Dinnertime

We started a new routine shortly after Jacob was born. After we realized that we were spending a whopping $800/mo eating out in addition to $500-$600/mo at the grocery store, we decided that we would try eating at home for the majority of our meals. I'm so proud to say that we haven't eaten out in over 2 months! It was definitely a difficult habit to break, but we just couldn't afford to continue spending that amount of money (and not to mention hidden calories!!) on eating out. We found that we are actually spending the same amount at the grocery store than we were before. I know, so weird. I guess we always had the intention of cooking at home when we went to the grocery store but it never actually happened, so the fresh food we bought ended up going bad. What an absolute waste!! If we could only have those $800 for EACH month back!!

So although it was difficult at first, we started to cook meals at home which posed a completely NEW problem. For John Thomas' first 4 years of life he's been able to tell us what he wants to eat for dinner. Funny thing, not once has he asked for broccoli! So with our new routine we could either cook our meal and heat up nuggets, corn dogs , or fish sticks for him, or we could confront the issue head on and make him eat what we were eating. SCARY. So I thought I would involve him in the dinner process by asking him to set the table. He has taken this chore in stride, and takes absolute pride in it. I took a picture of the table after he set it for us yesterday. I know Mom, the fork should be on top on the napkin on the left side of the plate. He likes balance and doesn't want the right side lonely. We don't let him set knives out for obvious reasons. Also notice that it's a paper towel and not a napkin. Napkins are on our grocery list. Also notice that the placemats are set off center. That's because John Thomas' mind thinks in an analytical way and so he set the place settings directly in front of where the chairs were sitting. Notice one more thing: You can see John Thomas playing outside the window. He had 5 minutes to play before dinner was ready.

I went back and took a shot of the table right before we sat down to eat. Looks pretty good huh!? Um...notice John Thomas is sitting at the head of the table. How did that happen?? Well that's where the prince decided he was going to eat. Also notice Hannah sniffing dinner. I didn't notice her until I downloaded the pics. No, she doesn't get leftovers, at least not when I am watching.

So what came of our efforts to get John Thomas to eat what we are eating? It's an absolute work in progress. He does eat what we are eating every night, as long as it's some sort of chicken. He ate carne guisada, but he thought it was chicken. He ate pork chops, but he thought it was chicken. He even ate some mahi mahi, but you guessed, he thought it was chicken. Every night we have to tell him that the meal he is eating is Miguel's favorite, or Tyner's favorite. We've told him that the more he eats the bigger he gets, and that if he doesn't eat Tyner might be bigger and faster than him when he comes to visit. So the main course (and the crescent rolls of course) aren't much of a problem. It's the veggies that he has trouble with. So he has to eat one bite and we will not get up from the table until he does. He's ended up crying in his room, he's ended up gagging, he's even ended up pleading not to have to take a bite. But we make him do it every night. He has yet to try something and actually like it, but he tries it nonetheless. I just don't know what to do to get him to actaully LIKE vegetables! Hopefully it's a stage he'll grow out of, and hopefully the lack of vegetables in his diet won't stunt his growth! All in all our dinner routine has definitely been a positive thing for us. My family always sat down to eat growing up and I'm so happy to start doing it with my own family. :)