Dear Noah.......I was able to find a SONIC patch so far.....

apparently they did come out with Sonic backpacks and shoes and all sorts of things back in SONIC days....hard to even find them on Ebay now.

I CAN and WILL paint you up a cool backpack if we cannot find one before school starts.....I can also iron on this SONIC patch onto a blue bag or black one. We WILL work it out.
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You are going to be 10 years old in December. You do not eat any vegetables......maybe a micro bite of carrot occasionally....so small even a mouse would probably pass it up. You call this 1/8th of an inch or 1/16th of an inch and if we measured it....you would be correct.

I still offer vegetables to you....but other than French Fried potatoes or hash browns from Burger King or McDonald's or Ore-Ida frozen ones....you do not eat any vegetables. NO green ones for sure.

Same for fruit. You will eat bananas in Gerber Stage 3 baby food occasionally. NOT real bananas. I did finally...FINALLY get you to eat apple slices......what progress! SO now you DO and WILL eat apple slices for a snack. I told you it is important to have at least ONE healthy snack every day.......and we can move it up from there.

I am so thankful you will eat the apple slices.

SO here you are....no veggies or fruits.....no bread other than Fazoli's garlic breadsticks of frozen Texas toast garlic bread......NO OTHER kind of bread will you even look at let alone eat.

Same for crackers.....you used to eat CLUB crackers but now you avoid crackers.

SO your main diet consists of Kraft macaroni and cheese....pizza when we can get it...chicken nuggets or my grilled chicken.....some French fries occasionally....spaghetti sauce only and garlic toast....black cherry Kool-Aid...your frozen hashbrowns and apple juice or apple slices.....milk and cookies (ONLY homemade M&M.....Pillsbury chocolate chip that you bake...or my homemade gingerbread cookies or Pillsbury gingerbread cookies with icing....)and an occasional frozen Popsicle...only the kind in the plastic sleeves not on a stick. RARELY will you eat Ruffles potato chips or Goldfish crackers......only multicolored now where before you never ate the green ones...

The ONLY candy you eat and rarely now are PLAIN multi-colored M&Ms.....no holiday colors.....and Hershey kisses. YOU SOMETIMES now will try a small sucker. I do not remember the last time you had any candy. Grandma sends a bag home every so often but you don't eat them from the bag. We instead bake them in cookies.

When your school has a special party and they bring in food....it is rare there is something there you can eat or drink. I try to always bring in something or donate something that you can also eat......so you can be a part of the group experience of sharing food with your classmates. MOST times though I just make sure you are fed before going and tell you it is okay and you can have something again afterwards....when you are back home. To just drink water while there...and you do and you do not really seem to mind.

IN fact Mr. Noah.....in actuality now......you are pretty good about things like that. What used to totally upset you or would most other people....you can see past it and not let it bother you so much. I think it does affect you though. I know in your after school group you were attending last fall you EARNED attendance for the end of year party.....and you requested Pillsbury refrigerator chocolate chip cookies for YOUR special treat. We were specific to the instructor...telling her it was the ONLY kind you would eat.....and the instructor like everyone else we know.....kept saying "oh I will do my best" and yet she failed to deliver the goods. This was to be your reward....and I had asked that something OTHER than food first of all be used for a reward....I do not believe in using FOOD as a reward for anything.

BUT it was a TREAT they said so I figured she would surely do the only cookies you would eat. It was just YOU and one other little boy who earned attendance at this party. Are you telling me this program could not afford ONE package of cookies to bake? I even offered to bake them and bring them in for you to share.

We show up that night....I made sure you had something to eat JUST IN CASE ---I went over verbally in the truck with you that it would be OKAY if we walked in there and you did not see the cookies you wanted.....to not get upset...it would be OKAY....we would do something special when we got back home. The other kid wanted ice cream.....something you would not eat.

We walked in...and what did we both immediately see on the table? CHIPS AHOY chocolate chip cookies. I saw the look on your face.....but you did not cry or make a peep or even complain. The instructor thought for sure I guess she could convince you to EAT them anyway.....but see...they don't GET that. Cause you won't. It is a smell thing....a TEXTURE thing...and getting you to transition to something like that would not happen instantly. So you did not get a treat. The instructor probably took the cookies home with her....and I vowed to NEVER allow that to happen again. Next time I will make SURE they do for you what they promise to do for you when you have earned it...or else I WILL provide what is needed. This group just got a grant for their after school behavioral group sessions and the goal this year will be based around NUTRITION.......getting kids to eat right and better snack choices, the human body. All the kids this year for snacks will have healthier choices....so this may be a good way for you to TRY some new things. Before all you ever got while there was water......because they never had anything else you would eat.

sigh.....

I know your particulars with foods never really bothered me....a couple of times it may have been a bit inconvenient....but I have adapted long ago and now while we may sometimes sit at the same table for a meal......we NEVER eat the same thing at home. I always prepare a meal for ME and an entirely different type of meal for you. I don't know it any other way...and am used to it. I don't try to force new things down your throat because I know when you are ready you will come around. I do continue to offer you new things...and one day you do eventually try something and realize you like it.....or can handle the texture or smell. When we go to a family event I plan ahead and take the foods you will need in order to sit down and eat a meal with everyone else. It is always different from what everyone else is having. Down to the dessert.

I never thought it required a lot of time and patience to do this until I used to have to go through each macaroni noodle searching to make sure there were no SPLITS in the sides of the noodle. Back then if you found a Kraft macaroni and cheese noodle with splits in them if you tried eating them you would gag and spit them back up.

I think then I realized most people would never do such a thing for anyone. NOT that it makes me special....I am not special. I am just your mom and I love you.

MOMMY
XOXOXO