Yes, I would like some cheese with that whine.

Lately, most of the whining around here has been done by me re: my ipod that I had to "reset" to factory settings and now am reloading all the music.


Last night Kate gobbled down the "country steak with gravy" (or whatever it was called) and then asked for more. Sam ate several bites with minimal coaxing then said it was making his mouth hot. Which it does.

Whine rating: 3

Tonight, we employed the old technique of feeding the children what they like, putting Kate to bed and having Sam play in his room, and eating our maple-teriyaki salmon and rice pilaf in peace.

Whine rating: 7, but mostly having to do with bedtime.

My usual goal in regards to the kitchen is to get it cleaned up so I can go scrap. Here are some recent completions:




This I whipped up pretty quickly tonight - obviously, 8x10s take up most of the page. This is Sam's school pic from last year and the story of how the first one got burnt and I had to get a second one. Also how he didn't know any names of the kids in his class other than the boys he played with, something that still cracks me up.








This shot is from The Picture People. The half circle is hand-stitched - my first time trying that.


And a layout from Kate's third birthday.

Just remembered! Have a pie crust to make.

Not (much) today . . .

Bananas are back in favor and being consumed fairly regularly. Grilled cheese is still out for Sam. Big cake covered with candy corn and orange sugar, in. It wasn't quite what I envisioned, but they had a blast decorating it. Now, if only I had some pretzel sticks with which to scoop up the remaining icing . . .

For Papa's birthday we went to GG's and had pizza and the cake. As you can imagine, no whining about the food. I put forth extra effort during the day to make sure they ate a healthy variety so I wouldn't have to hound them at the party (if I can just pat myself on the back a little).

Jell-O doesn't go in the freezer

All was going well with dinner prep until Sam came into the kitchen and said he was hungry. I guess he thought I would hand over some candy. Instead, I had the great idea to offer him an appetizer (I can't send him away if he says he's hungry, even if suppertime is 10 minutes and counting), the selections being healthy things that could be part of dinner anyway. This caused a meltdown triggered by the thought that he might eat too much at dinner and be too full for candy afterwards. When I explained that sometimes I wait awhile after eating to have my dessert, it got worse. Then Kate appeared, asking for candy. I suggested they go to the dining room and wait for their waitress.

They get a big kick out of it when I pretend it's a restaurant and I'm the waitress. I brought out their appetizer on a tray.

For awhile, "noo-noos with butter" ("noo-noos" being "noodles") was the fall back dinner for the kiddos, something we were sure they'd eat no matter what we were having. For a long time now, it's only been an option if we are having noodles with our meal, such as pasta with meat sauce (the house special). Sam has always disliked red sauce so we figured, why force it?

Tonight's offering was Pesto Chicken with Penne. So they got noo-noos with butter, some chicken with no pesto, and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese (they like to sprinkle it themselves). Kate, with much encouragement, cleared her plate. Apparently the chicken was too hard for Sam to chew, but he managed to choke down his noodles. Then he chose Skittles. Chicken is too hard to chew, but apparently Skittles are not.

And the jell-o? Kate wanted it when she saw it at the grocery store and then talked about it all day. I didn't make it until after 4 so got the great idea to put it in the freezer while we ate. It was in just a wee bit too long . . . had ice crystals on the top and the edges were a little, um, crusty. She ate part of it anyway.

Whine rating: 2

So this is the rundown from the weekend:

Friday, homemade clam chowder. Initially Sam didn't want to eat it; I think it wasn't enough like Ted's for him. Kate didn't eat it at all. Craig loves this and likes to help make it, too. Both kids ate large quantities of corn bread.

Saturday we had enchilada casserole which neither child ate.

Sunday we went to Joey's Diner and . . . niether child ate. http://www.joeysdiner.com/ I had a Monte Cristo, a sandwhich I love but Craig won't eat due to his french toast aversion.

I didn't start out this way.

I always said I wouldn't make two meals when I had children. One for the adults and one for the child. Then I had my baby and then he started eating solids. I fed him jarred baby food longer than was really necessary. Then I fed him mac & cheese because it was easy and he'd eat it. Then it was cereal. "Better than M&Ms and orange soda," I told myself.

So now, for the past few months, I've been trying really hard to feed them real food, with mixed results and lots of whine.