Just Curious...

Can you tell which posts are mine and which come from the Rocket Scientist? I always wonder if anyone knows when he's sneaking on here.

A Note From the Management

Effective immediately, there will be no more roaring allowed at the dinner table. We try to keep an open mind about such things and serve all types of creatures but the complaints from the other guests and cooking staff have become overwhelming. We regret to inform that monsters and dinosaurs will no longer be welcome.

You can see an awesome video of my little Handsome Face over at the Rocket Scientist's blog. I was really impressed when I came home and saw the video. I didn't think he'd be able to get any sound to come out but he did!

Click here.

Of Course!

HF: A fly just went in my ear!

RS: Why would it do that?

HF: It likes to eat my ear boogers.

My kids won't eat what I cook

We are having a bit of a food battle in our house right now. I finally got tired of my children being hungry and refusing everything I offer.

The problem has many faces. Vegetables, for instance. I find it very difficult to fit veggies into breakfast and lunch and we never have enough at dinner to actually meet our daily requirements. Cute Girl doesn't really like any but will eat fresh veggies with dip. She also realizes that at dinner she should take a few bites of whatever we have just because she's supposed to. Handsome Face does not like a single vegetable and he will not eat them. Every now and then he'll randomly eat something - like the salad at dinner two nights ago or six helpings of my dad's green beans in May - but he'll never repeat it. I started making green beans just like my dad in the hopes that something green would cross his lips but it didn't work.

Snacks are also a problem. I'm tired a lot anymore and it's very annoying to have my children balk at every snack suggestion I give them. It usually means they eat too many carbs and dairy because I'm just too cranky to fight them any longer. Raw veggies require too much effort to prepare and Cute Girl requires dip so I don't offer it very often. And they often turn up their noses to fruit even when we have two or three options.

And Handsome Face has to be the most aggravating child on earth. You know the old adage, "They'll eat when they're hungry enough"? Yea, that doesn't apply to this child. If he doesn't like it, he won't eat it. Not even to get something he does like. He can go all day without eating but will make my life miserable because he pesters me about food so much. And it's really frustrating because a lot of the time he refuses foods that I KNOW he likes just because he doesn't want it right now and he wants something else more.

We try and eat really healthy. We grind our own wheat and bake our bread. Most of our food is made by us, from scratch, with whole foods. Corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils are almost nonexistent here. We buy very little processed, packaged foods opting instead to make it ourselves. So the feeling that we're doing all of this and our nutrition is still lacking is very annoying and frustrating.

In an attempt to fix the problem, we've come up with two things to work on. My idea was to work at making breakfast more nutritious. If I can make something (usually an egg dish) that has veggies in it three times a week, I will already have increased Handsome Face's weekly vegetable intake by 300%. That's encouraging! We're also trying to fit in more fruits.

The Rocket Scientist came up with the snack plate idea for Handsome Face. When I make Cute Girl's lunch in the morning, I go ahead and make up a plate of all of his snacks for the day (see picture below). Whenever he's hungry, I refer him to the fridge where his plate is waiting. On this day, he had a string cheese, goldfish and pretzels (the only snack foods we buy so that Cute Girl can have something for the snack recess at school and of course he wants some too), applesauce, grapes, and banana slices. We've done this for two days now and I LOVE it!!!! The first day there was no complaints whatsoever. Today he cried because he was hungry and he didn't want apple slices (which he loves by the way) and that's all that was left. But I got to ignore his 45 minute crying tantrum with a guilt-free conscience because he had food ready and waiting. And because I already had the plan set I didn't get too cranky about it.

Now I should write some great conclusion but I'm tired, I've got to go to Young Womens, and I just don't have one. But does anyone have great ways to get their kids to eat vegetables? My one attempt at veggie-laced breakfast burritos was a disaster. No one ate any of it. So I need lots of ways to get my kids to eat vegetables!

(We're going to try these nuggets from Cheeky Kitchen that my lovely sis-in-law Sheri posted about.)

Clue #1 That It's Time to Call the Exterminator...

...the kids start playing a new game.

In case you don't speak "up-side-down excited kid," that was, "We're dead cockroaches!"

The Countdown to Christmas Begins

I started my Christmas gift planning today! It's kind of early but I've set a goal to be done by Halloween. And everything absolutely MUST be done by Thanksgiving or no one will be getting any presents.
I decided last year that I wanted to try and make more of our holiday gifts this Christmas. I love buying just the right thing for people but I hate just picking something off a list that doesn't really mean anything to me or the receiver. But neither do I want to make a bunch of stuff that would be completely useless to the recipient. It really needs to fit and be lovely. Last year the Rocket Scientist made a pulpit for Cute Girl. It was absolutely perfect! It fit right in with her play needs and personality and she loved it! Just tonight she used it as she gave us her FHE lesson.
So today I started crafting and I have three small items done. Yay! I'd love to post pictures and tell all about them but then I'd be spoiling the surprise for some people and I can't do that.

Have you started thinking about Christmas? Do you have any great homemade goodness up your sleeve?

Sunday Afternoon

Handsome Face was sick all weekend so we stayed home from church together. Cute Girl liked riding in Daddy's car to church so she was happy.

This afternoon we were all on the couch looking at books. Handsome Face really likes reciting the parts he remembers.

Scenes from yesterday

Last night at dinner Handsome Face said, "Look, Mom! I'm making a smile at you!"So Cute Girl made a funny face. Before dinner Handsome Face was pushing a cranky Cute Girl in his Tonka truck. Funny enough, she was cranky because he wouldn't share his Tonka truck.

But she's not too cranky to smile for the camera.
Handsome Face spends a lot of time in this corner of the family room. He's piling books and pillows with his truck. He calls this and other related games "making a truck job."