green eggs

I’m not an especially big fan of Jerry Seinfeld or his wife, but when Maya started becoming pickier and pickier about her food choices, a friend of mine recommended Deceptively Delicious to me. It’s a cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld, Jerry’s wife. The whole concept is that if your child won’t eat vegetables, you can hide them in a variety of clever ways that mostly involve the use of purees.

This has worked pretty well for me. The most successful recipe is Green Eggs, which is basically scrambled eggs with some pureed spinach mixed in. It’s the only way so far that I can get Maya to eat her greens and she LOVES it! (Recipe below)

Green Eggs recipe from Deceptively Delicious:

2 tsp margarine
1 lb baby spinach, washed and drained
3 tbsp skim milk
2 large eggss
Pinch of salt
Nonstick cooking spray

Directions: Melt 1 tsp of the margarine in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the spinach, turn the heat to high, and cook, stirring often, until the spinach wilts. Then add the milk and cook to evaporate, 1-2 more minutes. Transfer to a food processor and puree; let cool a few minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the puree and the salt. Coat the same skillet with cooking spray and set the pan over medium heat. Add the remaining tsp of margarine and heat until melted. Add the egg mixture, reduce the heat to low, and cook, stirring occasionally, 2-3 minutes.

knitting a sweater

So, I posted a while back about a sweater I had started knitting. The first stages went very quickly and then I kind of slowed up, but I’ve regained new momentum after a weekend out of town and so here’s the latest progress update.

Obviously, I still have to knit the front portion and then stitch up the seams. The original pattern can be found here. I think next time I’ll do it in a solid color instead of the multicolored wool. I mostly chose this cheap wool because it was my first sweater but next time I’ll definitely use something nicer. I also have to report my first knitting injury… I somehow managed to stab my finger with a knitting needle and make a little hole in it. Yes, that’s right, I have a HOLE in my finger, could I be any less coordinated?

best invention

So, Maya’s been all crazed for watching TV when we’re at home. Her latest mantra: “I want Dora! I want Dora! I wanna watch the TV!”. In an effort to find other ways to play inside on a cloudy day a good friend of mine sent me her homemade play dough recipe… I can’t thank her enough! Who invented play dough anyway? Whoever it was, she was brilliant! (Recipe provided below.)

Recipe:

1 Cup white flour
1/2 Cup salt
1 tbsp Cream of Tartar
2 tbsp oil
1 Cup water
food colouring

Mix in a saucepan over medium heat until mixture sticks together (looks like mashed potatoes). Cool on waxed paper. Store in a sealed continer or Ziplock bag.

road trip conversation

Actual conversation that took place in the car on a recent 3 hour road trip I took with my husband, Chad, and our 19 month old daughter, Maya:

Maya: I have a poop.

Me: Oh no, she’s pooping.

Chad: Should I pull over?

Maya: I see the poop! (Smiles at poop leaking out of diaper.)

Me: Yes, pull over at the next gas station. Maya, I see the poop too, but don’t touch the poop.

Maya: I like poop. (Reaches for mess in diaper.)

Me: It’s okay, but don’t touch poop. (Mom grabs Maya’s hand to prevent BIG mess.)

Maya: I want to touch the poop. I love poop (said while making self-hugging gesture).

Me: We’re going to stop and change your diaper. Just hold on.

Chad: Don’t worry Maya, we’re going to change your poop, Dad is pulling over.

I’m wondering when our lives will evolve so that we can, once again, discuss something other than poop??

and so it begins

It’s official–we’ve started potty training. Maya’s only 19 months old, and I’m not all crazy with desire for her to be toilet trained at an early age. But there are a couple of reasons why we’re starting now. The first and most important reason is that she’s showing signs of readiness. One big sign I noticed is that whenever she has a poop in her diaper she immediately tells me and says, “mommy  change it, please?”. She obviously doesn’t want to sit in it for very long and is aware that it’s happening-yay! Another reason why I want to start now is that I’m a teacher and I am only going to be at home with her for another 6 weeks before I go back to work full-time and she begins daycare again, and then it will be much harder for me to follow through with this kind of thing at my end. Working life means I don’t get a lot of time with Maya during the week, and it’s not really effective to just potty train on weekends.

So, for starters, I did a lot of reading about approaches to potty training and we bought some supplies, namely a child-sized potty and a fold up child’s seat that sits on top of our regular toilet. See below:

Yesterday, at the advice of one of the websites I read, I took Maya’s diaper off for several hours in the afternoon and I let her run around diaper-free. I don’t really want a mess in the house so we played outside with the little potty close at hand. I repeatedly sat Maya on her potty and she didn’t actually “go” in it, nor did she go anywhere outside. Then, we came inside, I put a diaper on her and she immediately asked for the potty, so I took her diaper back off and hopefully sat her on the toilet only to realize that the diaper in my hand was very heavy… she had held it all that time and then let it go the moment I put the diaper on her! Kind of annoying, but also good because it showed me that she could control her bladder a bit.

Today is day #2. At her request, I sat Maya on the potty for a long time in the morning. She played with toilet paper and made herself quite comfortable, but nothing happened. Then, I thought of one strategy I had read about: I took one of Maya’s toys and sat it on the little potty and said that it was going “pee pee” and then of course I reduced myself to the humiliating point of making “pee pee” sound effects. Meanwhile, Maya was sitting on the big potty and she started to go “pee pee” after seeing the toy that was pretending to do so. This was very very exciting! I shouted, “hooray” and made a really big deal about how great it was. She was quite pleased with herself and has since then used the potty a second time today! I know it’s the beginning of a very long haul here. Nevertheless, I’m excited that we’ve already had some success. Hopefully, it continues without too many accidents. Next up: we’re getting big girl underwear!

The Extremist

So, with the bath fear conquered (read more here), I now have the opposite problem on my hands. Now that I made bath time into the most fun experience in my daughter’s life, that’s literally ALL she wants to do! She begs for the bath, she attempts to crawl into the tub, she hopefully tosses her toys (be they waterproof or not) into the tub and declares, “I want bath!”. Even more bizarre and hilarious is the fact that she’s figured out how to turn on the bath tub faucet and shower head and she will climb in fully clothed, turn it all on, get herself and her clothes soaking wet and then bend down to play with the drain. Yes, that’s right the DRAIN?! She’s gone from being totally freaked out about the drain to loving it and playing with it. I don’t get kids!

Recipe in Demand

So, everyone has been asking me about my latest salad. It’s a yam-quinoa salad with chick peas and it’s delicious! For those of you who want something new to add to your repertoire, the recipe is below:

Yam-Quinoa Salad

Combine:

2 Yams (baked, cooled, peeled and cubed)

1 cup quinoa cooked in 2 cups of chicken stock/broth

4 green onions (finely chopped)

19 oz. can chick peas

1/4 cup fresh basil (chopped)

2/3 cup flax oil

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

(optional: soft goat cheese, red/yellow peppers, cucumber)

Salt and pepper to taste

Maybe it’s the fresh basil or perhaps the flax oil with the yummy vinegar… whatever the case, both my husband and I are addicted! Enjoy!

Witty’s

Does it get any better for a toddler than a day spent at the beach playing in tide pools?

Maya had a fantastic time at Witty’s Lagoon today playing with her friend O who is a little older.

Despite the fact that she was shivering from the cool breeze, she couldn’t stop herself from exploring the hermit crabs, sculpins, seaweed and barnacles on the rocky shore of this incredible beach. It’s days like this when I remind myself how lucky we are to live in on this incredible island!

On the way home she fell sound asleep and had a three hour nap. This is the life.

Bath Saga Continued…

As mentioned in my last post, Maya has been afraid of the bathtub for over a month. In particular, she is scared of the drain. I was over at my neighbour’s house yesterday while the kids were playing in the sprinklers and my wonderful, wise neighbour offered for her children (who Maya adores!) to come and join Maya for a bath. So, Maya’s two friends (both quite a bit older–aged 3 and 5) came over with many of their own bath toys in tow and they helped to convince Maya that having a bath was a fun endeavor. Maya cried a lot at first and she insisted that her friends get out of the bath so that she could play with them on dry ground, but they just ignored her and eventually she got in the bath, although she would only stand up–no sitting. By the end, everyone was out of the bath and she was reluctant to get out. That said, she only got her ankles wet, but she had fun–this was progress.

So today, in an attempt to build upon this success, I bought a bunch of new bath toys, and (at the recommendation of friends and family) I picked up some bathtub crayons at Michael’s. I also bought a new container of bubbles and bubble blower. I was determined to make bath time into the event of the century! The result was pretty good. Maya got in the bath, wouldn’t sit down but was crouching down with her new and exciting bath crayons. But wait, she wasn’t just crouching, she was also kind of grunting… and yes, you guessed it, she was going number TWO while she was drawing with her crayons in the tub! In an effort not to make this a big deal out of this and ruin her experience (she usually freaks out if there’s even a bit of sock lint floating in the tub), I whisked Maya into the other bathtub in the house where my wonderful husband took over and finished bathing her there, while I got down to the fun job of cleaning up the contaminated tub and toys.

Regardless of the fact that this was kind of a disaster, since she’s only pooped in the bath two other times EVER (and one of them was when my mom was bathing her–thank god!), Maya didn’t seem to notice any of the chaos and she enjoyed her time so immensely that she was complaining that she wanted to go back in the bath after we took her out. She even sat down for my husband and she did so RIGHT NEXT TO THE DRAIN!

I declare the bathtub fear officially conquered.

Bath Fears

About a month ago, for no apparent reason, Maya went from loving bath time to having hysterical crying fits when she came near the bath. My husband and I can’t figure out why this has happened, but it’s been a month and she is not letting up. Her main concern seems to be the drain, but this is even more perplexing because she used to spend a good portion of her bath time playing with the drain, opening it, closing it, opening it, closing it… you get the idea.

At first we thought she’ll surely get over it if we just keep bathing her, but we hugely underestimated our daughter’s ability to remember and perseverate about things. With each bath session, her anxiety grew worse and worse to the point where she broke down in frightened tears at the mere mention of the bath. She would even tell herself “it’s okay, Maya, it’s okay!” through her sobs. It’s like she wants to be unafraid but can’t help it. And this isn’t like an ordinary crying spell over wanting her own way or something… it’s somehow different when she faces this particular situation. It’s genuine fear. So, I did some reading on the internet about this issue… and what little I did read said that you shouldn’t ignore your child’s fear. So I tried getting in the bath with her, blowing bubbles in the bath, introducing new toys… all of this did nothing to distract her from her certainty that she was totally afraid and unhappy.

So, we’ve started showering with her, and while she was a bit weary at first, she’s enjoying the showers a lot now. She’ll even stand up in the shower for a few minutes, but then she sees the drain and wants to be picked up right away. She still goes and looks at the bath tub from time-to-time and she’s even asked to go stand in it without any water running, but then she immediately changes her mind. I’m just beginning to wonder if she’s ever going to shake this fear. I don’t think I’ll be able to shower with her when summer’s over and I have to go back to work… suggestions anyone?