"Not-Special Lunch"

Thursday, 2/7/13 - Little Z had been a beast the night before, wasting everyone's time and keeping the baby up late with her screeching and caterwauling. It was hard resisting her entreaties, but if we don't stick to our consequences now, she'll learn we don't mean what we say. She wouldn't get out of the bath, so Dadda wouldn't do their nightly bath ritual with her when she decided she was ready to get out after. He tried to compromise with an alternative, but she refused that too. Then I offered to help. Nope.
We ended up draining the tub, turning off the lights, and I eventually wrapped her towel around her in the tub. But Baby couldn't sleep with all the whining and crying. I tried carrying her out, but she ran back and hopped in the cold tub! She wanted Dadda, and she wanted to jump into his lap.

It's hard, when I know the underlying cause is whatever it is that's causing her social delays and sensory issues. It's not something that she can control completely. But it's hard to tell when it's totally beyond her control, and when she's just choosing to be a little turd.

It all started when he had gone into the bathroom, then walked back out to hand the Baby to me. Since he walked in and out, she got mad at him for some reason, and shut down. Then he told her to get out or he would be done and she couldn't jump into his lap, and she snubbed him. She has a hard time understanding the consequences when she's like that, and is quick to apologize and wail and make empty promises after. But if we cave, she'll never learn to understand that we mean it when we say it's time to do something, or that it's her last chance.

So I told her that because everyone had to stay up later because of her behavior, I wouldn't have the time or energy to make her lunch "special" for the next day. And then I had to stick to it! *sigh*

She eventually decided that spending the night in the tub by herself was not what she wanted to do.

Not-Special Lunch

Ham and cheese on Rosemary Bread, popcorn, apples, carrots and Ranch

Since we were only a week away from Valentine's Day, I didn't want to waste an opportunity to make a holiday lunch. So I snuck in a little love.

She keeps insisting that all the Xs and Os are for Tic Tac Toe, and not hugs and kisses, which I find hilarious. She's been soooo happy to see all the Tic Tac Toe decor and stuff lately... So I used mini letter cutters to make her an X and an O, and a mini heart cutter to make a few little hearts out of scraps of cheese from her sandwich.
Because the Rosemary Bread isn't whole grain, and it left a big empty space in the box, I included some popcorn in a triangle cup too. Whole grains. Space filler. Double win!

Since I was "going plain," I didn't do anything fancy with her carrots, which was almost painful for me. I only give her plain carrot sticks when I'm in a super hurry or if they fit some kind of theme. So I put some Ranch in a Mini Dipper. She generally only eats carrots if they're cut into flowers. Or if she has Ranch for dipping.

Another "compromise" was the heart pick. I added a pick to be festive, but chose turquoise to not be as fancy and fun and Valentiney. Which looked great with the turquoise lid from the new EasyLunchboxes Brights.

Mama's Quickie Leftovers Lunch

Leftover Vegetarian Curry Mishmash, TJ's Edamame Crackers, TJ's White Bean Hummus, carrots and cucumber

My lunch had an EasyLunchboxes Classics lid. She won't let me "waste" any of the new colored lids on myself.

Since I was getting this ready right before heading out the door, I was able to pack the curry and heat it up before adding the rest of the items. I chose a spork, since I could use the curve to my advantage and prop them on the crackers (these things are crazy delicious!) to help keep the handle from getting ooky.

I don't remember exactly what was in the curry. I usually scrounge together all the veggies from my CSA share that are going bad or have been sitting around a while and chop them up, toss them in a pot, add 2-3 cans of coconut milk, 1-2 cups of grains and/or lentils (I think this batch has brown rice and wheat berries. I usually use quinoa too,) and enough water or low-sodium vegetable stock to reach the top of the veggies. Then I add some salt, a diced onion, 3-5 cloves of minced garlic, and 3-4 Tbsp curry powder (I use half regular curry powder and half garam masala curry powder.)
I'm pretty sure the veggies in this batch included carrots, purple potatoes, rutabaga, parsnips, baby turnips, and celery.

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