Too Little, Too Much

Maria's View-

Where is the balance?  When you are a mother/wife/daughter/sister/friend, how do you find a way to make it all just balance out?  Where's the line that makes my time equal?  Hang in there with me, y'all.  Maybe I will figure it out one day!

On the food front:  I keep bringing up these food issues so that perhaps I can help another adopting family figure out their little one as well.  Oatmeal is a trigger for him... or it could just be breakfast in general.  He could be very hungry and out of control when he wakes up.  With that being said, his 'out of control' is just a lot of moaning and sometimes tears with a bit of wailing.  What we are starting to do is feed him until he starts getting 'out of control' and then if he starts getting upset, we will turn his high chair away from us and he will calm himself within minutes as we calmly talk to him with reassuring words, "it's okay, Griffin, stop crying, you can have more, etc." The second he stops crying, we will turn his high chair back to us and he will continue eating just fine.  This seems to be working.  Maybe he is just overstimulated with the food and honestly just needs a break?   Snack time went great, we gave him fruit puffs, no issues.  Lunch time went great after he took a 2 hour nap.  I chopped up 1/2 hot dog and about 3 TBSP of green peas.  He ate every bite and let out a moan when he saw that there was only one bite left on the plate.  I quickly said, "Nyet, no, no, no", and he stopped immediately.  I was able to remove him from the high chair with no tears.

We went to the park across the street today and the kids had a great time kicking the ball around, swinging, see-sawing, and loving on Mommy and Papa.  It's such a beautiful day outside and the weather is absolutely perfect.

Big G is at a sleepover tonight and I'm sure she is having a blast!  Chris and I will settle for a couch date and the littles will hopefully go to bed on time!

Chicken fried rice is on the menu tonight!  Wish us luck! :-)

Chris's View-

Groceries... ugh!

I had to go grocery shopping today.  Man, I had almost forgot how chaotic the base Commissary is.  I am thankful for the time I was away from it!  LOL!

I was shocked at the increase in groceries for such a little mouth!  LOL!  Our little 20 pound dude caused us to increase our grocery cart load by a considerable amount.  I get it, he loves his veggies... now we have to get the other two G's to eat veggies as much as he does and we will be good!  Even the protein load was larger.  I know he'll eat the protein.  Used to, 3 steaks would feed our family, with a little scrap for me to take to work the next day.  We could still get by with 3 steaks, but there goes my next day lunch!  LOL!

Not only did grocery shopping change, but we have been seeing even other, smaller things have changed.  Even getting gas is a totally different task now.  For those of ya'll not here at the military base in Europe where we are, I'll put it into perspective for you.  When we go to get gas, we pull up & pump the gas, then we have to go in to pay for it.  At one location we can pay outside, but it is a person, it's never a pay-at-the-pump situation for us here.  We also have very specific military regulations that prevent us from ever leaving our children in the vehicle to go pay for the gas... not that we would anyway, except the outside gas attendant.  To me, it's almost a safety issue to take my children out at this busy gas station, where people drive in & drive out of a gas lane right beside the gas attendant's cashier box.  Nevertheless, getting gas is a total chore now.

See ya'll later!