So I got up early this morning and took advantage of daddy being home, and let him keep the girly entertained while I slaved (and I mean this quite literally) in the kitchen for about 1.5 hours including cleanup, to create this! 
I did boiled eggs which I molded into bunny and bear shapes. I did brown rice which was molded into heart and star shapes. I did a hotdog octopus with turkey dog. And I shredded some part skim mozzerella cheese and placed some carrots to take up some space. 
Hubby left to visit with his kids and I was left with girly whom happily viewed the "masterpiece" (okay so I need to work on this a bit more, Im not fantastic...yet). She sat down and quickly informed me of everything she was NOT going to eat. Which ended up being everything but the egg. I wont lie, I fought back tears. Seriously??? I spent this much time trying to make your food appeal to you and you have the nerve to sit there and tell me you wont even TASTE a couple bites of each thing? 
I am torn between making another one for her and tempting her and throwing my hands into the air, and screaming. 


 
So here is the deal, I've been dealing with a lot this last week with my child regarding her eating. She is underweight and refuses to eat just about anything and everything offered to her that has any sort of nutritional value whatsoever. It's gotten to the extent that a feeding tube (ng) will be placed in July if she can't get past her little behavioral strike and EAT. 
Ive been stressed to the max over her lack of eating as of course I love her and don't want to see her having to rely on a tube to get nutrition. I understand (with the help of a doc) that kids her age tend to pick something and latch onto it in order to assert themselves and have some control, and while many may choose wearing a particular pair of shoes EVERY DAY, or fight over clothes, or wearing make up etc - Mine has chosen food (likely because her clothes are a uniform so there is no point in fighting there). It's not that she CAN'T eat, it's that she WONT. 
I am a firm believer in picking your battles, but honestly my child is pretty much perfectly behaved and respectful in every single other aspect of her life so this is the ONLY battle, and it's a battle over a basic function. 

Her big complaint is she doesn't like veggies. She doesn't like them cooked, steamed, roasted, raw, grilled etc. She will eat chicken but it has to be just exactly seasoned how she likes. If anything looks like a spice on it she wont eat it. She will tell me she is starving all day long but when offered food (between meals she is open to have as many cheese sticks, apples, bananas, oranges, carrots that she wants) she doesn't want it. She'd rather starve than eat something she doesn't want. 

We have pediasure as backup but Im extremely hesitant to give it to her because I know that she would gladly survive off those alone and I know she needs to learn to EAT. 

We dont discuss weight, weightloss, etc around her. I dont do this because I dont want her to get the idea that she needs to worry about any of those things. I also don't weigh in front of her. The only "weight" discussions we have is that she has got to put some on. 

She is healthy, and very happy otherwise, just need to move past this hurdle which brings me to why tomorrow Ill post. 
I am trying as many things as I can to get her to eat on her own before resorting to pediasures and eventually ng tube. Tomorrow I will be trying my hand at Bento Box Making. I will attempt to make her lunches and dinners look cute, in hopes that it's cuteness will get her to eat. I'd be incredibly happy to just see her take a bite of everything the first day. 
I plan to try making Turkey Hotdog Octopus, Flower Rice Ball (brown rice). For dessert I will be giving her 2 mini chocolate muffins that I made using the recipe from The Sneaky Chef (basically, we used spinach and blueberry puree instead of the other liquids to give it a nutritional punch without a battle).

Before you ask - NO, we have NEVER let her eat a ton of junk food. Even before I started eating healthy we have always given her healthy foods. She did get cotton candy on special occasions, chocolate covered raisins, etc but never daily. She didn't know what candy was until she was 2 because we referred to her fruit as her candy. It's not like we let her eat crappy food for 8 yrs and then suddenly are forcing veggies on her. 

Anyway - so my food blog will morph into a "please god let her eat" blog for a while. So if you too have a picky eater, maybe you can get some ideas that even if they don't work for us, maybe you will be blessed and they will for you! First post will be tomorrow! 

Until then - my hubby is home and brought me flowers cause he's the best! Please excuse that I have zero make up on and therefore look like I have no eyelashes at all and am ridiculously pale (I also just woke from a nap, cause the hubs tucked me in and took over for the day with girly! After a month of single parenting it's been nice!)

 
So I've been MIA again - and I swear I am trying to do better about posting - it seems I always think of it at like 11pm while in bed, not effective for blogging! 
I've been very busy enjoying my family though - so I think that's a good excuse! We went on my daughter's first Trail Ride today! The first of many! (We will be going 2 times a month)
She rode like a pro, with great posture and really good control of her horse! Only once did we have a hiccup when another horse moved a branch and she didn't see, and it whacked her in the face and layed her back down to her horses ass. Made my heart just stop for a second, but she popped back up in her saddle laughing and kept on going. I was so thankful for her helmet at that moment! 
My horse was being a pill, he wanted to have a buffet through the whole trail and kept stopping to munch - finally he just ripped an entire branch off a tree and munched it the rest of the way back. LOL! 
Before all this we went Bay Fishing and hubby did well (cant remember if I blogged it at the moment), and company picnic which was a ton of fun! We got a ton of goodies there too!
Mother's day is coming up and Im taking my mom and my daughter and we are going to get pedicures! Hubby got me some jewelry (I haven't seen it yet, it's in the safe) and an Aerogarden to grow herbs right there in the kitchen. They are usually $150 but we found one for $50 on Craigslist, and since I have family who have them already and know they work really well - I can't wait to see my Lemon Mint, Basil, Terragon, Dill, Garlic Chives, Cilantro and Thyme  grow! 
I will try at least some to post between all the wonderful things we are doing! But I think my most reasonable goal will be once a week, on Sunday's or something. 
Ill post the weekend of the 2nd too - hubby will be out taking his kids for a vacation (which I got the tickets for and got a NICE hotel to stay in! I am so excited for them all and hope they have a fantastic time! Girly and I will be taking Aunt Marcia riding on the 19th. Wow we are busy!
OH! About my 17 day Diet! I only was able to complete 9 days before I found that a diet change was in temporary order for a medical procedure Im having done on Monday. But in 9 days I lost 8lbs! Not too bad! And I peed on those ketone strips which proved to me that about half of the time it was FAT burning - the other half was just fluids. Im going to return to the diet/way of eating after my procedure.
Hope all of you are enjoying your families as much as I am! Don't forget to check out Myrisa here on the blog - she is very good about getting blogs