Not So Picky Eaters

There has been one thing we have been more than fortunate with in parenthood which I know many others struggle with....The Picky Eater!

Grace eats better than many adults.  She is willing to try most foods and has little to no aversion to vegetables eating bok choy (which is much harder to find in STL than it was in EC), asparagus, and fresh spinach with gusto.   She uses a thumbs up ratings system to let us know how much she enjoys different foods.   I actually really like this rating scale as it gives you a definition as to if it is good or really good in her mind.   She may like vegetables but her caloric downfall is creamy dairy such as sour cream, mayonnaise and ranch. (I know I didn't eat much sour cream or mayo until I was an adult!)   She will ask for butter on her pancakes or corn on the cob or whatever, then she will also ask for butter on the side. Grace also likes her protein - one night was complaining as there was no meat in the meal and all she wanted to do was eat an animal - she didn't care what animal it was.   Not very PETA like (which overall is fine as long as long as she learns the difference of how to raise animals humanely and where to buy the meat from these sources).  She did once tell me she wanted to be a vegetarian as she didn't want to hurt animals - but that lasted a whole day as in her own words - they just taste so good!    Like her mother, she really could care less for marshmallows.

Clara doesn't love all vegetables like Grace but she still eats fairly well for a three year old.   Her favorite food - Chicken Noodle Soup!   She can eat a whole can of  Progresso brand soup some days.  Spaghetti goes over well and so do french fries (Grace barely touches these).   Another one of Clara's favorite foods - Lucky Charms!   Of course she picks out the marshmallows and only eats the cereal on days she truly is hungry.     Clara also really doesn't know how to differentiate bored vs. hungry.  We hear "I'm getting hungry" several, several times a day....Often I have decided she is bored.   I try to satiate the hunger with fruits and vegetables as snacks as much as possible as it is hard for me to just refuse food requests.   On the way home from Tulsa Oklahoma though we hit a new level of "I'm getting hungry"   Clara ate 2 apples, about 15 baby carrots, some cereal, grapes and still ate spaghetti at lunch.  Did I mention before we left the hotel she also ate breakfast?!?!   I assume she will grow about 2 inches taller soon.  

The other odd food choice for kids these girls both love is tomatoes.   They eat them like they are candy!    Cherry tomatoes are the favorite and can be given as a snack any time.   If I get a salad at a restaurant, they always get the cherry tomatoes off of it (I really am not a huge tomato fan).    Grace has loved tomatoes since before she was two I think as I remember her eating tons of diced tomatoes at a Mexican restaurant one day.   So tomatoes are a healthy snack in front of the TV and so are cold peas.    This was something I used to have in my childhood and brought forward to theirs.   Cold peas (aka frozen peas) are the best kind of peas to serve them.   Sometimes when Jason is travelling I just make up a plate of random foods for them to snack on - such as cold peas, tomatoes, fruit, cheese, lunch meat and let them share the plate.   They think this is a great treat to have snacks as supper and it makes my dinner time fairly pain free also.

So for all those out there with picky picky eaters.   I am sorry.   I lucked out and hopefully these girls will keep being adventurous in their food choices throughout their lives.

Garden Helpers

This year in our new house I started a garden.    In Eau Claire there was such an amazing farmers market and we had so much shade in our yard I never tried too hard to make a garden.   Down here I am glad we have been able to get fresh vegetables from the backyard daily.   

This spring I invested in 10 bags of topsoil and 10 bags of compost with manure and started a raised bed garden.  This first step of mixing the soil and compost was by far the best step for both the girls.   And it really helped Jason and me out to have two human mixers rolling around in the soil to mix it up.  Once again, we were too busy working and being dirty to grab a camera so you just need to envision head to toe dirt on the two helpers.

After dirt mixing came planting.  One helper stood out at this step and has pretty much been the star garden helper since then – Clara.   She has enjoyed the process greatly.  When planting, she added the fertilizer to each hole to give the plants their “vitamins”.   She made trips with me to Lowe’s to pick out the flowers for the whiskey barrel and she watched the early stages of the growing process closely.   While Clara would be helping me plant, Grace had other interests that would come from the garden – worms and bugs.   Digging in the dirt was great fun for Grace as all the worms in that rich dirt had a chance to be exposed and examined.   She really has loved anything creepy and crawly and her first instinct is to go pick up a crawling thing the moment she sees it.

Both girls loved watering!   An excuse to play with the hose and get things wet.   Occasionally the watering of the garden would turn into just spraying each sister with water – but they both enjoyed it and no harm there.

Now it is time to harvest.   Like many other projects involving kids under 6, the garden has lost some of its luster.   Occasionally it is fun to pick the ripe cherry tomatoes and eat them right away but only Mom seems to enjoy hunting for cucumbers and zucchinis among the vines.   I remember back to the days of picking snap peas and beans on the farm and not really enjoying all that went into maintaining the huge garden we had then.  But now I realize it was valuable to see how things grow and eat what you have grown.  It’s a lesson I am glad to be sharing with my daughters.

Northwoods Vacation 2014

For the fourth consecutive summer, the family will be spending at least 1 week in the Wisconsin northwoods. This summer, we spent the week on Little St. Germain Lake along with extended family members. Poppa Dan, Grandma Karen, Aunt Kim, Uncle Andreas, Cousin Jackson, Unlce Andy and of course, Baxter, all spent the better part of the week of June 14-21 in a lake front cabin. We all love spending time up there and enjoy the opportunity for the entire family to get together, which is so rare as we are spread across the country.

Typical activities include fishing, boating, jet skiing, swimming, hiking, grilling, eating/drinking, lounging along the lake and just about any other –ing related activites one could think of.

Memorable moments from Grace and Clara’s perspective would include catching fish without any help from Poppa or Dad. Watching Poppa filet a few of the fine catches and the kids discovering exactly what happens to poor fish once they’ve been caught for food. Riding horses with Dad for the first time (usually Mom takes them out on the horses). Riding in the boat is always a special treat for the girls as they enjoy letting the wind blow through their hair as the boat speeds along the cold lake water.

Grace had a mini-meltdown on the last evening of our stay. Grace appreciates alone time and with a house full of people (all 3 kids shared a bedroom which even included a loft) and constantly having to share everything with her sister and to a lesser extent, her cousin, Grace decided she had enough. On our way to dinner at Black Bear Lodge, she became distant and sullen and while we were waiting for our table, she covered her face with her hoodie and began to sob. She couldn’t explain to us why she was so upset but it didn’t end until she convinced mom to take her back to the cabin cutting their fish fry dinner short. Turns out she just needed some alone time and didn’t know how to accomplish that.

Additional memories in no particular order:

-          Clara’s nickname – Rebel

-          Grace’s nickname – Penny

-          Dancing to music and Madonna specifically

-          Fireworks on the last night there

-          Miniature golfing (Clara, Jackson and Grandma Karen played. Dad and Aunt Kim supervised and Grace decided to just wander around the empty course)

-          Reading books to the kids before bed and Jackson was able to read a few to the girls as well

-          Hiking on a tick infested trail

-          Grace and Grandma had special time reading her Butterfly Book she HAD to have at Cracker Barrel in Bloomington, IL on the drive up