Toast 2 Mom

Snacks, yes please!

I can't believe I've never talked about snacks before and the obsession my girls have with snacks. Maybe I have talked about snacks before. Even if so, they are such a major aspect of our days that it is worth mentioning again. In fact even Cheekers marches around the house barking the word, "schnacksss" at me!

I'm not quite sure what is so powerful about that word, "snack," but I can prepare lunch and say, "let's eat lunch," and my girls (especially Sydney) will not be interested. I can prepare the same lunch and say, "let's have a snack," and it will be gobbled up.

I often struggle to find a way to creatively and nutritiously prepare three meals a day for my children. I get so trapped in the "kid menu" that I feel like I'm not providing good variety or using any creativity. In fact, I've put together numerous menu plans to try and shake things up, but I always fall back on the basics mainly due to time and because kids like what they like (my kids anyway).

Snacks, I guess, are the way to break that boredom with the day in, day out breakfast, lunch, dinner menus. For some reason I feel like snack food is cuter and therefore more interesting to kids.

The biggest key to our snack success is variety. Ironically they will eat the same breakfast every day but I have a pantry full of multiple snack options. And the place that provides all of these options.....drum roll....Costco. I basically have a membership to Costco to fill my pantry like a multiple option snack vending machine.

So this week I've been with challenged by making sure I have enough snacks packed for our trip. We're taking a little (long actually) road trip. And with car boredom comes passing of the Ziplock bag filled with yummy goodness. Let's hope we can make it out of the state of Texas before my supply runs dry. It's a big state, you know.

By the way, if you have any snack ideas (or meal ideas for that matter), please share! I'm always willing to have more options!!

A Thoughtful Interview

OK I'm no Barbara Walters, but I have been wanting to interview my three year old recently and see what are her favorites and interests. This would be WAY more interesting to have this conversation video-taped. However, Mama needs a new camcorder to make that happen. Because the thoughts of a three year old go by very, very quickly, the following is not verbatim - not a chance I could capture it all. However, here's a glimpse at the interests of my Sweet Syd...today anyway.

What is your favorite thing to eat? Ice cream - strawberry, chocolate chip and chocolate with sprinkles and marshmallows.

What's your favorite color? Pink marshmallow.

What is your favorite show? Ariel.

Who is your favorite princess? Ariel the mermaid (Duh, I know, dumb question, Mommy).

What do you want to be when you grow up? A mermaid....no, a fairy.

What is your favorite animal? A cat.

What do you like to do for fun? Work on the computer and do lots of fun stuff with Mommy like sing and work on my letters and play ball and go to the park.

What is your favorite number? Counting to 10 with my Daddy.

What is the best thing about having a sister? Loving her and watching shows with her.

What is your favorite thing to do? Swim in the pool.

What is your favorite thing to drink? Juice.

Do you like dresses or skirts? Dresses.

Do you like headbands or clippies? Clippies with hearts on them.

Do you like pizza or hot dogs? Hot dogs.

Do you like swinging or sliding? Swinging.

And then the interview abruptly ended because she was done. :)

Sweat and baggage

The girls and I have successfully landed at our midwestern destination. The day began at 5:00 a.m. The good news, we got our seats, it was a sunny and clear day, everything was on time and nobody cried (much). The other part of the day involved a whole lot of sweating though. 

No matter how hard you prepare and plan and produce checklists to create a perfect packing (do I have anymore "p" words?) situation, nothing prepares you more than the real experience of carrying all of your luggage on the actual day. Between my girls and myself, I checked one bag (one very, very heavy bag). On the plane came two girls, one double stroller (which was checked at the airplane door), one diaper bag, one purse, one carry-on and one child's sized backpack. Luckily we managed to not take any heads off the aisle passengers when we widely made our way to row 19.

Sydney was a dream passenger. She was in Ariel sticker la-la land practically the whole trip. The only fuss was when Cheekers tried to swipe her Flounder sticker. And guess who has the bigger scream? Yeah, Cheekers got the sticker. Considering Natty Kat woke up early and had to keep her extra wiggly body still for over two hours, she was a brilliant traveler.

Here are a few of the obstacles we did face though (just so I have my drama documented).

• We arrived at the airport with no assigned seats. The online process when I bought the tickets wouldn't let us pick seats for the first leg. When I checked in, the guy said, "umm, I don't think you're going to get on this flight." Sweat part 1. Luckily two stops later, and still on time to pre-board, we got our seats assigned - together.
• On our second connection flight today, we board the plane, get all settled - snacks out, coloring books out, seat belts on, wait for the doors to close... Sniff, sniff, what's that smell. Yes, Cheekers decides to poo right before take off. I race to the back of the plane and ask the cranky flight attendant (more on that later) if I can change her diaper. She says, "well, you better make it fast" (crank tone, crank tone). If only Guinness had been there to time me!
• About an hour into our flight and three bags of snacks gone, one DVD watched, stickers in my hair and hands, Cheekers has had enough and decides to try out her Tai Bo kicks on the seat in front of us. I got several of those whip-around looks ...you know those. Sorry dude, I'm doing my best here.
• It's my blog and I'm going to say it...American Airlines has cranky flight attendants. OK, maybe not the whole AA family, but this flight - mean! First the poo comment, then they made us turn off our DVD player because my sixteen month old wouldn't wear headphones to mask the sound. Then they told me to "watch her foot" so it wouldn't get in the way of their cart. Not, "oh, be careful so we don't hurt those little piggies." By the looks of these ladies wrinkles, frowns and two inch thick foundation, they should have retired years ago.
• Lastly, I thought the airline lost our stroller. Instead of it waiting right off the airplane, it was waiting up by the airport. We waited and waited and waited until a kind passenger informed us where it was - and not any staff of the airport or airline.

So there you have it. Overall, no major travel nightmares. Just a lot of bags and a lot of sweat; but thanks to my peeps at Secret...a shout out for helping me stay dry.

It's a given...

It's now approaching my bedtime. I go to sleep later than I used to. My day with the kids and most house chores (as many as I care to do anyway) roughly ends around 9:30 p.m. I tend to do a bit of work on the computer, like a blog for instance, or emails. Then I resign to the couch. 

When I was working outside of the home, I went to bed around 10:30 at the latest. Now I end up staying up getting sucked into whatever is on television to "clear my mind". This results in me staying up until probably 11:30, sometimes midnight or after. This is all fine and dandy until my morning wake-up call.

Every morning. come 7:12 a.m., I hear the door open, then thump, thump, thump down the hall and into our room. First Sydney goes to Daddio's side of the bed. Some mornings she crawls in for about five minutes. Most mornings she crawls in for two minutes. Then I hear, "I'm going to go talk to Mommy now."

Around to my side, a lift of the pillow that is placed nicely over my head to block out the light and the same question every single morning, "Mommy I'm thirsty and hungry. Can you go downstairs and get me some juice and some Cheerios and then can you put on a little show for me....please...."

Every day, the same time, the same order, the same question... it's a given.

Sweet Pick

We had a family day today at the Sweet Berry Farm. It's a farm north of Austin in a town called Marble Falls. The drive was very hilly and scenic, really pretty.

We planned the timing just right. Prior to the heavy rains we got today, we were able to pick strawberries, blackberries, pet kitties, run around open fields, feed some goats and horses and have a little ice cream break. This is a beautiful space for the kids to run wild and thoroughly enjoy the sweet smelling outdoors.

Here are a few pictures from our day.

 
 
 

Mommy's Knees, Not the Bees Knees

It's a toss up in this household who has the worst looking legs - Daddio (who climbs rocks on a regular basis), Sydney (the three year old who continually throws herself to the ground, falls on concrete and runs into walls) or Mommy. My legs seem to have just as many bruises and red marks without playing Geronimo off the stairs. Granted I bruise like a banana, but what in the world am I doing all day to result in these beat up stems? I'll tell you... I spend most of my day crawling around on the ground!

It begins in the morning when I crawl around the bathroom floor picking up the lotion bottles, Q-tips, tampons and hairbrushes that my baby Cheekers has flung from the bathroom cabinets to entertain herself while I get dressed. Then I spend my late morning, lunch time and afternoon crawling around the tiled kitchen floor wiping up sticky noodles, animal cookie crumbs and smooshed cooked carrots leftover from meals and snacks. Then around bedtime, I crawl around the carpeted floor in the playroom to pick up books, puzzle pieces, animal figurines and flashcards.

Why, you ask, must I be down on the ground creating these calluses on my poor knees? Why not just bend over and pick up these messes? Because my back has been shot for far longer than my knees due to the birthing of these two bundles of clutter joy. :)

Do they have a treatment at the spa for removing calluses on your knees?! Mama needs a knee makeover!

We have a second child, don't we?

My sweet baby Cheekers is anything but quiet.

Being the second born has its advantages...and disadvantages. It's hard to say if one outweighs the other. Because she can't use her words yet, she spends most of the time grunting or screeching to make it known that not only are we not providing her with what she wants but that this is not to her liking either.

Compared to Sydney, who didn't have to fight for attention, Natalie can come across as impatient, volume challenged (noisy) and assertive. It may seem as if I'm picky on my little cutie pie, quite the contrary. I find her survival skills quite fascinating. I like to watch how determined she can be. I like to see her strength. I like to try and figure out how this early in life she manages to know so much and can get so much.

Yes, my sweet baby Cheekers is anything but quiet, except at meal time... For some reason, during meal time, Cheekers sits in her high chair, quietly eats her food and quietly waits to be cleaned up.

Meal time, as you know if you've read this blog at all, seems to be all the time. I am always preparing some meal or form of food for the kids. It's a toss up whether I dread meal time or clean up time following meal time. Most of the time, I shove cold (should be hot) food into my mouth, while standing up, so that I may then pick up all of the mess (trail of food) I threw around the room in order to prepare the meal. It is a time management game...that often leaves my quiet little Natalie sitting in her high chair for too long.

I clear my plate; Natalie sits quietly, almost done with her food. I clean up Sydney's plate; Natalie's done, sits quietly. I put away the food, Natty sits quietly. I look at her and say, "I'm almost ready to clean you up, little girl," as she sits quietly with peach juice drying in her fuzz hair. I load the dishwasher, she sits. I wipe off the counter, she sits. I gather up the garbage, she sits. I put the dish towels in the laundry room, she sits. I fix my ponytail and take a breath, ahh done. I scan the room. I spy Natalie quietly sitting, looking at me, waiting to be cleaned up.

Yes, there are advantages and disadvantages to being the second born. An advantage, you get things handed to you without even saying a word. Disadvantage, you can't say, "hey, don't forget you have a second child over here!"

My sweet Cheekers, I could never forget you. Thank you for your mealtime patience with Mommy!