Fun and food issues. . .

Attacking his chair

Reading in his chair

Attacking me while sitting in his chair. He really loves his chair : )

Ashley reading to JJ

And playing together

Renee and JJ, his older girlfriend : )

Sitting in his chair together, JJ sat on her lap : )

Reading together again

More reading together!

JJ reading his Bible Sunday morning! What a good boy!

After dinner tonight. . .

JJ and I had another great weekend. Our friends Chris and Renee and their almost 4-year-old Ashley came down from Poway (yes, if you know anything about San Diego you know that it's not really that far, but Chris thinks it is!) for the weekend. JJ and Ashley had a great time reading and playing together. They both love books, so it works out really well! At one point, they were each sitting in a chair and Ashley was reading to JJ. It was sooo cute and not even staged! Sunday morning, however, JJ only wanted to read and take the books that Ashley was reading. He probably has 30 books, but only wanted the ones she had which was making them both upset and not fun for the parents either : (

Sunday night, JJ and I went to our friends Erin and Andy's house for dinner with their 13-month-old Avery (see his Bumblebee Halloween girlfriend!). I always like seeing the two kids play together. Luckily they lived up to my expectations of getting a good laugh. . . During dinner, JJ was refusing to eat any pasta or vegetables and would only eat pear and Avery was eating all her pasta, but didn't want to eat her vegetables (asparagus and zucchini), but she found a solution. . . feeding them to JJ! I'm not joking! She would hold a vegetable off the edge of her highchair and JJ would go take it from her and eat it! He wouldn't eat it when I tried feeding it to him, but when Avery did, he ate every last bite! I think they were working together to clean her plate so she could get down to play!

So JJ has been crazy lately when it comes to eating, or a typical toddler : ) My friend Tifani pointed out that my previous theory of children being either eaters or sleepers is incorrect. They can also be either a sleeper and not an eater (i.e. Tristan), an eater and not a sleeper (i.e. prior JJ and Tifani's son Elijah), a sleeper and an eater (i.e. Ashley), or not a sleeper and not an eater (i.e. current JJ and Elijah)! JJ has recently decided that he is very picky about what he eats, which is very annoying!

The other night, I made mac-and-cheese for us to share for dinner and he refused to eat it and threw it all on the ground! This made me VERY upset! If you know me, and I'm assuming that since you're reading this you do, you know that I LOVE mac-and-cheese! During Brian's first deployment in our first year of marriage, I could be found multiple times a week sitting and eating mac-and-cheese straight out of the pot with the wooden spoon! So since JJ has refused to eat one of my staple "Brian Deployment" dinners (mac-and-cheese and frozen pizza), I am being forced to start actually cooking. Tonight, ground beef enchiladas with Spanish rice and. . . JJ ate almost a whole enchilada and a plate of rice! Three nights ago, he refused to eat plain brown rice, but apparently loves Spanish rice!

He has also become VERY picky when it comes to cheese. . . he only eats white, organic cheese! I bought him some non-organic yellow cheddar cheese and he refuses to eat it, however, he will eat lots of white organic cheddar cheese and tonight ate about 6 slices of organic monterey jack. He's so weird! I thought that maybe since he has become more finicky about his eating he would start sleeping better at night, but unfortunately Tifani is right and it was just wishful thinking : (