Book Review: Clap Your Hands

This book sucks. Until you sing it. And clap and stomp along with the song. Then the book is awesome. Just ask my son.

In conclusion, you have to make yourself look like an idiot, and then this book will be worth it.

Packing to Travel Just Doesn't Get Easier!

At first, traveling was a lot of work- the amount of stuff you need to pack for an infant is incredible! And you have to take half of it "just in case".

Then there is a sweet spot from about 18-20 months where traveling is easy, just take some diapers and a sippy cup and you should be good.

Then the toddler gets old enough to "help" you pack. You get the small diaper bag with essentials- remember his blanket! Snacks! Toys! And he starts bringing you stuff, like his rain boots. 

"You already have shoes" you tell him. He insists those rain boots go in the bag. "It's not even raining" you tell him. Nope, those boots are GOING! 

And the book you packed? "No", he says and finds 5 other books to pack. And toys. The plane. The bus. The cars.

Now you are back to packing like you did for the infant- the small diaper bag, the bag of diapers, the bag of clothes, the bag of blankets, the bag of toys and books.

And oh crap! 

We forgot to pack anything for US! 

Papa asks why we are taking 100 bags and not a suitcase. Momma says it would be ridiculous to pack a suitcase for an overnight, 24 hour trip. 

A lot of eye-rolling happens.

In conclusion, enjoy that sweet 18-20 month brief moment of happy traveling while it lasts!

Book Review: Cars and Truck and Things that Go

This book was a gift for our boy when he was born. I thought he was too young for it, but apparently kids at a very young age appreciate gigantic books. This is one of the biggest we own, so ever since he's been old enough to grab books, this has been a favorite.

Now that he's two, he is even more into it. There is a story in there, if you want to actually read it, about a pig family going on a trip to the beach. They have quite an adventure on the road and they drive through construction, snow, car accidents, an army camp, and more- on the way. You can imagine they see quite a lot of crazy stuff! And the artist in my must note that the colors of all the vehicles was very well done- opposite colors contrasting each other makes it appealing to the eye.

But the real fun with this book is to point out the various vehicles on the road (construction trucks, trains, boats, buses, doughnut cars, pickle cars, bananamobiles and more). Each is labeled with it's name so you can answer the zillion "what's that?" questions the toddler might ask. And you can play the game of "find Goldbug" on each page. And you can watch the bad guy (a dingo) get chased by officer Flossy (a fox).

In conclusion, I can see this book entertaining a 6 month old and a 12 year old. One of the few books that will last several years. And decades. It was published almost 40 years ago!
And I'm not the only one. Find another book on Amazon with 350 reviews and 5 solid stars!! That's pretty rare. 

Baby Food Concoctions! (or, How To Be a Master Chef Momma)

When my toddler was 1 3/4, no, not 21 months.... You say "21 months" to people who don't have kids and they give a blank stare while they try to do the math in their heads. I know, because I used to be one of those people. 

So at 1 3/4, my son was just starting to become a little picky. And not picky like "I don't like green food" picky, picky like he will only eat bananas one day and then he won't touch a banana the next day, and then that night he'll eat a banana again.

So, this leads the child's personal in-house chefs (mom and dad) to come up with some pretty creative concoctions. I might try to continue these for years to come! 

One that I like a lot is carried over from the days of making baby food from scratch. One of the foods I made was kale- cooked down with some water, pureed in the food processor, and put into ice cube trays to freeze for later. Now, when we need to make a fast meal for him, we'll either heat up a little rice or pasta and add 2 cubes of kale and some butter and he loves it!

He also loves green beans and cheese, so we have done the "layering" method of serving food. For example, we'll take chopped chicken and rice, heat it up and serve it to him. He takes a bite and doesn't want any more. So we'll add a little green beans. He'll pick out the green beans and not eat anymore. So we'll shred some cheese on top. If that doesn't work,  maybe  a little pear sauce. Peanut butter. More green beans. Eventually, it either gets eaten or it ends up on the floor for the dog to enjoy. Then we'll try a bite and go "hey, this isn't bad!"

Cold pork chops! I never would have guessed these would be tasty, but we usually make 3 Iowa Chops and then have leftovers to serve the little boy. While waiting for me to heat up some rice and chopped chops, I started slicing them really thin and letting him eat the cold slices. He loved it. I tried it. Yum! Maybe it was the way we seasoned it, but it was good enough to eat cold, both in thin slices and cubed up and in salad.  

We always have yogurt in the fridge too. Adding yogurt to just about anything helps him eat it. And this is the good stuff: Vanilla whole milk organic yogurt. I think it tastes like frosting. 

Another fast stand-by for a starving child (if he isn't in his high chair eating at 5:30 sharp, watch out!) is a can of green beans, cold. Yup, he'll eat that by the handful. The down side with the canned stuff is the extra sodium, but it's better than snacking on salty junk food packaged for kids. 

He does plenty of that, too- his favorite right now is the Annies' whole wheat bunnies, which don't mention anything about having cheese in them, but they taste like goldfish, which makes you look at the label and see that they have cheddar cheese. I'm not complaining, but why wouldn't they be called cheesey whole grain crackers?! Anyway, the organic-aisle-at-Hy Vee shopper in me feels they are a better option that Goldfish. Plus, I like them and I don't like Goldfish. But that's not the reason I buy them. I'm trying to get healthy food in my boy!

Until he realizes that I think I've figured out what he likes. Then he quickly changes his mind. 

Maybe the secret is to pretend like you don't know he likes it.