Food! Feeding my family drives me nuts!

This is a vent-post. I love cooking, but I really detest cooking for my children. This is because a) they prefer plain chicken to delicious things like Avocado Mango Chicken, and b) even when they do like it, they only eat a bite or two. I end up throwing most of what I make away. Eric is just learning to express himself pretty well, and today came up with, "Mommy, this pasta is really good." And then ate one bite of chicken, two bites of pasta and a cooked carrot cube--you know, the kind from the mixed vegetable bag. Oh, and one section of a Clementine.

And gone are the days when Mikey indiscriminately stuffed whatever he could get his hands on into his face. Now Mikey, less than a year old, is becoming a very picky eater. And he has the manners of a monkey (typical of toddlers/pre-toddlers). When he doesn't like something, or when he's done, or just when the feeling hits him, he flings whatever food is on his tray onto the floor. And somehow he makes a circle around his highchair on the floor. Tonight he spit out the chicken that I thought I had managed to sneak into his mouth and tossed it on the floor. Here he is showing off his new eating apparatus (ie his teeth).

What's the difference between a walrus and an otter?

Sam's preschool is a co-op. That means that I get to go and hang out with them 6 or 7 times a year. This last time, Sam happened to also get the show and tell bag. They put something in the bag and then they answer questions and sometimes give hints so that the other kids can guess what it is.

So he told me that he wanted to take his walrus (one of the dozens of stuffed animals we have). This one has been in a closet for a while now and he's just taken it out and it's become the favorite for the time being. So I prepared him on the way to school ... Where do Walruses live? In the north pole, etc.

So here he is giving clues. The kids try to guess. He says it lives in the north pole. One girl asks, "Is it a crocodile?" They are more and more stumped and finally he says that it has big teeth. Well, two big teeth. OK, says Miss Audine (his fabulous teacher), is it a walrus? YES! says Sam, and pulls it out the bag.

Miss Audine looks at it and says, "I think it's an otter." Sam doesn't know what to say for a few seconds and then says, "Well, his name is Mr. Walrus." If you click on the picture, it will blow it up and you will see the looks on their faces. It's pretty funny.

That's what kind of mom I am. The kind of mom that lets her kids go to school without any socks (because all 150 socks are in pile to be matched) and doesn't notice that her child is taking an otter to school instead of a walrus. Oh, and by the way, we don't have and never have had a walrus, and I saw the otter many times the weekend before. I just don't notice minor details like that. Ah well. We do have a lot of fun together. :)

Harry Potter

I am a big Harry Potter fan. I've read all the books at least twice. I love the books because they have so much depth--character development, themes of life, death, prejudice, friendship, fear, love, loyalty. The last time I went to the movies was a year and a half ago, to see Harry Potter 6. And tonight I went to see the first half of Harry Potter 7 at the Henry Ford IMAX. I thought they did a much better job of showing the personal struggles this time, maybe because it is split into two. And I'm really glad it is.

How to Eat a Pepper

Eric is the king of carbs. I have a hard time getting him to eat meat, eggs, etc., but he loves anything carby. Including vegetables. I remember the first time we went to McDonalds and he was upset because I hadn't given him some lettuce from my salad.

One day, I meant to cut up some pepper strips for dinner, but forgot the pepper on the counter. (As you can see from the picture, and it's a large pepper, much bigger than the palm of my hand.) I came accross it later and it looked like this, with bites taken from every angle.

Conference Weekend

Isn't it great to be able to watch General Conference in your living room? It makes things so much simpler.

This afternoon, Sam was excited as we went on a website, to see a picture of the prophet. We printed out some flashcards that someone had done of the prophet and 12 apostles. Later, we were talking and I said to Sam, "Do you know I love you?"
Sam: Yes.
Me: Do you know that I love you a lot?
Sam: No
Me: Why not?
Sam: Because sometimes you yell at me.
Me: Well, sometimes I get frustrated and unfortunately, I'm not perfect.
Sam: Well I have an idea. Maybe every morning when you wake up you could look at one of those pictures of those prophets and that would remind you not to yell.

While I was putting the baby to bed, Sam wanted to play Wii. He wanted me to play with him and I told him that I would if I got the baby to bed soon enough. When I came downstairs, he said, "Oh, now I have to change it from three players to four players." I said that there were only two of us. He said, "Two of us and the two missionary dogs." Two of his beanie babies, the pig and the snake, were the "missionary dogs" and they got to have their turns too. When their turn came, he would "help" them make their shots. The snake had to use his nose, Sam explained, because he did have arms or fingers.



When I bought a whole bunch of like-new beanie babies at a mom2mom sale years ago for $1 each, I had no idea how many hours of fun they would bring us.

First Meal!

So tonight was Mikey's first meal--as in the same meal we had, just blended into tiny bits. He had golden mushroom pork with apples, rice, and mixed vegetables and seemed to enjoy it. (I get my dinner plans from www.e-mealz.com. It's great--for $5 a month, they post a week's worth of meals that you download, complete with a shopping list. With my plan, they are linked to the sales that Kroger has going on. They are pretty good, and although sometimes they aren't our favorite, not ever having to think about what's for dinner is worth it.) He has been eating for a while, and loves cheerios and fruit and veggies, just like any baby does. I was amazed at how quickly he figured the cheerio thing out. The first day, he spilled them all over the floor trying to grab them. When he finally got one in his hand, it was in his fist and he couldn't figure out how to get it out, just how to lick his fist. Within a week, he was grabbing them with no spilling, putting them in his fist, and then opening it into his mouth. Seems so simple, but I'm amazed at the complexities that our brain has to figure out. (This is a picture of him after Sam fed him his prunes.)


He is a very happy baby, although also very stubborn. He is also big. I took him to the doctor a few weeks ago and he weighed the exact same as Sam did at 15 months. And he is in 18 month clothes. Eric is still comfortably in 2T. He'll probably slim down once he starts moving, so I took some pictures so I could remember his chubbilicious thighs.


Ivan calls him the Baconator.

Back to School

I can't believe it's September already! And it feels like it. Last Wednesday it was 91; today it's 69. Fall is in the air.

I'm pretty relieved actually. It will be nice because Sam will be in preschool M-F so I'll get to spend a little one-on-one time with Eric while the baby sleeps.

Speaking of school, Sam just finished reading his first book by himself--the classic Seuss Hop on Pop. It was fun to watch him read it (we had never read it before, so I knew he hadn't just memorized it) and try to sound out the words. It brought me back to my own beginnings and I'm excited about the new world that will open up for him.

Not that Sam needs any new worlds, since he creates them in his own mind. He read F-A-N-T-A somewhere and asked me what it was. I told him it was a brand of soda pop. Later he told me that Fanta is the land where all of his dogs live and they can do whatever they want. They just sit around all day and drink soda. And when we were reading Hop on Pop, he read "he" as "hey". I told him that it was "he" and he said, well "hey" is how they say "he" in Fanta. So I never know when it's going to be brought into a conversation.

Here is a picture of the party we had for his dog whose name is Big Brother (and who Sam refers to simply as Big, as in, "Big really wants a birthday party today.") We made a cake out of starburst and skittles left over from last Halloween.



His other new word is "beefaroni boat". I'm not sure where he got the word beefaroni, since we don't eat anything close to that. A beefaroni boat is a huge container ship and whenever we are driving on Lakeshore and we see them, the kids both start yelling, "look at the beefaroni boat." (We live about a mile from Lake St. Claire, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Erie, and is big enough that you can't see to the other side.)

Sam still loves to cook--especially salads and soups. A few weeks ago, he wrote out the recipe for "Sam's World Famous Soup." Here is a picture of it. He started with onion, carrot, potato, then ran out of room so moved to the top and sides for radish and tomato (I think?).


He really does most of the chopping (except the onion) and cooking himself. Maybe I'm a bad mom for letting my 4 yo "play" with knives and hot stoves, but at least we have some tasty dinners! Speaking of things a mom should not do, right now Mikey is chewing on a Staples receipt, so I'd better go.