Pen Picture

Now that I think about it, perhaps Nikko's hunger strike isn't exactly a hunger strike. He's still eating; he's just not eating many different things or the things I want him to eat. I called the Mickey Mouse nuggets my "go-to" food, but in reality that's the major thing he wanted to eat and wouldn't deviate from it much. He would eat some red kidney beans on the side, or mashed potatoes, or creamed spinach from Boston Market, but he wouldn't exactly eat my spaghetti or chicken soup. The nuggets were a staple on his plate. But for the past two weeks he hasn't been eating much besides mac & cheese (inconsistently, too) and Rhodes white dinner rolls with (fake) butter spread on it. The bread and butter have become the chicken nuggets. Unfortunately, it's not the healthiest or most sustainable choice. He does, however, try pizza if we put it in front of him. I bought ingredients to make a pizza, so I'll try that tomorrow or the next day. I better brace myself, because he may not necessarily eat my homemade pizza, but will eat store-bought pizza. I hate to cook already, so this is all very vexing for me.

The only event today was that while the boys played outside with Denis in the garage, I took Audrey to Costco and Jewel. I was actually able to go to Jewel because I wasn't saddled with three kids, just one this time. She was a champ, no problemo. The boys were upset when I left, and when I drove up the driveway to return they were happy to see me and tried to run through the baby gate. I saw tears in Nikko's eyes. Wah! Unfortunately, Nikko wanted to go outside right after dinner and I definitely wasn't going outside. He was crying and insistent, and I was adamant about not going. Denis said he'd take Nikko outside and I told him fine, go do it, but stay outside longer than five minutes or Nikko will be worse when he comes back in. So Nikko got his outside fix and I got Audrey ready for bed, while Ronin chilled out in front of the TV.

During the day, Nikko was mostly silent, walking among the toys in the living room, going to the picture window often. He tends to carry things around, like the Signing Time DVD or a fabric toy lipstick, but today when I was sorting through my photographs to see if Nikko could choose whatever he was wanting at the time, his eyes fell upon a picture of a pen from a martial arts gym called Counterstrike MMA. For some reason he selected this picture and started carrying it around, getting it dog-eared and almost taking it into the bath with him. A pen is linear, sure, and definitely something to stim on, but the pen was positioned at an angle in this picture, from corner to corner, so it wasn't exactly parallel to the picture borders. It didn't matter to Nikko. He went to bed with it, so I wonder what shape it will be in tomorrow.