A Change is Gonna Come
Someday in the foreseeable future, my blog will undergo a makeover (what is this, now the 5th time? whatever.) It’s going to be completely smashing, I’m telling you! I have seen a sneak preview and could not be more excited.
It is graciously being completed by my talented designer friend (and don’t we all need one?) Kerry. Check her out, yo. So, BIG MEGA HUGE thanks to her and you just brace yoself because seriously, it just might blow your mind.
Bowie’s First Dentist Visit
Well, okay, technically this is his second visit, since he would not open his mouth for our regular dentist so she had us visit the pediatric dentist. But anyway, this was his first real cleaning and stuff.
He’s so shy around other adults right now, I was prepping myself for disaster. The hygienist even warned me that “kids his age almost always cry and stuff”. But, he did so great!
He did cry a little bit at first, but nothing major. I remembered to bring his little Piglet, who he hugs when he is scared, and I got to hold him in my lap for the whole process. The hygienist turned it into a game of “counting his teeth”, and he’s sooo into counting right now, so that worked like a charm. She was also sure to mention that she had strawberry toothpaste and banana fluoride treatment, which quite piqued his interest.
The dentist swept away my fears that he had any tooth issues at all, and said he’s got great spacing, great enamel and no cavities at all! Yay, mom!
I wish I had gotten a picture of this, but I was holding on to him the whole time. Rest assured it was pretty cute (once the crying stopped). He even got to pick a little toy.
There, now the whole family has been to the dentist! Load off my mind…
Beth’s Picks: Melissa & Doug Tools Chunky Puzzle
I once read an essay in this great book that talked about how boys will usually be typical boys, regardless of how you try to raise them. You will give them baby dolls instead of guns and teach them to be loving and kind, and they will still fashion guns out of backyard sticks and run around pretending to shoot one another. I also have a real-life friend whose son, a few years older than Bowie, is very much like this. She is a loving, gentle Earth mother type and her son is as rough and tumble as they come.
I started noticing this with Bowie in the way that he explores the world around him. He runs too fast and falls on his face, but gets right back up and plays again. He picks up rocks and sticks and sticks his fingers deep into the mud puddles. Given a wide panel of toys, he will always gravitate to the ones with wheels or wings or engines, nothing soft and cuddly. I haven’t consciously tried to gear him toward other activities, but as his personality emerges I can see that he is completely B-O-Y.
So, when he got the Melissa & Doug Tools Chunky Puzzle from a friend of mine for his birthday, I knew right away that it would be the perfect fit. Not only did he love putting the puzzle together and taking it apart, but he learned the names of all the tools, and takes the puzzle pieces around the house and “fixes” things for mommy.
So, if you have a total BOY like me, I suggest this puzzle. He’s sure to love it for years. And it’s a nice alternative to guns and swords.
Changing the Game
I am about to embark on a major overhaul of Bowie’s diet. He ate so very well as a baby, but he turned into this picky little toddler. Every meal is a fight, and I am so sick of throwing food away or eating his leftovers myself. I have gotten stuck in this horrible pattern of just caving and offering one of his six go-to foods: crackers, applesauce, strawberries, cereal bars, yogurt and soybeans.
What you’ll notice about that list is that there is a lot of salt and sugar, but very little in the nutrition department. Sure, I can get him to eat a chicken nugget or an egg or a sweet potato fry once in a while, but he really needs less fat, less sugar and more veggies.
Things are already improving a little bit. I can get him to eat bean quesedillas sometimes, and he’s really starting to love pizza. He also eats cheddar cheese now, which a few months ago he’d never have touched. My options are opening up a little bit. I have had this cookbook since I was still pregnant, and I think finally I can use some of the recipes in it. I’m going to get a whole bunch of green veggies from the farmer’s market, and make tons of purees and get so much nutrition in him, he’ll be the healthiest flippin’ kid on the block!
And thanks to Weelicious, I also have so many new recipe ideas that I just know he will love. I can’t wait to go grocery shopping this week to pick out all of his new foods! This is so overdue for us, I hope he likes at least one thing that I make.
Do you have a Picky Pickerson at home? What are your tips and tricks for getting them to eat well?
Sunshine On My Shoulders
If only it could be this nice in the Sunset all the time! Welcome summer, ’bout time you showed up!
Beth’s Picks: Healthy School Lunches
There’s something very cool going on at OpenSky this week that I’m so proud to be a part of! They are teaming up with The Lunch Box Project, an organization that raises money to promote healthy food in kids’ school lunch programs. For every healthy lunch item from OpenSky that I sell between now and September 7, OpenSky is donating $1 to The Lunch Box Project! Below are the items I have chosen to promote. If they tickle your fancy, this is a great way to buy them, because you’re giving to a great cause too!
Wee Bee Honey
Wee Bee Honey is a great company, and a family-owned and operated apiary. They produce what they call an “extreme raw honey”. Their honey is completely pesticide free, and has proven to be in lab testing. This raw honey has a thick, creamy texture and makes a delicious addition to your toast or tea or whatever you use honey on!
Artisana Almond Butter
Almond butter is such a healthy and delicious snack, and this almond butter is raw and organic, keeping very important nutrients intact and making it an even healthier product! Almond butter has a multitude of uses, including just dipping the spoon in the jar for a quick tasty treat! And Artisana Almond Butter would make a fantastic sandwich for school lunches.
Thanks so much for helping me and OpenSky to support such a great organization!
Smelling the Roses
I just read this lovely post from a fellow blogger Princess Nebraska, and it touched me so much, because it’s exactly what I’ve been struggling with lately.
Being a stay-at-home or work-at-home parent is such a challenge some days. You feel like every three minutes you are angry with your child about something, which is preventing you from doing anything else at all. Then all of a sudden it’s 4:30 and your day is almost over already. (Note: Not saying that parents working outside the home don’t experience some of this, I’m sure they do. Being WAH or SAH is just so…INTENSE.)
You get so frustrated with your child because they never listen, they keep getting into trouble, they won’t do what you ask and they beg and beg and beg incessantly for things you are not going to give them nor do for them. And you are just trying to read that news article or take care of that one email or organize the fridge or whatever.
That’s about the time someone says something like, “Make sure you put this one on his graduation announcements.”, which is what a friend said to me, commenting on the picture I posted here yesterday (which I also posted on Facebook). And you’re like, graduation? What the– You mean he’s actually going to grow up and not be a two year old terror forever? Some day he will be 10, then 16, then 25 then, then, then…[hyperventilating].
And then you turn of the computer, put down the book, let the dishes sit for a minute. These moments are so precious. They might not seem like it when you are in them, but you will miss them. We have to slow down and try as hard as we can to cherish all these moments with our children. Even the ones where you have to explain why we don’t dump our pee pee all over the bathroom floor when we are done using the potty. And, that’s enough juice for now. And, please don’t pull the kitty’s tail. And why don’t we keep our bath water in the bathtub. And let’s stop throwing toys out the front window. And……
Potty Update #3
Bowie was getting reluctant to sit on the toilet, so we went out to Babies R Us and got him his very own potty chair. He is doing a little better with this one, except that sometimes things get a little buck wild and we are cleaning up pee around the bathroom. Here’s a snapshot of him trying it out (oh he’s going to love me for this when he’s older):
My Poor Little Guy
Yesterday, we had a notice in the mailbox that Bowie had a piece of certified mail waiting for him at the post office. I was all ????????? How can a two year old have certified mail? Is he getting sued for hitting that kid with a stick last week? It’s a mail bomb, surely it’s a mail bomb.
But, it was a letter from Sutter Health informing us that a vaccine that he had received in 2010 (no specifics, just “a vaccine” ugh) “may not have been stored at the correct temperature, so the vaccine may not have protected your child as intended”.
So THEN, I’m thinking about the mega problem California is having right now with a whooping cough outbreak, and I’m all OMG he has whooping cough now and we’re all going to diiiiiiieeeeee!
I called the hotline to figure out what was up. The woman told me he would need to get all of the vaccines again that he had gotten in 2010. My heart started pounding in my ears. I mean, kids get a LOT of shots in those first few years, and it seemed like he had gotten so many, this was going to be a nightmare, even if we didn’t have to pay for the re-vaccinations.
But, I pulled out his vaccination record, and it turns out the only ones he had in 2010 were a Hepatitis A booster and the flu shot. WHEW.
But still. My poor son has to go get his Hepatitis A shot again because the clinic didn’t have their fridge at the right temperature? Seems unfair, and I am so glad he won’t remember any of this. We go tonight at 5 to get the shot, hopefully he gets a lollipop or something. I am one ticked off mama bear.
OpenSky Product Update
Mimi the Sardine has some more prints available for the Lunchbugs bags I was raving about before. So, if ladybugs aren’t your thing, check out some of these other great prints in my shop now!
