Halloween Night With A 3 Year Old: Episode 1

What's the deal with Dots, anyway?

The scene: Halloween night....
The location: Your neighbor's porch.
The cast: Your 3 year old daughter.

You walk up to the door with your child, "Trick or Treat!" They reach into a big bowl full of little snickers, reese's pb cups, m&m's, twix and other chocolatey delights. Then, under a milkey way you spot...the Dots. The bogus, lame chewy things that stick to all of your back teeth. Inside you are screaming, "NO! Don't do it! Reach left, LEEEEFT!"...but alas, they pick up "the dots." And you walk away all sad and chocolateless.

...."Saaaay thaaaank yooooou....."

What is the deal with Dots anyway? Sweet score or totally bogus?

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The loot a 3 year old hauls in (with much quarterbacking at the candy bowl by mom and dad)...minus The Dots.

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The Toddler Gourmet: SNACKS-Peanut Butter & Pumpkin Toast. It's sure to pass the yummy test!

For our first edition of The Toddler Gourmet I thought I'd give a shout out to my favorite season, Pumpkin Season! Having two kids who are eating regular meals now, I need to get creative as to what to fix so that they can both eat the same thing so I don't feel like a short order cook. My lil guy who is a year old already (that year whizzed by, let me tell you!) just got the OK from our ped to start eating peanut butter. And since no one in our family, immediate or extended is allergic to peanuts, I figured that would be a great snack to help fill him up.

My good friend Leah gave me some awesome pumpkin butter for my birthday (thanks Leah!) and we've been putting it on our toast in the morning. One day by accident because I was so sleep deprived I spread pumpkin butter on my already peanut buttered toast and...Voilà, Peanut Butter & Pumpkin Toast was born! I let my daughter have a bite and all I heard were the "yummy noises" and the fact that I needed to make another piece so I could actually have some was enough for me to add it to our regular menu. I made some for the baby and cut it into tiny pieces (which is sort of a mess, btw) and he loved it too!

What you'll need:

-Organic unsalted, creamy peanut butter.*-Pumpkin butter
-Whole grain bread**

Toast the bread for however long you like (lightly toasted if it's for a baby). Add a layer of peanut butter and top with pumpkin butter (as you would jelly). Cut into 4's for an older toddler or into a million tiny bits if it's for a baby. ;-)

*Try to buy organic whenever possible (AKA "affordable"). If you shop at Trader Joe's, you can find organic products that are just a bit less than their conventional counterpart. (I once saw only a 20 cent difference in zucchini at Trader Joe's in the summer! I was shocked!) I also like to do unsalted creamy for the kids. My preschooler can do unsalted crunchy when spread thin, but since I'm doing this recipe for both of them I opt for unsalted creamy.

Variations:

Bread **
We like to use anything whole grain. Raisin bread is quickly becoming a fan favorite in our house, and we just discovered a new bread at Trader Joe's that is called Panetone Bread (just like the Italian bread you find around the holidays) but this is in a loaf and sliced. My preschooler LOVED it!


And of course this edition of The Toddler Gourmet is even a hit for mama when paired with a pumpkin spice latte, a good book and 20 minutes of quiet time! If you are lucky enough to make this happen please light your holiday candle to go with it!

Enjoy!
Photo Notes:
Baby Boy: Yes, you're right...I probably should've wiped his nose before taking his picture for the world to see. And it's neither Thanksgiving nor Baby's first Thanksgiving either. Let's just say he's lucky he's not still wearing his sister's princess jammies with the poofy sleeves from the night before. We're recycling. Recession and all...
Big Sister: Pay no attention to the junk on the shelf behind her. C'est la vie...with 2 kids! And the black dot on her bread is a raisin....I hope...



Will your toddler eat anything with pumpkin? If so, what are your favorite pumpkin inspired recipes for the kids?

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Dear Fachebook

I see you... making all of your changes without any warning. I'm just waiting for the day were you go all "netflicks" on us and start charging for what used to be free (streaming video) because we're hooked now.  You're just waiting til all of us millions and millions of people totally give up using the phone and email and face-to-face conversations to communicate with one another and only click "like" as our total form of communication on a myriad of topics (which is kinda like now) because we'll eventually be too lazy to even type a comment and then...here come the charges....but we're sucked in now-for years some of us, so we'll just pay it because everyone and their grandma's dog Mr. Fluffy Pants are already too addicted to the social network to give up the juice...so we'll gladly pay the $29.95 per year to stay in the loop with our "close friends" , our "family", our "co-workers", our "frienenemys" or anyone else YOU deem important to me...until you make the charge monthly cuz you know we're suckers and as Todd says, "we're all just sheepeople anyway." Baaaaa!...and guess what? We'll probably just pay the monthly charge too cuz we need it, we want it and we can't live without it.  As Ely would say, "I smell what you're stepping in" facebook.  I smell what you are stepping in and let me tell you something mister-it stinks!  I'm now going to join a group about how we wish you'd "bring back the old facebook cuz this one sucks and while you are add it, please add a "dislike" button so I can "dislike" the new changes." Oh yea, and go blank yourself for thinking you own us...oh wait...too late.....

We won't know when, we won't know where but they're coming............

*cue the music from Halloween.* 

Signed your jilted EX-lover,

Coco Cana 

facebook shmacebook.

For The Love of God...Please Nap.

I find the inspiration to write from many things. Some of it comes from conversations or things I've read from other moms' posts, a lot of it comes from the funny things my daughter or husband says. Today it comes from my total lack of finesse for putting my 8 mo old down for a nap. Usually I'm a pro at taking a sleeping baby from my arms and laying him in his crib, slipping my arm out from under his head and sneaking off into the other room. I've even been able to transfer a sleeping infant from a car seat to the crib without so much as a peep, which is usually the kiss of death. Today...not so much.

It started out well. I nursed Little Man in the morning where, usually he will fall asleep for about an hour. This is his "morning nap." I stood up, changed the position of my arms (baby still asleep), walked into his room and was pretty sloppy in putting him down because my back was hurting a bit (another issue...grrr.) And he did that ticked off flopping around thing where his arms and legs flail open as well as his eyes. Boo. So when this happens in the past "my move" has been to quickly roll him to his desired fetal position du jour, place both hands on his body as well as my face on his cheek or neck or head (yes I'm leaning WAY over into the crib at this point) and I'll stay there for a moment where I can then slowly move back once I can feel that he has fallen back asleep. Since he was just in my arms, the baby wrap or being nursed to sleep (I know some see this as a bad habit) the warmth and comfort of my body on his when he starts to wake up usually gets him to fall back asleep. I'm also lucky that he is a thumb sucker. And yes I do see this as very lucky (at this point in life...talk to me at 3 yrs old and I might not see it the same way.) But for now I think it's great because the second I take him off the boob the thumb goes right into the mouth and he (usually) stays asleep. It works for both of us. I no longer have to sit on the couch for a 2 hour nap with a sleeping baby on my lap, desperately fearful of moving him and him waking up.

This was the situation with Birdie. She'd fall asleep after I nursed her and I didn't dare move off the couch because she would absolutely wake up and then nap time A.K.A. "mama's free time" would be over. She didn't suck her thumb or take a paci so we really had to work on the whole "soothing herself to sleep" thing. But it's funny because that is exactly what Little Man is doing, but it's seen as such a bad thing by so many people. "Don't let him suck his thumb!" Really? How in the world are you supposed to stop an infant from sucking their thumb? Anyway...

So this went on pretty much all afternoon with him falling asleep and me totally blanking up the execution of putting him into his crib. Him flailing around all pissed at the world, eyes flinging open like it's the cops banging at your door at 3am and then....game over. It's a no nap day. Better search the freezer for some chocolate.

What's your go-to, get better, bad day, pick-me-up? Mine are chocolate and lattes. Preferably together. ;-)

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Doing What I Love...A Tribute To My Mom

My mom is retiring from the school district this year after working there for 23 years. She started out as a Written Language Instructor in a program called Back to Back. In a nut shell, she taught a creative writing class to elementary school students. Can you imagine a class like that existing today in a public school? It's a shame that after 9 very successful years they lost funding and cut the program and all of those wonderful stories and ideas and a place to get those creative juices flowing out of those little kids was just gone. Several years later she had her full circle moment at Pavilions where a young man came up to her and said, "Excuse me? Are you Mrs. D-----?" and she said, "yes?.....Oh hi Scott!" and he was talking about her creative writing class and he told her how much he loved it and that it was so inspiring to him and it meant so much to him after all these years that he decided to become a journalism major in college. It was a very proud moment.

Last weekend was my mom's retirement party with all of her co-workers and she asked me to write a little something to say at the breakfast. I immediately knew I wanted to touch upon what she did all those years ago because she was now working in special ed and all of the teachers who remembered the Back to Back program were long since retired or had moved on to other schools. She has absolutely bloomed where she was planted in the special ed program, but I know she missed teaching that class for a long time. I wanted to high light that very creative time in my mom's life and hopefully spark her interest in writing again as she gets ready to retire. Retired people need a hobby, ya know! But in doing so I realized that I had reignited my own love for writing that has taken somewhat of a back seat since starting a family 3+ years ago.

I have always loved to write and thanks to my mom I have called myself a "writer" since I was in first grade. My mom was extremely encouraging to me and always enjoyed my writing. In my "late teens".....(ahem).... ok, ok mid twenties, I moved up to Hollywood to pursue a career in acting only to find my true calling was still writing. I ended up working with a group of actors who became friends whom I fondly referred to as "The 24's" and we'd write, direct and put on a show in 24 hours, called The 24-Hour Plays. It's an extremely intense and completely creative process that was terrifying at the same time since I was one of the writers. After that first one where I swore I'd never do another one I got hooked and made sure to participate in the monthly show about 4 times after that. I even got my mom to come out and co-write one with me while she was on summer break and in addition o writing she was our lead actress in her stage debut! We had a blast and stayed up for a total of 33 hours by the time the curtain closed.

I got married and moved as far away as possible from that seedy little stage in Hollywood where we'd put on our evening of one act plays, but I never stopped writing. My husband and I moved to the Island of Kauai (in Hawaii for those who've asked me, "where is that?") just two months after we got married in June 06 and I quickly joined a group of women writers and wrote another one-act play that won one out of only two spots to be put up as a Dinner Theatre at a local resort. It was a successful sold out show and it had "rave reviews" in our tiny island paper with not much else going on (haha), so that was really fun thing to be a part of. Unfortunately, I became very sick with morning sickness and a weird "jungle flu" I caught on Kauai that landed me in the hospital in my early pregnancy with my first born, so I wasn't able to actually direct my show. Which for a total control freak over my own work like myself was really hard to totally give the reigns to someone else, who was a complete stranger no less, so I was seeing it for the first time as the audience was seeing it. It ended up great and the audience seemed to enjoy it and although I had a very different vision for it, it was really fun to see a mans perspective (who was in his 70's btw!) on a show that had a strong female lead and was a very "girl power" piece. I was pretty impressed that he stayed true to the script and didn't change too much.

So now fast forward to 2011 and I am a stay-at-home mom to a 3 year old daughter and an 8 month old son and the fire inside to write and create still burns and has become stronger since I started working on my mom's presentation a few weeks ago. My whole life I have loved to make people laugh especially when I write and what's funnier than pregnancy, child birth, newborns, toddlers, husbands....?...Well OK so maybe those things alone aren't very funny but add in a sleep deprived, over worked, under paid, totally overwhelmed new mom's point of view and we're talking hilarious people! Pure magic! Well...to another sleep deprived, over worked, under paid, totally overwhelmed new mom maybe....OK, my own mom thinks it's hilarious, so there you go. I just hope to put a smile on your face between wiping baby barf off your laptop and planning playdates with the one kid your toddler will actually share with. Please join me and my moms blog as I journey into the writing world here at blogger by subscribing to my page or if you "Like" you can be the first to join my facebook page by the same name:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Tales-From-The-Crib/206702489375070

I'd love to know:
What do you love to do? What is the one true passion in your life that is the first thing that pops into your brain the instant someone asks you that question? It's the one thing that (usually) doesn't take any thought at all, (unless you are totally trying to deny yourself this life long passion) it's just there...BAM! In your head before the question is even finished. All of the other things that you hem & haw about are just hobbies. They can still be great and bring you much joy but your passion, the fire inside that can't be ignored no matter where you live, how much money you have, how old you are, how long you've been married or single or divorced or widowed...that never goes away! Or if it does it just needs a little spark to get it back like mine did. Thanks mom! ;-)

Random Thoughts...

It's pretty bad when you find a thing of leftovers in the fridge and think, "now when did I cook that?"

It's even worse when you smell it, kinda shrug, smell it again - but like you're trying to take the color out of it or something, nose almost touching the food, shrug again, then take a bite.

Need to get back on track!

OK the madness has got to stop! We got into a really bad habit during our move of eating crap food, going through the drive thru, eating way too much ice cream after dinner....buying ice cream by the gallon and then when it runs out we replace it pretty much within a day or so...this is not normal behavior for us at all and it has got to stop. I'm pretty bummed because we did so well a few months back when we took part in a weight loss challenge but because of being so stressed out from the move we ate really bad food to deal with our stress, so we've gained a lot of it back. Which is hard to admit. I don't know how much because I don't know where our scale is, (part of that is I haven't actually looked for it...) but I can feel in my clothes that I have gained weight back and I can tell from how I look that I have gained weight back. Just in time for summer, right? Ugh.

I need to start drinking water more, I need to just say "no" in the store so I don't have to say no at home after a tough day with the kids where all I'm thinking about is sitting in front of the TV and having some ice cream to totally veg out. I need to start moving more. But I'm so tired all the time. I'm caught in that vicious cycle thing where I don't have any energy to work out and because I'm not working out I'm not getting any energy...if that makes sense.

The bright side is, we stopped eating fast food and I'm cooking dinners again. I just prepped a bunch of fruit to have on hand quickly and I'm about to prep some lettuce and some bell peppers. So it's a start. But why is it so hard?! Sometimes I feel like it can be the easiest thing in the world for me to say no to eating junk and times like right now I feel like I can't buy any will power.

Any advice?

Created a Monster?

Ok so I *might* have created a little monster here...not sure. But this morning I was making a latte (hooray for home espresso machines btw!) and I was using coconut cream creamer and Summer wanted to smell it saying she LOVES coconut...?...She's never had it, LOL, anyway so I let her smell it and she wanted to have some. So I put a teaspoon in her milk and she FLIPPED out! She absolutely loved it and now...well, let's just say I hope I didn't create a monster here, haha. At least she drank her milk, right?

Random Thoughts...

I love how I'll look at a large thing of Coconut Cream flavored creamer at the store and think, "damn, that's expensive" because it's $4.50 but I don't think twice when I'm at the drive thru at Starbucks and I order a caramel frappuccino and they say, "that will be $5.50 at the next window" and I'm like. OK.

Everywhere But The Burpie Cloth! Top 10 Places I Never Expected To Find Baby Barf

1.) Running down my cleavage and pooling in the fabric of my bra waiting to drench my stomach.

2.) Dripping from the seam of my dining room table where it pulls apart for a leaf.

3.) The back of the couch...the part that is not accessible due to it being right up against the wall and windows.

4.) Inside the bottom drawer of the refrigerator.

5.) Completely drenching my husband's watch. As if he marinated it in a bucket of barf.

6.) Dripping down the back of my calves into my socks and shoes.

7.) The foot pedals of the elliptical machine and the innermost workings of the wheels.

8.) Inside a brand new purse....that had just gotten filled with everything I own.

9.) Computer keyboard.

10.) Directly into the mouth from flying baby superman position. Hey, I warned my husband about that one.

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Take it while you can get it.

Well, it's 4 pm and everyone just fell asleep. Birdie fell asleep in her high chair while she was eating her very late lunch and Baby Boy just fell asleep on the nursing pillow, and you know what? I'll take it. Yes it's after 4pm and my 3 yr old toddler who normally wakes up from her nap at this time will probably be a wild maniac at 9pm...but I'll take it because I NEED it. I need a bit of peace and quiet without someone yelling at me for something. It's been one of those days and everyone has been yelling all day long.

Today is the second day it has rained so we're quite crazy around here. Yesterday it rained REALLY bad and I had Bay with me all day at a baby shower an hour away. So Dada was home with Birdie all day long, totally cooped up in the house as it dumped buckets of rain all day long without a single moment of a break and she did not nap all-day-long. That is rough. He was pretty frazzled when I got home and I don't blame him. I've been there. Heck, I live there on a daily basis. I call it Toddlerville and we serve up crazy all day long. So it's good for him to see from time to time what it's like. Even though he totally believes me how hard it can be to have an infant and a toddler. And he always lets me complain. And then he helps...and I don't mean he'll only hold the baby while he's reading motorcycle racing blogs online (which he'll do that too), but he'll like change poopy diapers without me even having to ask him, so he's a total keeper when it comes to baby daddy's. "Did you make a poo poo?...OK, let's go change your diaper" type of thing. God bless him! Not afraid to get up in there.

But getting back to the nap at 4pm thing...I'm not even going as far as moving her from her high chair because I don't want to mess it up. So I'm just letting her take a nap sitting up. Kinda like the naps I take everyday, haha. (While I'm nursing the baby.)

Take it while you can get it.

On that note..the baby just woke up. So I got about 24 minutes. Not bad.