The kid’s are still suffering jet-lag.  Or at least that’s the line I’m categorizing it.  They’ve started to sleep till 5AM, but wake up starving. 

I’ve tried the old “if you don’t eat now, you’ll be hungry later”.  Well, they are not hungry then.  They are hungry later.   They go to bed without dinner.  But, when I get a 2AM wake up because they are hungry, I am not that understanding.  Go to sleep.  This is why you should eat dinner when we are all eating.  The kitchen is closed!  Well, hearing their little bellies gurgle means that they are really hungry.  Their body’s are trying to talk and tell me. 

For Boy 1 I tell him to go down and get a banana to eat and come on back up.  I’ll turn on the lights to the stairs, which will give enough light downstairs for him to see.   Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.   He doesn’t want to go down alone.  He brings the banana up for me to open for him, even though he could open it up on his own and there is a ‘no food upstairs’ policy in our house.  But in the early-early morning and my dire need for sleep, do what you need son, mama cannot open her eyes.

Boy 2 last night woke up at 2:10AM wanting food.  He was wide awake asking softly for food.  I asked if he wanted mommy to get him rice, he nodded yes.  Ugh.  Of course I get up and pick him up.  We head downstairs and are blinded when I turn on the stove light.  I settle him into the couch and cover him in a cashmere blanket while I go to heat him up some food.  When I turn back he’s asleep!  UGH!!  I am tempted to wake him up.  VERY tempted.  GET UP!! (I yell in my head).  I am wide awake and still have to work in the morning, yet he sleeps after waking me up.  FML.   Of course I let him sleep.   The good mom in me always wins over….barely.  lol

My kids don’t always eat at dinner.  And I know the result is they will be hungry later.  What do I do then?  Feed’em or let them starve?  I want them to ‘learn their lesson’ to eat when there’s food.  But, at the same time, they know their own bodies.  If they’re not hungry, they’re not hungry.  Who the hell wants to be force-fed.  So I let them not eat.  And just have food available when they are hungry.  I’ve cleared out a lower shelf in the fridge filled cut fruit, yogurt, snacks for them to help themselves.  Right or wrong.  It’s how I do.  I still get the nagging feelings in my heart that maybe I should structure their eating habits better, but our life doesn’t live by the clock.