Food boot camp, and a shout out to my mom friends

Before I had a kiddo, I had visions of myself making all my own baby food from locally grown organic vegetables, of my kid enjoying a wide variety of healthy foods, of being a family of good eaters. When Ash started solid foods, he ate one jar of (organic, natch) sweet potatoes and promptly decided healthy was not for him. Food has been a constant struggle for us. Now Ash subsists almost entirely on yogurt, apples, grapes, french toast, Clif Bars, and jelly sandwiches (no peanut butter for this kid). That sounds not too bad, I know, but when that is practically all your kid eats (ok, also french fries and smoothies from the gym), it gets old, and you start to feel like you've perhaps failed in the feeding-your-kid department. Plus, in the interest of full disclosure, Jake and I probably allow too many treats on the side. What can I say - my kid wears me down.

Jake and I have been saying for a long time that we're going to do a food boot camp, where we only put meats and veggies in front of him, and let him starve until he breaks down and eats. But let's face it, Jake and I are softies. Never going to happen. Instead, tonight we instituted a food chart. The deal is, when Ash gets five stickers (like tonight he got one for eating broccoli), he gets a treat (first a trip to the frozen yogurt place, then a train he's been asking for). So we'll see. Keep your fingers crossed.

This food issue is the thing most likely to make me feel like a bad mom if I think about it too much (which is why I mostly avoid thinking about it). In recent days, I also happened to have read several books/articles written by moms who feel like failures, feel completely overwhelmed, feel like all the moms in the world except them have it together. It's the new problem that has no name, maybe? Apparently a major source of this angst is a feeling of competition with and judgment from other moms. I guess I've been unusually lucky, but this has not been my experience AT ALL. I'm surrounded by moms (mostly from my two awesome moms groups) who, despite the fact that they DO seem to have it together, don't make me feel like a loser. When I go to one of my mom friends and say, "I really wanted to leave Ash at the store today," I don't also have to say, "Not that I would, of course, I love him and feel very lucky to have him." They know. So I just wanted to give them a shout out here. I've been feeling very grateful lately to know so many moms who support and inspire me. XOXO to you all!