Last week after a conversation with a friend about HER amazing meatloaf, I decided I needed to make meatloaf for dinner. The last time I had made meatloaf, I remembered everyone had loved it. I only remembered that because I commented, “Wow! Finally a night when only ONE dinner was made!” It seemed like a long time coming for this crew.
So last week I made meatloaf. I didn’t tell anyone until dinner. Why give them any advance notice to protest?
As we sat down to dinner, my son Joe who is nine years old looked at my husband and I and said with all seriousness, “Why are you guys torturing us?!!!”
I sighed.
They refused to eat.
Actually Jessie, at six years old, did indeed eat. Three bites. With quite a bit of cajoling on her dad’s part.
Joe looked like he was facing the firing squad as he tried getting his three bites down.
I sighed again.
I have two children. They couldn’t be more different. One is male and one is female, and often times I feel like I’ve been thrown into two distinct different worlds. I realize that because they are two years and nine months apart, I was and am a very different parent to them. I also realize that my standards lagged somewhat with the second child. I didn’t have as much time, energy, or patience for the same things the second time around. I just needed the second child to go with it, to somehow be as flexible as I had heard second children could be.
In many instances, Jessie, my daughter is incredibly flexible. For the most part, Jessie was and is able to go with the flow. She was and remains more accepting of changes in schedule and plans. Maybe I was as well. Yes, I still tried to respect her baby needs for napping and bedtime, however, in terms of food, my standards changed.
Horrible all-day morning sickness with both pregnancies for four months forced me to spend great amounts of time trying to stabilize my stomach in any way I could. With my first pregnancy, I craved grapefruit, salad, and frozen waffles. With my second pregnancy I craved spicy, ethnic food. I was continuously searching for Chinese, Indian, Greek; anything with spice calmed my stomach.
