Is worth a “King”

We have been struggling with our “picky eater”.  I really didn’t knew what else to do for my older to at least try something new.  For a long while, he only wanted his P.B. & honey and apples.  That was all he wanted for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I decided to do something about it.  I cut down all the crap snacks and milk.  No more snacks or milk until he had at least one decent meal daily. 

Meanwhile, he also wanted that car from Disney “King”, which by the way cannot be found in any toy store anywhere.  It’s so pricey and it is for sale only on the Internet.

We came up with this idea of telling him that if he would eat his food (anything that we put it on his plate), we would give him the “King” within a month.  As if he understands anything about time. 

On the other hand, we also use a suggestion from a friend saying to him “You will not leave this table until you eat the food”.  My husband and I really meant that.  One day he sat on the table with his dinner (rice and beans). He refused to eat his beans and he sat there for over three hours.  My husband and I didn’t back up this time. 

   

    “You either eat the food or you will not leave this table”. 

We were at war.  We left the table.  Played with our younger, bathed him.  We also told our older one that he would be excused to take a bath.  He had a bath and went back to the table with his pj’s and dinner.  I think he realized that we were not kidding about that, and he would stay there if he didn’t eat.  That smart little kid decided to give up and started to eat the food.  He ate everything! We were amazed how hard and easy it was.  War!

Since that day on, he is eating new foods. He is even saying phrases like, “Yummy”, “Delicious”,  “I like spaghetti!” and of course "If I eat everything, I'll get the "king".

Attaboy Son! We are SO PROUD OF YOU!!!

I don’t know how did worked.  That so terrified day. The promise.  Maybe he is growing older and leaving those picky eaters days behind.  The prayers.  Anyway, the matter of fact is that he is eating. 

I guess that so dreamed “King” it is worth something more than his price, right? 

When the glass breaks

My lovely husband woke me up with a sweet kiss and a phrase, “Honey, I accidentally broke the glass and I can’t clean up because I don’t want to wake the kids up”.

“Really? Are you sure I am the one who will have to clean up the mess? Oh Jeez!

You know those days when you are not expecting any change on your routine, but all of he sudden your water glass breaks?  In a matter of seconds, whatever that you were planning went down the toilet and it’s time to clean up.

Since the glass broke near by the refrigerator and stove, I’ve decided to move them to clean up under both.  Then I remembered that a while back I have moved the stove and there were this huge hole behind it.  Plus an awful electric plug wiring, which was standing out of the wall.  Plus the disgusted dirty.  Of course when I saw that once, I didn’t mention to the “maintenance” guys.  I pretended to be blind and cleaned behind the stove and put it back.  Here I was again, but this time besides cleaning I had to do something about it and asked the guys to fix it.

That made me think about the holes we have in our lives, our souls.  How many times we don’t want to face our own brokenness? Or maybe when something inside us breaks while cleaning, we find this huge mess that only could be seen it if we have removed something. 

Sometimes we see that “thing” and don’t want to bother to mention to anyone to help us fix it.  We know it is there, but we are too “lazy” to get help to fix it.  So we close our eyes to the “problem” and go on with our lives.  However, if another breaks come, we will have to face that “thing” again and deal with it.  Should we close our eyes again, or should we let someone come and help to fix it? 

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10: 10b) 

My Walk

                                     Photo by Jill Nobles

Today I was thinking about life. I was thinking about the ups and downs, the stages in life, the people we know, the ones that come and going and the ones that come and staying (who by the way are very few).

These couple weeks ago, I’ve watched two awesome movies that led me to reflect on some things. I’ve watched the "Machine Gun Preacher", which addresses the true story of a former drug dealer who receives a calling that changes the whole story of his life. Once he was a former dealer who became a rescuer for orphans in Sudan. Excellent movie!

It made me think of how many times I think I have "big problems". It made me think that "small problems" are easier to solve than what I have imagine. It made me stop and think about how is my walk. Unfortunately, as a terrible sinner, It made me desire to walk another walk. A walk that today is not mine. And I do not know if it will be in the future. Then I woke up and saw that the movie was kind of an open eye and an inspiration to someone's life. I can have it as a reference, but I do not want to live that walk.

The other film, "The Joneses", tells the story of a false perfect family. A family that is envied by others. What happens then is that others always end up wanting to keep up appearances only because of this false perfect family. This is another problem. When I start to greatly want the life of another, or what the other has, it becomes an immense weight in my life. Until you get a frustration moment at not being the other, or not to have something that he / she has.

When I don’t walk my walk, my life turns into a twisted reflection of myself. I can even walk with my neighbor for a while, or have someone with me in my walk. But I cannot make it a constant thing.  The only constant is that I must walk with Jesus. I want to walk my walk and be extremely happy with it.

Each one of us has his/her walk and most importantly is for you to walk your walk and not the other one.

Be content with your pleasing walk!

The poop (matters) Mater

If you can’t stand those nasty histories about kids please DON’T read this post. If you do read it, I’ve already said it’s disgusting.

Once upon a time …

We gave our first born this AMAZING Mater car from the movie “Cars”, which had the original paint from when he wasn’t that rusty brown old Mater.  He was very excited about the car and played with him a lot.  This was a very difficult car to be found. When we saw him, we bought it.

For some reason, that I don’t even remember anymore, our young Mater accidentally fell off in the “clean” toilet.  He spent 2 seconds there. Two seconds!

I took him instantly from that “clean” toilet. I washed and sterilized that car forever. I really wanted to buy another one, but I could not found it anymore. So anyway, we kept that little thing.

Of course my son saw everything. The fall, cleaning, and decontamination.  For a less than 2 years old that was such and impacting moment that he only remembered “the poop” or “the poop Mater”.

I hid that car for a while because he refused to play with the car again. If you know my son and get to spend sometime with him, you’ll notice how impeccable neat he is. 

Anyway, I hid that car and every time I would put the car out to play, he would look at that car and said: “Mommy that is the poop Mater”.  (There was no poop in that anyway, but that was how he called it)

So after a long time hidden somewhere, he appeared out of the hidden toy boxes once again. However, this time my son took him out of the box.

Still calling him “The poop Mater” and in his little and very smart mind he saw a tiny piece of poop in there (which of course THERE WHERE ANY poop in there). 

I might take him to the store again to try to find another Mater, so he’ll get this traumatized episode off of his little and pure mind.  I am not sure though if he'll continue to associate the new car to the terrible accident.

I guess in the end the poop matters after all.