-
The Sandwiches Story
The other day I was making Bug her usual Peanut Butter and Nutella sandwich. (Yes, I know Nutella has four tablespoons of sugar in one spoonful. Gah!) Bug was sitting on the counter next to me, watching and chattering on as she is wont to do.
Everything was going along fine until I got to the cutting part. I cut the sandwich in half and then was about to cut it in half again to make four small triangles when she burst out crying, saying that I wasn’t doing it right. She didn’t want four little triangles. She wanted BIG triangles like her cousin Rapunzel makes.
Sheesh! Kids are so demanding. As if sandwich shapes makes them taste different.
What could I do? One half was already cut? I did what any mother would do. I pretended the big triangle was the mommy sandwich and the two little triangles were the baby sandwiches and made them talk to each other as they waddled on their corners along my paper towel work-space onto her plate.
She thought that was grand…until I told her to eat them
Then there were tears.
“I can’t eat them! I don’t want to eat the Mommy and Baby sandwiches!!!” Waaaah waaaah wahhhh waaaaaah!!! Tears, tears, tears. “Make me another sandwich so I can just look at these sandwiches!”
I tried and tried to tell her the sandwiches wanted to go to the party in her tummy but nothing really worked. She was a crying snotty mess—the usual hungry-needing-a-nap-growth-spurt routine of late. I know a lot of parents would just say suck it up or go hungry and I probably should have. But I finally worked it out for her by drawing a sketch of a mommy sandwich and some baby sandwiches that she could keep and that consoled her. Now we have a sketch of sandwiches permanently living in our house.
Lesson of the day: Never anthropomorphize your kid’s food.
-
Gymnastics!
Did I tell you? Bug is in gymnastics! That’s her on the right in black on the balance beam. Wait for a minute, you’ll see her highlighted. I’d take a better photo but I think they have a no-photography policy at this gym. I am so excited that she’s involved in some sort of activity again.
Ballet practice sort of fizzled out a long time ago when I realized that the ballet studio was taking money directly out of my checking account when we were on vacation. I’m sure it was some small print I failed to read but what I thought was a super good deal turned out to not be a deal at all. Too bad too because it was really nice having fun classes for Bug to take within walking distance. She does miss them but mama’s budget can only support so many activities.
So now I’m paying for gymnastics lessons and I feel pretty good about it. The lessons are serious business. Not like scary coaches yelling but really good one-on-one training. The teachers treat every child like they might be a future olympian. Which they might! The gym is huuuuge. I wouldn’t be surprised if some Olympians did train there.
So far she’s learned the “pizza hang” and the “possum hang” on the bars—which is basically a straddle hang and a sideways hang… If you know us in real life I’m sure she’s already told you all about it. She’s very proud of herself.
I always wanted to take gymnastics when I was a kid. I’m still to this day ashamed that I never could do a cartwheel. Bug calls them “cartonwheels.” So I’m super happy Bug might break that cycle. She seems to take to it pretty well. But it’s only been two classes so we’ll see.
