Another obsession...

Okay, so I have confessed to my obsession with sunscreen and Purell. I have owned up about reading poetry to my children twice a day. Tonight, another obsession that has reared its head since I had children.

I am obsessed with food.

Now, there is a caveat. I like food that is not good for me. I drink two cans of Sunkist every day. It is my vice. When the girls go to bed, my very favorite thing is to open my Sunkist and take a sip. Heaven.

So, when if comes to my girls, I do tell them all the time that pop is bad for you. I realize, they will eventually discover that I have neglected to tell them of its wonderful fizzy goodness. They will rebel. Until that time, however, they believe me, even as they understand that I am addicted to it wholeheartedly.

My main thing with the girls is that I have a desperate need to be sure that they are eating enough vegetables and fruits. Fruits are easy. The girls love almost all fruits. Betsy eats an apple everyday, and Felicity a banana. (I have to limit her to 2 bananas a day, as Nicholas swears that he once got very sick from eating too many bananas.) I buy all the berries that they sell at Kroger and we always have grapes. To make life easier, I take all of the grapes off of the stem and wash them, then put them in tupperware.

I do the same with vegetables. We always have lots of raw vegetables in the fridge. I wash them (and cut them, if they need cutting) when we get them home. Usually we have carrots, celery, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower. We add in new things sometimes. This summer we found a lot of cabbage at the Farmer's Market, so we had a lot of that. In our own garden this year we have enjoyed tomatoes, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes. I have found that the girls are more than willing to try things. Maybe my kids are just weird, but they really enjoy vegtables. I do try to buy organic stuff, and of course you can't beat the stuff we can grow ourselves.

So, the girls have a large serving of vegetables with lunch everyday. They have hummus with them most days. I like doing that because then if they aren't hungry enough for a sandwich, they have had a protein. (Sometimes Felicity is not hungry enough, but Betsy has a hollow leg and is hungry all the time.)

I like knowing that the girls almost always have a good lunch, and then I can be a little more lax with dinner. If we go to Wendy's for dinner, and they have cheeseburgers, it's okay. It's all a compromise.

As another example of compromise, take our breakfasts. We alternate all week between Honey Nut Cheerios and oatmeal. One day a week we usually have eggs, which we are blessed to get from our neighbors who own chickens. And then...Saturday. The rule on Saturday is that you get to choose whatever you want. Right now the choices are Pop Tarts, Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks, and Frosted Flakes. (I always have Frosted Flakes.) The girls look forward to Saturday, and at the same time, they aren't eating junk every day. It works for us.

I have two books to recommend on this topic:

1) The American Academy of Pediatrics Guide to Your Child's Nutrition. This is a handy reference book to have on the shelf to answer food realted questions.

2) Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense by Ellyn Satter. This is a really great book on this topic. A lot of it is about understanding that your job as a parent is to provide good food, and your child's job is to eat. You cannot force food down your child's throat. But, equally important, you are the parent ultimately making the decisisons about the food that comes into you home.

As I have been writing, the Buckeyes have been losing. I am sad for my sister and my dad, who love watching them...