make him a black bean burrito at home I usually get the dreaded “no”.  Oh well, I guess everything tastes better from a to-go container, right?!  🙂

Going out to eat with him is a challenge too and I usually end up bringing food with me because I can’t rely on the standard kid’s menu unless I only want him to eat french fries for dinner (grilled cheese, another kid staple, are touch and go).  One place we know he’ll eat?  Mexican.  He loves some queso and refried beans (sans rice of course!).

If anyone out there has suggestions of things to try for either food or milk, I would LOVE to hear them.  Specifically around the milk.  I know he needs it for the calcium and I am just out of ideas.

All this said, I do keep it in perspective and know that he’s not going to starve to death and he will grow out of this…I just hope my sanity can make it through!!