snow day

Snow day today.

Dan & I are both working from home & Hayden is... not working from home. I'm on break because I can't log in to the server while the power is out at our office. But the power is not out over here & my social media "newsfeed", full of other snowbound families, got me thinking...

Most of the kids will spend their morning in pajamas & by the afternoon they'll build snowmen, & the images to follow will be chocolate-mustache smiling faces with tiny hands cupped around mugs of hot cocoa.

But Hayden won't stay in his PJs too long because he likes to get dressed by a certain time, because that is routine. And so are his meals.

So before I even logged in for the day (at the time I was able to), I started on Hayden's breakfast. He was impatiently-- albeit politely if you know what I mean-- repeating, "me hungry today". (Impatient for repeating but polite for not having a meltdown.)

I suspected this would happen because he didn't have enough dinner last night even though I tried making him two different ones, a couple of hours apart.

Every morning he usually eats his spinach & cheese omelet with a whole bunch of other stuff. This morning we slept just slightly later due to the snow delay-turned-cancellation, so by the time I got to preparing his breakfast I was taking shortcuts with it.

Such as, extra of the whole bunch of other stuff that goes on his breakfast plate. Those are the parts of his meal which go right in the toaster & do not require stove-standing. But to no one's surprise he asked for his eggs so I had to make them anyway.

That didn't change the fact that I didn't feel like digging the chopped spinach out of the freezer, defrosting a portion for him, whisking it into his eggs with just the right amount of whites vs yolk but not too much yolk, & waiting until the perfect moment during its cooking time to melt just the right about of his favorite finely shredded cheese in, & then cutting it up as I do, & strategically placing the pieces on his plate cheesy-side-up so the eggs shouldn't look too green... & all this while timing the toaster oven stuff to be ready & warm but not hot at the same moment.

I just felt... really? Can't we skip the spinach part today? I know it is particularly important for someone with a diet of such limited food choices due to sensory issues, to consume nutritional balance when we can get it in him... but my desire to have an easy-going day was overriding my typical guilt. When I might normally feel bad should I even think about taking a shortcut with his breakfast, today I could only think about taking a shortcut with his breakfast.

Heck, I didn't even do up the bacon & I could almost gasp at my own satisfaction that he forgot to ask for it.

I shouldn't be surprised, but I am, that during my daily stove-standing I watched his eggs cook & somehow involuntarily grabbed the chopped spinach from the freezer. My bare hands began crumbling the frozen chunks while my fingers turned pink from handling it & next thing I knew, his daily eggs were adorned with the usual green confetti. I was both annoyed & pleased that the spinach omelet won & I lost.

Well, I guess because it was an add-on, the spinach in the eggs didn't look as it normally would... or something. I presented the resident Prince with his breakfast plate & he immediately said, "Want green!"
I said, "There is spinach, look!"
He replied, while pretending to pinch his nose, "Me hate yellow! Eeew!"

I sort of walked away at that point in an attempt to hide any pride on my face. I shouldn't want him to confuse his good-nutrition choice as praise for speaking so silly.

I thought about the fact that applesauce used to be a reliable, daily staple for so many years & even that has turned into hit or miss (with a bit of emphasis on the miss). And before that, he consistently found comfort in drinking his milk until one day we were so desperate to get medicine in him when he was very sick... and you can guess what happened but to make a short story shorter, he wouldn't go near the stuff for years. To this day he will rarely ever drink milk, or anything besides water for that matter.

The other day I was shopping & overheard a mom speaking to her son-- they were right behind me & he was pleading for a fun-looking jug of juice. She proceeded to read the ingredients to him, & about half way (I imagine) she said, "still nothing in here about fruit juice." The child appeared to be the same age as Hayden.

I witness stuff like that all the time, even in the media (social or not)-- such as the Mayor in NY & his soda theory. I don't lean towards carbonated beverages myself because I prefer flat ones so I couldn't care less. Plus I'm from Jersey & I have my own theory it's not the tap behind a bar which we're really interested in.

Since I can not relate to parenting a typical chocolate-milk-chugging, juice-drink-begging, bowl-of-cereal-&-milk-slurping, lollipop-sucking kid... I won't soon be giving my son a lesson about ingredients. (Which, incidentally, I know my fair share about since I have a wee bit of experience proofing nutrition labeling.)

Yes, even the lollipop factor is a true story. As true as the fact that a single bite of a chocolate bar has never touched his lips. Although he will eat just a couple types of doughnuts, as well as very simple cookies which mimic tea biscuits... out of the seven birthday cakes that have been ordered for him in his life, so far he has yet to enjoy a bite from a single one. I know there are many people who never even realized this.

Hayden is already in his jeans (his preferred pants) & has been for a while now. He will be happy to "help" us shovel later, but lacks the interest in building a snowman (or watching someone else do it, for that matter). Dan has tried many times, & Hayden will knock it over not realizing the outcome or perhaps how long it will take for the finished outcome. There does not exist a single picture of this child beside a snowman. And the only drink he will want when we come back inside from shoveling & not making a snowman, is his usual ice water.

There are simple moments every day which remind me of our unique parenting experience, with our unique Hayden. Even moments on a simple snow day.

It should be noted by the way, that before I even finished this blog entry he did ask for the bacon after all. Which no doubt reminded his belly that it's ready for lunch. And chances are the server at work will be up & running by the time I finish preparing his lunch, & then the snow will let up & it will be time for shoveling...

Your snow day ingredients might be pajamas, perhaps a late breakfast for lunch, maybe followed by snowmen, some snowball fights, & cups of hot cocoa with mini marshmallows.

Our ingredients however, will contain as many of the same ones as we can incorporate on a non-snow day. And don't be surprised if the only picture I share later is of Hayden beside a snow shovel.

I suppose that's just his version of a snowman.