Positive Parenting

I don't know what I expected to feed my toddler before I had a child. I'm sure I had visions of rainbows and butterflies (otherwise known as perfectly balanced meals of primarily veggies with some fruit and protein, with milk and/or yogurt). 

This did work out for a while. But I have a very independent child who likes to make her own choices about what to eat. She WILL.NOT. drink milk. I'm glad I breastfed her until she was 13 months or I would have really worried. Thankfully she's a big fan of cheese and yogurt!

Tonight's meal? 

3/4 of a corn dog (which she's never wanted before), a cup of grapes, 2 string cheese sticks, a helping of graham crackers/cheerios/raisins (our version of toddler chex mix), some V8 juice, and a ton of water. She refused the broccoli I offered. Oh well.

 

She's full. It was *moderately* balanced. And she's happy. Sometimes I'm going to call that a win even if there isn't a veggie! (I'll just make sure to get plenty in her next smoothie).

Even if I didn't feed her the most nutritious meal of all time we had some awesome moments today. 

As we read in the evenings I'm usually asking her to identifying things or "hunt" for a vocabulary word. She gets SO excited when she can point something out, or blow me away with a new vocabulary word.

One fun thing she did tonight was while reading a new(er) book she pointed out a "puppy" without me asking on the below page:

Puppy!

Would you have noticed the puppy paw right away!? Maybe so. But as adults we are fairly familiar with what a paw looks like. She usually sees puppies as an entire animal complete with the ears, tails and 4 legs. I was so excited when she noticed the paw! Too fun.

She also blew me a kiss and told me she loved me when it was time for bed.

Cue heart melting.

Even if we can't do everything right (like feed balanced meals or handle tantrums perfectly in public or whatever it is), sometimes I still finish a day feeling really positive about how we are raising Clara. Even if I let her eat her breakfast of cheerios in our bathtub after she spilled them in there :) 

She tries really hard to be polite (thank you, please), picks up when she makes a mess, and is so loving. On top of that she's as smart as any toddler I've ever met. It's hard to feel too discouraged when I look at the balance of good and bad. 

I have a wonderful husband who shoulders a huge responsibility taking care of our family and rocks at it. We also have grandparents and aunts and uncles and siblings that are beautiful influences on our little girl. Add in our church family, Legacy family, Primrose, and sweet friends and I just feel like this little girl is on the right track.

Thanks for tuning into this Thursday's mushy parenting edition :)