"Kid friendly" dinners

In my new issue of Cooking Light there was a very good letter to the editor about labeling certain recipes as "kid friendly". The writer of the letter, a mom, said that the labeling should be eliminated because then some foods are deemed for grown-ups only. Like her, I've always served my kids exactly what Fred and I eat for dinner. And like her, my kids eat a wide variety of foods. Foods that some people are surprised a child will eat willingly. Not that they like everything, but at least they try it. I've made it a point to serve healthy food and as a result my kids have pretty good eating habits. I think it's good that my kids don't expect chicken nuggets or mac and cheese every night for dinner. My hope in serving healthy meals is that they continue eating healthy into adulthood. While we do eat healthy most nights, we also have our fair share of greasy, fatty food. And dessert is a must every night. (I think that's the real incentive in eating well every night). Still, I'm proud of our family's eating habits. And our meals aren't all "kid friendly". It's just good food.

We all scream for ice cream

Loyal blog readers, you will be happy to know that my kids have finally experienced the ice cream truck! My parents had the kids on Monday and as they dropped them off they noticed the ice cream truck coming up the street, but then turning up the block in the exact opposite direction of our house. So my parents got in the car, tracked her down and sent her to our house. Talk about excited kids! (And an excited mommy too). The wait was awful as we heard the ice cream truck music weaving through the neighborhood, waiting for it to get closer and then finally in our view. Of course the timing wasn't good as it was right before dinner, but who cares? It's the ice cream truck! The kids picked out their treats and we enjoyed the beautiful autumn evening, eating our ice cream on the front porch.

A little more summer fun

Well, we finally got to Raging Rivers Labor Day weekend. We had been trying to get there the past three weekends, but between sick kids and rainy days, it just didn't happen. I find it somewhat funny that we have been to the Wisconsin Dells twice, but this was our first visit to Raging Rivers. It wasn't the hottest of days (it did get to 77 degrees), but the kids didn't mind. They had a lot of fun and I'm sure we will be going back next year. Even though I would have liked it a little hotter, it turned out to be a great day. The water park was only open until 4pm as opposed to the normal 8pm closing. I didn't mind telling the kids we had to pack up and leave at 4:00 instead of enduring 4 more hours there. And since they had reduced hours, the price was reduced as well. A win-win for me! Torii was a little bummed that he wasn't quite tall enough for the water slides, but he took it well. Next year he'll be tall enough for sure. Rion loved going down the tube slides. I made him go with me the first time I went with him. He had already been down with Fred a few times. When we got to the bottom he told me, "Now I'm going down by myself. And so are you." We also enjoyed the lazy river. It was fun because a section of it has waves at different times. That was a lot of fun. It turned out to be a great day and a nice ending to summer.

Back in the swing of things

The boys are now into their first full week of school. Torii is already complaining about not wanting to go to school each morning. He said he liked kindergarten better. Rion is doing great getting ready for school in the morning, but we have fought with him over homework already. Personally, I don't think a second grader should have homework, but that's me. It's not much, but it's enough to complain about. And Cordelia hates that she can't go to school with her brothers and then fights me about going to Grandma's house. Thank goodness we have a long weekend coming up is all I can say.

The boys have said they are liking school. Torii is happy he can order a salad at lunch now. Kindergartners weren't allowed to order a salad. So far he's had salads twice for lunch. Rion doesn't talk much about school, but I think he likes it. He's just bummed that they don't start multiplication until third grade. Sheesh, by then he might be into long division.

The kids also started gymnastics again on Monday. I'm really liking the Monday class. I haven't run out of steam yet on Monday. They previously had class on Thursday and by that point in the week I was ready to do nothing but veg out in front of the TV. Cordelia gets to be in the preschool class now which is super awesome for me. I don't have to supervise her in class anymore so that means a free hour for me. I was worried how she would do, but she did great. I thought that maybe she would listen to the teachers better than she listens to me and I was right. She still ran around a little bit, but not like she did with me around. She would run around and never want to do the task the class was doing. She did great listening to the teachers on Monday. She even sat down on the line when she was told too! I was impressed.

When I grow up....

I've been meaning to post this for awhile, but just haven't gotten around to it. I was going to reply to Kristy's comment on my last post, but the more I thought about it, the more I had to say. So I decided that another post was in order. Basically, my reply was going to be, "Isn't it great to watch your children discover their talents and develop their interests?"

When I was in college I spent the first two years trying to "find myself" and deciding what I wanted to do with my life. It finally struck me that I wanted to be a writer. And the funny thing is that I knew that when I was a kid. I loved to write. I always did. I made my friends play "newspaper". I wrote a small play involving space aliens and President Bush (the first). And I wrote in my "All about me" American Girl book that I was going to be an author when I grew up.

I look at my kids and wonder if they already know what they want to be when they grow up too. I wonder if Rion's love of Legos will lead him to engineering. Or will it be his fascination with the human body that will lead him to medical school? Will Torii pursue Olympic gold in gymnastics because he spends half of his day on his hands rather than his feet? Will Cordelia become an artist because she always has her crayons and a notebook within reach?

It's fun to speculate and wonder what the future holds for your children, but it will be their decision to make in the end. And I will love them no matter what they choose. Even if they decide the being a rodeo clown is what will make them happy. Then I will look back at their childhood and say, "Yes, that makes sense. You always liked taunting large animals."

Math wizzes

Ok, prepare yourself for some long overdue bragging about my boys. Here goes: They are smart. No, I mean really smart. Ok, Torii is too smart for his own good, but that's another blog post. Now, I know most parents say their kids are smart, but I'm not lying. My kids are smart. I'm especially talking about the boys and math. Over the summer I have learned that my boys not only love math, but they are good at it. I shouldn't be surprised since both of their parents were good at math so I guess it's in their genes.

Before vacation I bought the boys some really great workbooks at Dollar Tree. (I love that store). I brought the books along for something to do in the car, but didn't have real high hopes that the boys would like them. They both loved the math workbooks. Rion was really interested in the multiplication section of his book. I have since found another workbook that is completely multiplication. He knows the easy stuff like multiplying by 1's and some of the 2's. He wanted to do the harder problems, but I told him to work his way to the back of the book. No, he really wanted to do the x10 problems. Fine, those are easy I told him, but instead of letting him in on the hint of just adding a zero to the number he is multiplying by 10 I told him how to figure out the answer by making groups of ten. By the time he got to x3 he had it figured out by himself and he finished the page on his own. He'll be in second grade this fall and I'm not sure if that's when they start multiplication, but either way, he's ahead of the class already.

Torii will be in first grade and his math skills impress me too. They started adding in kindergarten, but it was pretty basic 2+2 math. Torii is adding and subtracting much bigger numbers. I think Torii has taken to math so well because of his love of board games. His favorite game is Monopoly. Not Jr. Monopoly, he abandoned that long ago. He plays standard Monopoly. The first time he landed on Luxury Tax I thought I would have to help him get $75, but he looked at his money and handed me a fifty, twenty and a five. He can get correct change for any property he lands on. It's just when we get deep into the game and we are exchanging large amounts of money for landing on hotels is when he needs help. But really, he's a five year old. The box says ages 8-adult. I think he's doing quite well on Monopoly.

Torii and I also play another math related game we made up. When we are done shopping at Wal-mart I ask him to estimate how many items I bought. We each make a guess and see who is closest. Then we look at the total on the receipt for the answer. The other day he guessed 29 items, but we had 25. Without even thinking he said he was 4 off. "But was that with the video game we purchased earlier in electronics", he asked me. "No it wasn't," I told him. Well he was counting the video game so without thinking again he had to let me know he really was only 3 off. I don't know, that just seems like it would be difficult for a five-year-old to figure out and to figure out so quickly.

Ok, this bragging session has ended. But really, they are smart.

Ruh-roh

Never in my life have I ever stopped watching cartoons. Not in high school. Not in college. And not now. It's the part of me that refuses to grow up. And really a lot of the times, the best thing on TV is cartoons. As a kid I loved Scooby-Doo and now Cordelia loves it too. The other day she was watching it and ran up to me and said, "Oh no! Scooby is in trouble!" She really gets into it. While I still have a certain fondness for the original Scooby-Doo, especially the Scooby-Doo movies which featured guest stars like Batman and Robin, Don Knotts, and the Harlem Globetrotters, I still liked the new "What's New Scooby-Doo" series. But for some reason they stopped making that one and have now put on a new Scooby-Doo series called "Mystery Incorporated". I hated this show the first time I saw it. I was offended that they would screw around with the characters and develop a dating relationship between Shaggy and Velma. I'm still not crazy about the animation, but the series has grown on me. It's a cartoon, but it is definitely aimed at the parents too. There are so many jokes in each episode that only the parents are going to get. While Casey Kasem no longer provides the voice of Shaggy, he does provide the voice for his dad. There was also a Griswold vacation reference thrown in and a Beverly Hills 90210 one too. And I love that Fred is totally oblivious to how much Daphne likes him. A long time ago I had heard that the reason the gang always split up was so Daphne and Fred could have some alone time, if you know what I mean. This new series plays with some of the theories I've heard about the show. It's kind of fun. It's fun to watch Scooby with the kids. They watch it because it's a funny cartoon. I watch it because of the adult humor. It's great.