(no subject)

[the_rck]

The nearby science/nature center is planning a parents’ night out thingy for next weekend. For $30, they’ll keep kids for five hours and feed them dinner and keep them busy. Cordelia is just young enough for it, and I’m tempted because I’d like some time with Scott while she’s not around, but she would loathe it.

I think Scott and I are out of luck on getting time to ourselves. She doesn’t want to spend the night with Scott’s sister or Scott’s parents, and sleepovers are apparently not a thing in her friends group. On weeknights, we have less than an hour after she turns off her lights before we need to be in bed. On weekends, she’s up later than we are.

We’re trying to come up with things that Cordelia is willing to take in her lunches (and will actually eat). Right now, she’s taking some cucumber and a sandwich and then complaining a lot about how that’s not enough. She’s willing to take apples but only if we cut them up for her. Nothing else I’ve suggested has met with her approval. I’ve suggested other vegetables and fruits, hummos, yogurt, beef jerky, and nuts. I’ve also suggested that she put more on her sandwiches.

My left foot started hurting badly again yesterday evening and is still pretty painful. The pain seems to show up in different places at different times, so I’m really pretty confused by it.

We started watching that Shannara adaptation last night. I’m not convinced we’ll finish. It wasn’t terrible by any means, but I don’t think either of us connected to either story or characters. I think I’m going to push for watching our Netflix DVD (Whitecollar season 1 DVD 2) first.

I woke with a headache this morning. It’s on just one side of my head, so I tried my migraine medication first. That hasn’t killed it, so I’m debating what to try next.

Scott decided recently that he wanted to try oatmeal made from steel cut oats instead of instant oatmeal. Unfortunately, our deepest bowls (which are pretty darned deep) aren’t deep enough to keep the stuff from bubbling over in the microwave. Scott cleaned the microwave, but the bowls ended up pretty nasty inside and out. I had to fill the sink in order to soak them, and I still had to pry bits of oatmeal off with my fingernails after. I don’t mind Scott trying something healthier, but I think he’d better cook the stuff on the stove instead of in the microwave.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

You have my sympathies on the kid lunch dilemma. L is very picky about what she will eat in all contexts, and a slow eater, so (except for some brief months of respite here and there) school lunch has always been a struggle with her. At one point in first grade, when the only thing she'd reliably finish would be a tiny PB&J sandwich and some Goldfish crackers, she was eating lunch with her teacher (this was some reward for good behavior, to have the winning table eat lunch with the teacher), who asked, "Is that all you're having for lunch?" And L said, "That's all they give me." We had an interesting conversation with the teacher afterwards, haha.

Anyway, you've probably tried all of these things already, or they contain dealbreakers for you or for Cordelia, but the things we've had (intermittent) success with:
- celery sticks, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, small sweet peppers
- easy-peel tangerines with no pits (like Cuties)
- apple-sauce/apple-banana sauce you can "drink" from a pouch, like this
- dried fruit (apples, mango)
- trail mix
- box of raisins/cranberries
- fruit bars
- small smoothies/drinkable yogurt (or squeezable yogurt, like GoGurt (when we lost the battle over actual healthy yogurt; this is the only form in which L will take her dairy, so we've made Compromises)
- peanut-butter filled pretzels, RitzBits crackers which have cheese or PB inside (these are crap, but at least they do contain some extra protein)

On the kid-free time note, would Cordelia perhaps want to go see a nice long movie with a group of friends? :)

I didn't realize one even *could* make steel-cut oatmeal in the microwave (though maybe this example shows that one can't...) I remember B experimenting with it on the stove, and it was easy but tedious.

[the_rck]

Cordelia says she might eat pea pods, so we're going to get some. She won't touch tangerines/satsumas, and she says she's not interested in applesauce. She's very specifically rejected all forms of yogurt for lunches (she likes it at home sometimes).

She might eat dried fruit, especially sweetened, dried cranberries. She doesn't like raisins, though. We've tried to get her interested in those.

She would probably eat the filled RitzBits. I'll run that by her.

Cordelia won't go to movies in the theater. She says she doesn't like movie theaters, and she's been sticking with that even when she really wants to see a new movie. She'd rather wait and not deal with the theater.

Maybe I can convince her to go to plays instead? We're in a city that has a fair number of those, but I'd guess that only 1/4-1/3 of what's available would interest her, and that bit tends to be seasonal.