Teething Biscuit and a Peanut Butter Sandwich

Stella loves any kind of teething biscuit. They are such disgusting messes that I usually skip them all together ... but when you're out in the country, getting dirty is a necessity.
I handed her the biscuit and tried to take a picture ASAP to show how clean she was when it all started.





How To Transition from Bottle To Cup


I finally figured out how to do the transition from the Nuk Learner Cup (more like a bottle than a cup) to a regular sippy. I handed her a thick peanut butter sandwich and gave her a cup of milk. She loved the peanut butter and couldn't swallow it without a gulp or two of milk. By the end, she had forgotten all about her aversion to drinking milk from a normal cup!

Inspired :: Matchboxes

I am completely inspired by these simple little treats. I only hope that I can remember to do this when the children are school-aged. I hope to dash out for some matchboxes tomorrow and make some for friends and neighbors.

The Only Question:
Whatever shall I tuck inside!?

Are your bath toys molding?

We had these totally cute bath toys, you've seen them here. The girls loved them. Loyal Stella stuck with the crab and roving Margot enjoyed the rest. One night I was squirting them with the spray (yes, I frequently spray the girls in the bath) when something darkish came out with the water. I cut open one of the toys to see the real deal.




I've read somewhere that you can simply wash bath toys in the clothes washing machine, but I cannot see how that would remove the mold from within! See those tiny spores? The next day we trashed those sea squirties We loved our old bath toys so much, I'm considering replacing them and making sure they're just never in the bath. I don't know if Stella could go on without her beloved crab.

She holds the crab

for the entire duration

of every

single

bath.

We also had a bit of discoloration on our bath mat, which we did away with. I advise putting down nonslip stickers to keep your kids upright. The puffy bath mats, while comfortable, are just a breeding farm for molds and mildews.
Make sure your bath is a safe (and fun) place. I think we'll be playing with rocks, cups, and yogurt tubs in the bath from here on out. These can all easily be thrown into the dishwasher.

Valentine's Day Gifts

I've never really liked Valentine's day. Something about it seems so set on instant gratification and expendable relationships. I wanted to make it a bit more vertically focused this year (and always) for my children. The wikipedia article is really interesting, and I recommend reading it just to have some sense of the original holiday.

It's been made to be more about romantic love and is symbolized now by pink and red hearts and grotesque little cupids shooting arrows at various lovers with hearts spewing out of their eyes. To keep in step with that (mostly false) symbol, I focused my Valentine's gifts for wee friends on pink and red hearts. By keeping in step with some of the modern Valentinian symbloism, I am trying to make these new Christocentric ideas meld right into the modern holiday tradtions so they will always think of Valentine's Day in this worshipful way.

Click the photo to see the citation in the ESV (the bible in which I do most of my study)

Click the photo for the citation in the ESV (the bible in which I do most of my study)

What I did:

• I cut two 4 inch squares out of some very cute but TINY pink denim capris handed down from my mom (Mom, do you remember wearing those when I was in elementary school? ... Then I wore them in college ... Then I had babies. Now they've become cute valentine bean bags!)
• I wrote the verse on the denim with a g-tec. I went over that ink with a magenta Sharpie several times to embolded the word LOVE and the heart.
• Then, right sides together, I stitched them with a quarter inch seam allowance leaving a 1.5 inch opening for turning and stuffing. Iron out your seams. I can't remember where I read this but ironing is like make-up for your sewing.
• Turn it out using the eraser end of a pencil and either stuff it with beans, rice, wheat berries, or poly-fill. Or you can simply stitch it closed and use it like a coaster. If you don't want to stuff it, consider stitching a loop with some ribbon into the top so you can hang it on a nail, door knob, or your finger.

I will also paint the same design on some shirts with red and pink and give them to all their friends.

Mail

I'm one of those people who just cannot simply scratch something out on nice (or even not nice) stationery. It just ruins the whole aesthetic for me. You might as well just get a permanent marker and write a thank you note on a piece of newspaper from last week. No thank you. Being the kind of person that I am, I end up with a few more envelopes than I have cards (because the ones with mistakes inevitably get recycled). I've started addressing empty envelopes to Margot and putting them in with our mail. I also address empty envelopes to little friends in town and even overseas (Hi, Dan!). Something about getting mail, especially when you're under 13, is just plain exciting.

What I do:

When I use the last of the cards in any given set of stationery, I choose a wee friend to go along with each extra envelope.

We write their first name EXTRA LARGE on the front. Their last name should still be there along with the address, but they won't care as much about that as their first name. I skipped the addresses below just so all of you wouldn't take up stalking as a hobby. But I have addressed them to Margot (with our address) from Mama (our address again).

I made the generic one just for Margot to play with in our home. There have been occasions when she insisted on taking that piece of mail with her to the store.

Put a couple of old stamps (you know you still have some lying around somewhere) on the envelope.

Write in small letters on the back "Not to open, just for play". Of course that's a loose rule, but it just lets mom and dad know that there isn't a gift card or something lurking inside.

Post it!

Green Lunch

Even though Margot is a veggie loving Queen, I still stress a bit about getting enough green stuff into her. Stella will probably be our problem child in terms of veggies consumed. Our fool proof way to get greens into Margot at lunch time is through quesadillas.

Behold, a baby willingly eating spinach:



Here's what you need

• 1 baby/toddler (or as many as you have running around, preferably with teeth, but I have an extra toothless baby who has been known to eat these too.)
• 2 tortillas per baby (if you're in Texas, the whole wheat ones that HEB makes daily are amazing)
• 2 small handfuls of grated Monterrey jack favorite cheese (or cheddar)
• 1 small handful of spinach
• stove
• 10'' skillet (I use one for every quesadilla, if you have a griddle that would work better for multiples)

DIRECTIONS

1. Lay one tortilla in the skillet
2. Sprinkle with one handful of cheese
3. Lay out the spinach on top of the cheese (careful not to double up the leaves too much at first or he might get suspicious)
4. Sprinkle the other handful of cheese on top
5. Place the other tortilla on top of the cheese
6. Heat skillet to medium high (if you have an electric stove perhaps you should heat the burner and then start the assembly. I'm not sure. You be the judge then leave a comment for the rest of the electric stove users.
7. Set timer for 2.5 minutes
8. Go read my blog
9. Go back and flip
10. Set timer again
11. Go tell all your friends about my blog and get them to read it too.
12. Remove from heat
13. Let stand for 2 minutes.
14. Cut into 8 pieces and ask your toddler if he wants 8 quesadillas. Count "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8!" with great excitement.
15. Serve
16. Stop worrying about greens for the day.

A few variations to add when you have more than 6 minutes flat

-sautéed onions and peppers

-refried beans

-cooked black beans

-small cubed, cooked sweet potato

----If you have more variation ideas leave them in the comments.

I can highly recommend Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, which was a lovely Christmas gift from my darling sister in law. Thanks, Acadia!

Do you have some tricky veggie-sneaking recipes that you use often? Leave those in the comments, too!

Green Sweet Potato Pasta

I can't believe that I actually came up with a dish on my own, but I did! We'll see how it looks here on "paper". This is my first recipe to write, so let me know if I need to make any improvements.


Green Sweet Potato Pasta:
10 oz. of spinach fettucini or whole wheat gemelli
7 small sweet potatos or 3 large sweet potatos, scrubbed, peeled, and chopped into half inch cubes
4 heaping handfuls of fresh baby spinach, washed (obviously!)
1 red onion, chopped
1/2 cup of TOASTED walnuts, chopped
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 teaspoons of salt
2 shakes of garlic salt (or you could just mince a clove and throw it in near the end of the potato cooking process).
1-4 tbsps of water
Pamesan

Cook pasta according to the package directions.

Meanwhile, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the salt and chopped onion. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Add the chopped sweet potato and the water, cover, and cook for 10 minutes or until the water has evaporated and the potatoes are easily pierced, stirring every 2-3 minutes to make sure each piece of sweet potato has his turn over the flame. Add the mounds of spinach and stir it in. Cover for 2 minutes and then stir again. Repeat this process until the spinach is wilted.

Put the cooked pasta in the bottom of a pretty serving bowl (must be pretty). Transfer the sweet potato mixture to the bowl and garnish with the toasted walnuts and parmesan. Serve and enjoy.

My two year old eats this with gusto. She will eat the "green" all day long. It is not uncommon for her to leave the table with a bowl full of pasta without any veggies in site (since she's eating those first and leaving the pasta for the dogs (metaphorically speaking, we have no dogs)).

And a photo, because what's a photoblog post without a photo?