Parenting a Guinea Pig

Let me introduce you to our little guinea pig.

His name is Collin. Isn't he adorable? 

Collin is our guinea pig because he is our first child and every parenting technique we try on him is an experiment. We really don't have the faintest idea what we're doing. 

You can be sure we don't let HIM know that though. Once kids find out you aren't in control, they take full advantage of you. That's why you must practice and perfect what I like to call, "The raised brow" look. 

It looks something like this,

I give this look to Collin A LOT! But I'm basically just stalling.

What Collin's thinking when I give this look: Oh boy, I'm in trouble.

What I'm thinking: Great! Now what do I do?

Our recent experiment with Collin is getting him to eat. He's never been a great eater, but it's gotten even worse the past few months. I know every child goes through this stage, but parents are still suppose to encourage (force) their kids to eat right. It's just not easy at all! 

We've tried several different things to get him to eat. We even reverted back to the whole "spoon is an airplane" thing at one point. Yeah, that one didn't work. Even a 2 yr. old knows that ones for babies. 

The one we've religiously stuck with is the "no dessert until you eat your food" rule. Collin loves Popsicles so we thought this would be a good encouragement. I will say that this method has worked, but it's taken a good two months and there are still some rough nights full of tears and tantrums. My favorite was when I told Collin he could have a pop if he ate his food so he picked up his broccoli, licked it, and then said, "have pop?" He's only two and he's already trying to get away with things :) 

Last night was one of those rough nights. Michael was working late so I fixed Collin's dinner early. He took one bite and wanted a pop. When I told him no, there was a major break down. No matter how many times I said, " If you eat your dinner, you'll get a pop," he just wouldn't eat. I just left his plate there on the table for the rest of the night. 10 minutes before Michael got home, Collin climbed up to the table and ate every single thing on his plate. With mouth still packed full of food he turned to me and asked, "have pop now?" Of course I didn't say no to him after that! I was so excited because weeks and weeks of sticking to our guns and not giving in despite the tears had finally paid off! I have no idea if it'll work again tonight but I'm still geeking out about the fact that he actually ate!  

 

Another thing we just started trying is putting his food on fun place mats. For some reason Collin decided that he should be able to eat on the couch while he watches his shows and was refusing to come to the table. (I told you he could be really headstrong) Our dinners were not enjoyable at all. Once we brought the place mats into the picture it's been great! Collin is actually excited to come to the table! We're going on week two now :)

If anybody has any other ideas we'd love to hear them.

Anyways, I really don't have that many pictures from this week.

 We spent New Year's Eve with friends and had a great time! Collin actually stayed up till 1 and was still going strong.

New Year's Day we went to visit Grandma Ponder. I got a few pictures of them together but that was it.

  I sure do love this little guy :)

School! 

Here are the highlights of school this week.

Wednesday: I is for Ice cream

Well of course we had to eat some! (see the fun place mat I was talking about?)

 I didn't have any ice cream stickers so we just covered our I with "sprinkles"

 This week's color was pink. I have these pink bangle bracelets that I got for two dollars a few years ago so we made up a ring toss game using my paper towel holder.  It cost me nothing but was tons of fun!

He totally thought he made it :)

Thursday: I is for Indian

The PA website had several ideas for this day but we've been taking down our Christmas stuff and only had time to make a fethered headband and sing the 10 little indians song.

 Friday: I is for Ice

I'm going to be using these new years blowers for a game in Singing Time tomorrow and I had a few extra so I gave Collin what I thought was a pink one.....

 But it turned out to be red :(

 And then I made a ice and water bin for him. I waited and got this out while I fixed dinner thinking it would distract him, but he didn't really get into it. Maybe because it was kinda chilly outside? I'll have to try it again in the summer.