Lunch Routine

Choosing Home has started having a weekly theme to their blog posts which I am enjoying. This week is all about lunch. I started to think about our lunchtime routine around here, and, instead of coming up with all sorts of creative things that we eat for our lunch, I've thought about how I'm attempting to use lunch as a training time for our almost 3 year old. I suffered nausea through almost all of my recent pregnancy, and it wasn't unusual for lunch to be a fairly loose event. I would be laying on the couch trying NOT to lose my lunch while my 2 year old sat next to me or pulled up to the coffee table in a small chair eating and watching a video. It was for a season and it helped me get by for a few months, but then it was time to move on.

After our 2nd daughter arrived I was ready to move back to eating a more structured meal at the table. Lunch is when I have uninterrupted time with N1. The baby consistently seemed to want to nurse at the same time as I was trying to feed N1 breakfast, but is generally down for a nap by lunchtime if our schedule is on track. That's where I've been able to take the time to brush up on our table manners - eating a little of what's on our plate, practicing drinking out of a real cup (or a coffee cup which is heavy and seems a little harder to tip over), staying at the table even when she done with her meal and others may not be, and saying things like "please be excuse?" :) If we're really on the ball, I'll read to her while she eats and she can look at the pictures.

I definitely won't win any awards for creative lunches ... she doesn't eat a great variety of food and I'm usually pressed to keep some weight on her, but I'm challenged to use that time at the table as a learning time for her (and me). I know the little we've worked will go along way as I start doing some small preschool activites for her this fall and I don't have to start with a battle about how we conduct ourself during table time.