Baby Bonobo

We took advantage of the AMAZING weather this morning and off to the Zoo we went!

First the kids got up close and personal with the Penguins, and wow, they were making some interesting noises!

Then we traipsed down Jungle Trails and found all the “monkey” pens empty!  We couldn’t find any at all.  Then…

We were so lucky to come upon this mama and her baby.  They were laying around and the baby was nursing and playing with a rope and old cheese.

“Come over here and let me clean your heiny!”

 

Would you just LOOK at that sweet face!

 

Then he got really interested in the kids when they’d get up close to the window, it was absolutely precious.

Marlo and Baby Bonobo were touching hands on the glass :)

This interaction alone made the trip SO worth it.

Not your typical Valentine’s Day

While most moms were rushing around this morning pulling red and heart emblazoned clothing onto their children, and simultaneously gathering up the last few Valentine’s with the chicken-scrawled names on them…I was, in fact, gearing up for a different sort of day.

We were headed to Larosas. At 10AM.

Let me provide a little backstory: In Ty’s classroom they are “studying” pizza restaurants and have even constructed their own pizza pie parlor in their dramatic play area. They concluded their “study” with a field trip to Larosas. Which just happened to fall on Valentine’s Day. Ahh, nothing says LOVE like some good ol’ red sauce, cheese and pepperoni at 10am!

Before we headed out the door though, I did surprise them at breakfast time with their Valentine’s treats.

Marlo is still very attached to her Lightning McQueen and Flo cars!

Undies!

The loot…

Then it was off to a less-cluttered area of the house (ha, is that an extinct thing or what???) to do a little cutesy Valentine’s Day photo shoot :)

Marlo had to get warmed up with a few cheese ball smiles (that will never go away, our kids are pros at it!)

That’s a sweet one. I’ll take it.

Bring in her brother and she gets all somber on us…

Love.

After tinkering around with all the new toys at home, it was off to Larosas we went…

Ty’s booth :) Surrounded by the ladies, smooooooooth.

After showing much patience while the kids went back 5 at a time, Ty got down to work. He worked the line like it was nobody’s business.

He was making his very own personalized pizza under the tutelage of some young pizza making professionals!

Then it was back to the table for a continued lesson in patience while the food cooked. Perfect time to show off his new hat, for which he received many compliments.

Everyone knows that a true chef utilizes the GARNISH to complete the dish…

It’s amazing and funny to see the power of influence within the young child. Ty has never once touched that fake, snowy, Parmesan-ish cheese food. He’s never asked about it, never tasted it, but as soon as he saw his classmates piling it on he followed suit :) Each child had a 3 inch mountain of powder on their pizza slices.

Chow DOWN!

He was SUPER excited about the take home box. Which most definitely was tossed around, crushed, flipped over, and just generally fiddled with (with pizza enclosed, ugh).

And before you think I got out of the whole “make Ty sign his name 40 million times on mini envelopes for handing out to friends” thing, you’re wrong. We concluded that activity this evening and are all prepared to do that tomorrow :)

“Bear Hugs” from Ty. That’s T-Y. AKA, the easiest name in the world to scribe. :) All 40 million times.

(Bear Hugs=gummy bears and teddy grahams)

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Love in abundance,

The Regans

Toddler Tastebuds!

(I’m doing this blog as part of a MUCH bigger blog event. Kelly at http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/ does a Show Us Your Life Series, and this is the first time I’ve linked up, but I really want to because it’s a very relevant topic to me and my family right now.)

Toddlers and food is perhaps the MOST confusing and sometimes frustrating topic amongst MOMMIES! Am I right or am I right?

Sometimes I jokingly say, “I really think my daughter survives on milk, cheese and raisins!” These are the only things she regularly requests to eat, breakfastlunchanddinner.

Something that recently piqued my interest was how when at a local pizza restaurant my kids would devour grapes. Yet, when I’d get home and try to serve them some at home they wouldn’t even touch them. Then it dawned on me…it had nothing to do with the actual food, it had to do with the presentation and vessel!

At the restaurant they serve the grapes, halved, in these little black cups. Perfect size for toddlers and makes them feel like they’ve got their own little portion.

So I set about getting my creative wheels turning to see if my kids would eat certain things at home that they love at restaurants and also thought of other creative ideas…

Here are my ideas:

1. Almost anything is better for toddlers when it comes with a dip. Real maple syrup, grape jelly, applesauce, yogurt, honey…and here’s the kicker: Serve the dip in these little cups

it’s got that restaurant feel and also very toddler friendly.

2. Usually I wouldn’t give my kids raw carrots because of the chocking hazard and the eventual waste, but I’ve found that buying the petite cut ones are MUCH better for them. They force them to take smaller, more manageable bites.

3. APPLE RINGS!

This has been a new fun one for my kids and surprise surprise it actually helps them eat the peel of the apple, which is so good for them. (Supervised of course!)

I’ll let the pictures do the explaining, with minimal directions!

First: Slice apple into rounds, core intact.

Second: Use fun shaped cookie cutter on core.

Third: Kids love them!

4. Favorite recipes

Fun to make and even more fun to eat

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/fruit-juice-shapes-recipe/index.html

Hands down my kids’ favorite banana bread, it has a lot of sugar, but it has whole wheat flour, which I feel good about.

http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/20378/wholewheat-banana-bread.html

5. Finally, I use food as art and I try to remind myself it’s okay to make food fun and funny.

• Arrange the food on the plate as a face with the fruit and/or veggies as “hair” or “freckles”, etc.
• Make or buy fun placemats. (Use contact paper to make your own with pictures, leaves, recipes, coupons, ANYTHING!)
• Keep pictures out of your children eating different foods. For example, I have pictures handy of my children picking strawberries at the farm this past summer. I think it gives them a reminder about the work (and fun!) that goes into having food on the table and it gives them a fun memory behind the stuff on their plates.
• Finally, I almost always have a food or recipe book/magazine at the table with us. For many reasons. One, it gives me some time to peruse my books to find new recipes to try. Two, it let’s the children get in on the fun of choosing foods and seeing again that food goes through a process to get to the table. Thirdly, they’re just fun to look at and recognize foods, go over vocabulary, see different fruits and veggies, etc. (Some of the BEST books to do this with are the Eat This Not That series. Try them, the kids recognize foods and it really illustrates to them, visually, the healthier choices to make.)

I hope this reached at least one or two mommies looking for some ideas, and if you have any ideas or feedback for me, PLEASE PLEASE share!