Eliza 365

Sick | Vulnerable

via luxtei

Nothing like a powerful stomach flu to make you feel really vulnerable. I never liked being sick, although it was a lot easier before I had a husband and kids. You go through your day doing a million little things but when you're sick nothing gets done. Normally when the kids ask for a cup of water you walk a couple yards to the kitchen and without even thinking you end up picking up a couple toys that's on the floor, wipe off the table, change the baby's diaper, and then return with the cup of water. So much of what I do is in auto-pilot mode. When you're sick even the simple task of getting your kid a cup of water becomes really hard because the moment you stand up you have to run to the bathroom.

Yesterday the kids were basically on their own. If it weren't for the iPad and goldfish crackers I'm not sure they would have survived. But they did. And Christian and I are starting to feel better and pleading with the universe that our kids will not get whatever it is we have.

Yesterday was also Maria's birthday. She didn't get a single balloon or a nice cake. She did however get a new princess dress, a princess doll, and a princess plastic tea party set, all things she wanted and I wasn't going to get her. But then on Saturday when I ran to Costco to get 15lbs of butter for our luau and was feeling really stressed I decided last minute (this is why I hate shopping, when I'm stressed I make bad shopping decisions) to get her what she wanted. Rarely does a bad decision end up being a good decision but in this case it was awesome! She was so happy with her new doll and new dress she played tea party all day long, in between watching Eliza of course. So even if she never plays with her new toys again it was worth it.

We're celebrating her birthday on saturday, that is if no one else gets sick.

Tummy Cakes

Maria has been having lots of "tummy cakes" lately. When she's full, or thinks she's full (maybe she  is full, I mean really, what do I know?!) she claims to have a tummy ache. She's smart because she knows that if she says she's done when there is still food on her plate, or cereal in her bowl, I will try to convince her to eat more but if her stomach is hurting I can't argue with her especially since she calls these "pains," "tummy cakes" which to me has so much more meaning than just a grammar error.

First and foremost one does not simply correct a three year old when they say cute things like "tummy cakes," so please don't try. Us parents, us parents of toddlers, we live for "tummy cakes" and other little cute things. At this age we're dealing with so many tantrums and failed negotiations that when we get a cute moment out of them we hoard it. Hoarding cute moments is a respectable practice in the parenting community, akin to having secret stashes of chocolate. Hello guilty indulgence!

Yup "tummy cakes"and Ritter Sport, that's kind of what I live for these days. You?

Since I only get to spend a few precious hours with Maria I try to soak up her awesomeness as much as I can. Lets' just skip the part where I apologize for being biased; I am talking about my daughter so the fact that I'm a little obsessed with her is a given. Moving on. Maria is a hoot! If you come over to my house for dinner she will tell you jokes. Her favorite, "Why did the pencil cross the road? To get to pencil-vania" followed by "Why did the pencil cross the park? To get to the other slide." I mean really, she still doesn't have all her baby teeth in but she has a repertoire of jokes.

And then there's the fact that she's bilingual and 3 which actually means she's monolingual in a language that mixes Portuguese and English but when asked what she speaks she'll tell you it's Spanish. The only people who fully understands her language is me, Christian, and Enzo but mostly just Enzo and thankfully Enzo has some language hiccups of his own so he doesn't ruin everything by trying to correct her.

I'll leave the parenting part where I try to discipline her about not wasting food and being responsible for what's on her plate for another day. Today I have a tummy cake I need to take care of.

History Repeats Itself, Especially Parenting History

At the end of the day I'm like, "what just happened?" There are quiet moments. There are even moments of connection. Enzo and Maria sleep on the same bed. It's a full size bed packed with stuffed animals. Every Most nights I go and lay down with them and sing a couple songs and make several mental notes - change sheets, change pillow cases, remove all these stuffed animals. And then lights off. And then, just like that the day is over. Sort of. My parenting Enzo and Maria day is over;  Eliza and I still hang out at night, nursing you know.

Most of my day is not filled with sweet moments. Its filled with short sentences. "You, brush teeth." "You, potty, wipe, flush." "You, diaper. Blow out."

My days are also filled with work. In fact that's what most of my day is filled with.

I feel like I'm back in school. You know how with school you study, study, study and there's still more studying to be done. You're basically never done. My job is like that. I'm not complaining, I'm just stating the facts. I work a lot. Christian works a lot. I hate how much my 7 year old works. I feel like he works way too much. I'm not a fan of schools starting at 8:20 and going until 2:20, I'm just not. I wish school was half day every day. He's just gone so much of the day and then there's homework. And just like that the day is over.

We were all sick last week and it was miserable, minus the part where Enzo was too sick to go to school but not too sick to enjoy himself at home. He just played with blocks and Legos and read all day long.

Then I started having problems nursing. I won't go into details. I will say that I am doing everything possible to not wean this baby just yet. She seems totally uninterested in food, except for eating paper. I should just leave random food on the floor and let her graze, or I could stop vacuuming.

Funny how history repeats itself, especially parenting history. I swear I was writing about the same things just a couple years ago when Maria was a baby - sleep deprivation, nursing issues, baby putting everything in her mouth. Also, all of our babies look exactly the same so there's that eery element mixed in there.

But you know, it doesn't get old. It's like when a friend has a baby and you're all like "awwwww, so cute" even though your other friend also just had a baby and you had the same reaction and you will forever have the same reaction every time you see a baby. It's like me pickng up Enzo and rocking him even though he's almost to my shoulder. For me they will always be babies and it will just not get old.

As for the pictures above, what does it illustrate? Just a glimpse of a moment in time; something that happens quit often - the kids wanting a snack after they've brushed teeth, after they're tucked in bed, and me caving. I cave a lot these days.

The Picky Eater Conundrum

The question I get asked the most by my readers is, "how do I get my kid to not be picky?" Funny you should ask considering that my kids are far from being easy when it comes to food. However, there have been some things that have worked out well for us.

Feed them when they're hungry.

This seems so obvious right, but it actually took me a while to figure this out. When Enzo wakes up in the morning he is hungry. He'll have pancakes, eggs, bacon, and a bowl of cereal on the side. Or he'll just have 3 big bowls of cereal and some fruit since most mornings I'm not cooking anything. When I wake up in the morning I'm not hungry. I can wait 2-3 hours before I eat breakfast, and by then it's already lunch time. If I have a piece of toast and some tea as a morning snack then I'm good to go. Maria just wants milk. At around 10:00am she'll eat a handful of Cheerios. If I feed Maria when she's hungry she'll eat anything.

On Friday I made a cauliflower, chick pea, curry stew, the kind of food I usually have to trick my kids into eating. Lunch was ready at 2:00pm. By that time Maria was hungry, really hungry, so she just sat down and ate two big bowls without a single complaint. On Saturday I tried to give her the same thing and she wasn't at all interested, she just wasn't hungry.

This gets tricky because if you're trying to feed everyone when they're hungry then you're pretty much cooking and re-heating food all day long, and I have a 3 month old who nurses on demand, plus I work, plus I have a bathroom to clean for goodness sakes. So here is what I do - breakfast and lunch I let them eat when they're hungry, even if it means we're eating at different times. Enzo is in school  during lunch 4 days out of the week and and 2 days out of the week Maria eats at preschool. Plus, I work 30 hours a week. Christian is usually the one who gets lunch together. If I have a minute I'll take a break and eat with him, if not I just eat in front of my computer. 

Dinner is a whole other story. Yes, I want my kids to get healthy food inside their bodies but I also really want them to learn table manners, and learn how to socialize around the dinner table. At dinner time we all sit together and we eat and we talk. I try to push dinner to 6:30 when I know they're hungry but before 7:00 when they start getting tired.

Get them involved

Ever since Christian started gardening with the kids both Enzo and Maria have been willing to try out all sorts of things. Enzo used to not touch his salad, now he eats it and enjoys it! I like cooking with the kids, but have no interest in gardening. Find some way that you can involve them, as long as this way is also enjoyable for you. One mom told me she likes taking her kids to the store so they can help her pick out produce. I would rather stick a needle in my eye than take my kids shopping. Her idea sounds awesome but I know it's not for me. If cooking is stressful for you than don't cook with your kids, it will just make it more stressful. If you like having your table set then let them help you set the table and fold napkins, tell them how special dinner is when you get to eat on a pretty plate. Find one aspect of food preparation that you enjoy and get your kids involved. If they participate in the process of creating food they are more likely to want to try the food. Also, plan on doing this sometimes not every day. Sure I like cooking with the kids but more often than not I'm rushed and if I have another body in my tiny kitchen it totally throws my momentum off. I try to cook with them once a week max.

When all else fails

If they're being crazy stubborn this is what I do. 

• Dice. If they're being super stubborn and I'm on the verge of yelling at them (which I have done many times) I make them roll a dice. Whatever number they get, that's the number of bites they have to take. If they want to be mad about it they can just be mad at their own luck.
• Books. Maria will eat anything if I'm reading a book to her and distracting her from her food. I don't like doing this, but sometimes I'm in a hurry and it gets the job done. Also, if Enzo is eating by himself I let him listen to an audio book. If we're all having dinner together books are not allowed at the table.
• iPad. I have only done this a handful of times but if baby Eliza needs to nurse at the same time the other two kids need to eat and Christian is gone and my patience is running very thin, I prop the iPad on the table (far away from their food) and I let them watch a show while they eat. 

And then there's the old favorite, just add bacon.

And here is what you do

I asked my Instagram and Facebook followers to share their tips on helping picky eaters and here is what they had to say. And if you like what they had to say click on their name to follow them (some have private accounts).

marlameridith

Cheese. Lots of cheese.

mombraves

Lots of cheese and breadcrumbs too.

babyboybakery

Butter and parm go on most veggies really well!

ginavon

I make a lot of blended soups that hides some of the least popular veggies and then rough cut those they do like for texture.

lisha_bean

I hide some veggies but cooking things a different way and with different seasonings usually does the trick.

sara_stratford

Puréed veggies in stuff like spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, etc. my picky eater is the worst!!

suzana_h

Cheese on top! Also if I let her play with it for a while..smoosh it, smear it, whatever.. she'll make a huge mess but will eventually be too curious to not give it a taste.

weeklybite

Ketchup!!! I know it's pathetic, but it works every time :-)

karistaskitchen

It takes time for little palates to develop. Serving as many whole foods as possible and the least amount of processed foods will help. Sauces, dipping sauces, cheese, cheese sauces, these always got my kids to try foods they didn't think they liked. Of course now they always want a sauce :(

mamakj

Different utensils to eat the food with! Toothpicks are awesome...making kebabs, etc.

bekahtano

I've found that advertising the weeks meals gets them ready to try a new meal.

victoriajordan

For my step-son who is an extremely pick eater. I'm always finding way to add vegetables he wont eat. When i make spaghetti i chop up zucchini, and add it to the sauce. I will use purees like squash, sweet potatoes when I'm baking cookies, banana bread etc...

How do you help your picky eaters try new things? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to leave a comment here or follow me on Instagram to add to the conversation.

Dear Christian

Our kids are crazy lucky to have you.

Vacation is Good for the Soul

Yesterday after a 12 hour drive we made it safely home. Christian's one advice to anyone taking a road trip in Brazil is this - if the map says that the road is paved, it may or may not be paved. In other words take your time, expect surprises and detours, expect beautiful brand new roads one minute and dirt roads the next. It was good practice for our 2014 trip, the one where we want to take 6 months to drive from California to Brazil so we can watch the World Cup in Rio and Sao Paulo.

Remember how we thought we were going to drive back to California, and then I got pregnant? Speaking of pregnancy I've been feeling like myself again, only with popcorn popping inside of me. I love this phase, where the nausea and fatigue is gone and where I can start to feel the little flutters of my little baby.

Life is good again.

Last year when we did our long road trip through the West Coast of the United States Christian and I discovered audio books. It makes the drive go by so much faster. Last year we were enthralled with the Hunger Games saga, this year we listened to The Happiness Project. I'm semi-skeptical of such books and Christian is ultra-skeptical, but we both really enjoyed it. It was pretty fitting to be on vacation, driving through beautiful places contemplating happiness. It's a good read (or listen) and I strongly recommend it.

One of the things that makes me happy is being a mom. It's also what makes me most tired, most impatient, and most enraged. But right now I'm really enjoying parenting Enzo and Maria even if I still do get impatient with them. It was so hard feeling so sick during my first trimester and not being able to do basic things. Getting up to get a cup of water for Maria seemed like an unsurmountable task, I really couldn't get myself to do it.

It felt so good being able to chase them around, go swimming with them in caves and waterfalls, and just feel like their mom again.

Happy Mother's Day

Excuse my French but Christian is a total badass. He made croissants from scratch and served up a super delish breakfast. He takes Mother's Day seriously.

He wrote me a card, gave me coupons, and is waiting patiently so he can talk to his mom in Hawaii. Because of the 7 hour time difference we'll probably only be able to talk to her later tonight. Also, because of the time difference I figured most of you are still asleep, which gives me plenty of time to write this post and wish you a Happy Mother's Day.

I love being a mother to the little person pictured below, and to my medium person, and also to my apple sized fetus. And before being a mother I loved being an aunt to my nephew Bruno and to Christian's nieces and nephews.

I love being a mother. I love homeschooling Enzo. I love teaching them how to cook. I love reading the scriptures with them and sharing my testimony of the Savior in small but significant ways. I also love going to my mother's house and having them watch cartoons on my mom's T.V for hours and hours and hours with her and my grandma while I relax in the other room re-reading something silly like Breaking Dawn. I like taking my kids to the museum and other cultural events. I am also excited to take them to Disney this Summer. 

When I was pregnant with Enzo I had the opportunity to meet Winona LaDuke, a Native American Environmental activist. I asked her opinion on something I was worried about. My friends were throwing me a babyshower and I didn't want any plastic toys as gifts. I also wanted all the baby clothes to be organic cotton. And I definitely did not want anyone to give me pacifiers (something I was totally against, and then of course ended up using with Enzo and wished Maria would of used too). Ms. LaDuke kindly replied "Do not be a politically correct island unto yourself, otherwise you'll end up very lonely." She was right. And if I have one one advice to give to new mothers it is to not be lonely. Surround yourself with friends, with other mothers, with fathers, with a diverse community that will respect you and will love your kids. Your kids will be made better for it and motherhood will be a lot easier. 

You know the saying "Don't sweat the small stuff, and it's all small stuff" well, a lot of parenting is small stuff. Seriously, don't sweat it.

I also want to wish a happy Mother's Day to women in general. We've been lucky having our friend Juliana living with us since February. She's so kind to Enzo and Maria and has helped mother them while I was too nauseous to even get out of bed. And like Juliana we've been lucky to have other wonderful women in my children's lives who've been good examples to them and at some point or another have mothered them. 

Oh, and of couse a special shout out to my Christian, who not only makes a killer breakfast but also makes cute kids with me. Being a mother is very rewarding when you have the chance to share the joys and the burdens with someone else.

Babies and Limes

My little fruitavore.

This morning when we were snuggling in bed, trying to stay quiet so as not to wake up Enzo she turns to me and says

"I have a baby in my tummy too and when my baby comes out I'm going to nurse my baby. On one side I'll make milk and on the other side I'll make fruit juice, it's boring to just have milk."

She's content with the juicer for now.

What really happens at dinner time

Well, if you try and feed the baby she'll bite your hand off.
If you leave Enzo to feed himself he won't eat.

Fine, in all fairness if Enzo is thrilled about dinner he'll quickly eat it on his own. 90% of the time he's not thrilled. That's the problem. So Christian, because I seriously refuse to, is ever so patient and spoon feeds him bite, by bite, by bite.

Christian's Spring Quarter started on Monday, we have 10 weeks ahead of us where Christian will be gone during dinner time. I think Enzo is going to starve himself.

Recently I had the opportunity (and I don't use the word lightly in this situation) to tell Dr. Michele Borba my situation and ask for her advice. The lady who's on national T.V and has written over 20 parenting books gave me a couple minutes of her time to answer my questions. I was sure she was going to tell me to be firm, to make Enzo feed himself. He's 5 for goodness sakes.



But mostly as you can see in the interview, she just told me to relax.
Relaxing is good.

p.s. If you want to hear more dinner time challenges and share your own stories visit Ragu's Facebook page Mom's the Word on Dinner. If you want more of Dr. Borba's advice follow her on twitter, she's a twitter queen.

lies our parents told us.

I was thinking about how my mom used to tell me that the crust of the bread was where all the vitamins were and that I had to eat it if I wanted to grow big and strong. I believed this up until I was in college. Then one day I thought about it for more than 2 seconds and was all like "whaaaaat?!"

Your turn.

Did your parents ever lie to you to get you to eat or not eat something?

ps. Today is the last day to vote for the November cook off.

ps segundo. Minus ten points for you if you complained this week about how warm it was. Now it's cold and rainy with no sunshine in the foreseeable future. 

spiced apple cider funnel cake with doce de leite and and why baby Maria is so obviously a second child

Second child eats funnel cakes, first child does not. O.K let me rephrase that. Second child eats funnel cakes and she's 13 months old, first child ate a funnel cake for the first time last summer when he was 3 and I remember being so upset I cried.

Does this mean that the third child will drink a big Mac smoothie in a bottle, so s/he can suck at it all night in it's crib? No this is not an announcement it's just me expressing a legit concern. 

Every time I tell someone  "I have an announcement" they immediately think I'm pregnant. Last week I tested my theory in my class and all the students looked right to my stomach area. My outspoken Freddi said, "Hey Prof. are you pregnant?" Case in point. "No,  it's just that your midterm has been extended"

This month I'm finishing up an article for a major woman's magazine. From what I hear my article will be sandwiched between a pic of J-lo and some other super hot woman. I'll be there right smack in the middle looking all...mama like....because Enzo will be there with me. The article I wrote is about parenting. It always is, it probably always will be until they're big and grown and start having their own babies. I'm assuming they'll want to have babies. I hope by the time they're adults I'll be able to convince them that there is no greater joy, frustration, anxiety, life-changing... joy, joy, joy. This is why I always talk about my kids. This is why I always write about my kids.

I have 2 blogs. This here Kitchen Corners and that over there Bebeloo. Kitchen Corners is food. Bebeloo is parenting/soul searching/life changing experiences. Are you tempted to go and read? Here is the deal, for a while I've been thinking about combining the two. It would somewhat simplify my life and from all the advice I've been given it seems like it would be a good move.

Would you mind if I had a post in here about why I'm boycotting Amazon? Would you mind if one day I did a kitchen product review and the next I tell you about my thoughts when I found out my friend's baby died of pertussis? Is that weird to mix things up? Is it weird to acknowledge that my life is not neatly organized into compartments and that while I'm making funnel cakes I'm also thinking about cleaning my house?

While I'm making funnel cakes I'm looking at Enzo and smiling because he can speak two languages. I'm looking at baby Maria and smiling because I am NOT pregnant which means I can enjoy and somewhat manage her babyhood a little bit longer.

I hope it's not to weird. Maybe it would be a no brainier if organization was my forte. If I was a private person. If instead of using Enzo and baby Maria's name on this blog like I use when the computer is turned off, I called them Thing 1 and Thing 2. If instead of calling Christian, love-of-my-life-hot-surfer Christian I called him DH, then maybe I could compartmentalize my life much easier. But it's not my style. My style is open and fluid. It's having you come over asking for quarters to finish drying your laundry and I giving you funnel cake to take for the road, while telling you all about Baby Maria's latest blow out and how I secretly throw clothes that are stained away because I don't want to deal with rubbing it off. And isn't that rediculously priviledged of me? And how can I call myself an environmentalist. Can I tell you all about my anxieties while handing you over a quarter? In your head you'd screaming "just give me a quarter woman!"

For the next week I'll experiment giving you a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I promise to keep poop talks to a minimum and if you're ever screaming at the computer screen "just give me a recipe woman" please let me know. It's the feedback that allows my writing to improve.

I appreciated my readers. 

The ones here and the ones there. 

I hope that you two can mingle and become friends. 

Lets break the ice with some funnel cake shall we?

Spiced Apple Cider Funnel Cake with Doce de Leite

(printable version)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/3 cup spiced apple cider
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl.
2. Add the egg, sugar, apple sauce, apple cider, yogurt, and oil and mix on medium speed for a couple minutes, scrapping the sides of the bowl until well incorporated.
3. Add the batter to a piping bag.
4. When your frying oil is hot (test by putting a match inside the pan with oil when the oil is still cold, then when the match flames up your oil is hot. Scary? A little. Will it burn your house down? No.) start piping the the batter in the hot oil. Fry of 30 seconds on each side. 
5. Add a dallop of doce de leite on top while it's still hot. In Portuguese we call it doce de leite in Spanish it's dulce de leche. Same thing. Amazingly now you can find it ready in most super markets.

Don't let the picture of my messy house/funnel cake on cookie sheet be deceiving. These babies are fried not baked. I was inspired to make these apple cider donuts from Kirbie's Craving. So I did. Except that I failed to read the entire recipe and didn't realize that you need a donut pan. The batter is runny so you gotta put it in a pipping bag or you need a donut pan. Donut pan?! What next! Anyway, I like my piping bag plenty and funnel cakes aren't necessarily the worst substitute for donuts. If you don't have a donut pan and you don't have a piping bag don't fret. You can make a piping bag or you can do the - put it in the gallon sized zip-lock method and then cut one of the tips off and use it as a piping bag.

You should totally make these
and feed it to your infant.
What, does that make you uncomfrtable?
I don't blame you.
Just eat it yourself.
Enjoy your treats before the inevitable baby attacking starts.

Why I'm not linking cookbooks to Amazon ever again

I made a personal decision long ago that if anyone molested my children I would kill them. It's un-Mormon of me, it's illegal, it's twisted. But I would kill them.

When I read about Amazon putting the e-book "A Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure" on sale  I felt sick and upset and then sick again. First of all Amazon has censored items in the past and the press release about keeping this book on sale because they're protecting Freedom of Speech is BS! Here is the thing, I don't believe that you have the right to say whatever you want. I don't believe that a book like this being sold is protecting freedom of speech. I don't. I've been reading News Paper articles about this controversy, I've been on blogs, and on twitter. Oh twitter, your power baffles me.

Bloggers, bless their hearts, went up in arms calling for a boycott against Amazon on Wednesday when techcruch posted about this book on their blog. One report stated that over 30,000 mommy bloggers contacted Amazon or blogged/twittered/FB calling for an Amazon boycott in less than 24 hours. Today the book is no longer on sale.

Lots of thoughts.
First,  I think it's phenomenal how mommy blogging is powerful.
Second, I think Amazon is stupid and clearly irresponsible. With only 2 weeks left  before the biggest shopping day of the year they clearly did not think this through. If you have 30,000 mommy bloggers calling for an Amazon boycott right before the Holidays then their sales will suffer. Most of the items I purchase, not food related (except for cook books) are off Amazon. I buy a lot of things from Amazon. As I'm sure many of you do as well. Now, I will move my purchasing powers elsewhere, thank you very much. I understand that Amazon sells billions of things. It sells books on how to build bombs. It sells video games that simulates rape. It sells very distasteful items. However, selling a book that has this description.

This is my attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them, by establishing certian rules for these adults to follow. I hope to achieve this by appealing to the better nature of pedosexuals, with hope that their doing so will result in less hatred and perhaps liter sentences should they ever be caught.

is simply above my tolerance level.
 Here is why; first I know the affects and repercussions being molested has on an individual. It may not define you but it does scar you. Second, pedophiles are extremely threatening for many reasons. First, sex has to be consensual always. Children can not consent. Second, My life is dedicated to my children. Infinite hours are spend so that they are safe, healthy, and happy. When someone decides that their sexual pleasure is more important than the safety, health, and happiness of a child then we have a problem. When we travled to Bahia this year we saw so many campaigns fighting against child prostitution, trying so very hard to keep those who are disenfranchised safe from sex tourism.  Then I come here and the same place where I buy Enzo's lego set for Christmas sells a book that has step-by-step instruction on how to lure children into having sex with adults makes me sick. I am thrilled that mommy bloggers spoke up. I'm thrilled that our purchasing power is strong and that it gains such a strong voice and that voice is being heard. I am saddend that the reason we have a voice is because we are consumers. I'm saddened that Amazon only pulled the book off their shelves because we threatened to do our Christmas shopping somewhere else and not because this book is so obviously morally and ethically wrong. I think that the book should have been pulled out immediately before mommy bloggers even said anything.  I'm not stupid. I am aware that pedophiles will exist with or without this book. I know. But that is besides the point.


The point is that as a society we have decided that children have rights. They need to be safe. It's frustrating that we point fingers at developing countries "look at child labor, look at child prostitution, look how many kids don't go to school." I agree with you, it's horrible and we need to change all of that. But to say that it's o.k to sell a guidebook for pedophiles because we have the right to say what we want and the right to buy what we want, in my mind is worse. 


I want my Enzo safe. When I was his age I was molested by a neighbor. It 's one of my earliest memories. I want Enzo's 4 year old memories to be filled to the brim, over flowing, taken for granted even, of happy moments. Innocent moments. Always!  

Do you control the Halloween candy?

Last year Enzo was 3 and we let him have 3 pieces of Halloween candy. He was stoked. This year he's 4 and I told him he could have 4 pieces of Halloween candy but he just laughed and said "no way, I'm eating a million pieces of candy." We'll see how that goes. I've asked two mommy food bloggers, Michelle from What's Cooking? and Gudrun from Kitchen Gadget Girl the same question and here was their reply.

With the chaos of Halloween nearly upon us, it's time for us to take a look at how we plan to handle the candy craze.  In the past, our kids would sift through their haul, picking out 20 of their favorites to keep.  We would take away the rest and give the kids a book of their choice as a replacement.  It was a win-win - they could still eat some of their favorite treats, but would not over indulge.  But this year, I think I'll need to modify our approach a little bit.  I am becoming increasingly concerned with how our son's behavior is affected by high fructose corn syrup and artificial colors.  So, he may still get to keep a few pieces, but they will most likely have to be parent approved. OR I'll simply replace his loot with some candy that is made from real ingredients instead.  But we are still excited about the book alternative. You've never heard of a child getting a rotten brain from reading too much!

For Halloween, we love trick-o-treating with the kids throughout the neighborhood. Generally, we get a large group of friends together and start out by meeting at our house for a glass of wine to fortify us on the journey. We have our route planned through the neighborhood, stopping at the house with the buzzing doormat, as well as the friends having a Halloween party out front, complete with appropriate cocktails. Our kids have a ton of stamina and will trick-o-treat long past the time others are in bed. Once we get home, candy is sorted and compared, then we allow them to keep about 15 pieces of candy. The rest of the candy is purchased from them for $.10 a piece. They make out like bandits!

So now my question to you

If you are a parent what is the Halloween candy policy in your home?

If you're not a parent what was the candy policy in your home growing up?

I love hearing your good ideas.

potlucks are a good way to introduce new foods to kids {plus a podcast about raising foodies}

We've been doing potlucks on Wednesday nights. Conveniently everyone lives within walking distance of each other. Conveniently we all have kids around the same age. It's pretty fun and I think we'll do it every week until it gets too wet and cold to play outside.

Last week we made grilled pizzas and this week we had soup and chile, and corn bread, and hot chocolate, and salad, and more salad and alfajores. Havanna Alfajores! Our Argentinean neighbor, Matias, is priceless.

Actually, all our neighbors are priceless and we're so lucky to be surrounded by good friends, friends with various talents. Eileen, for example makes the best salad. April only uses the best ingredients and her food tastes so fresh. Jennie made a killer chili that Enzo loved. Enzo doesn't love chili. This is why pot lucks are fabulous, the amount of food and different foods makes it so that the kids have a variety of things to try from.

and they have so much fun.
So much fun!

I get a couple e-mails a week from parents who are frustrated with their picky eater. I'm frustrated too and this is an ongoing trial and error topic for me. I think potlucks are a great way to introduce food to kids, specially if their friends are there. Enzo saw his friend Juniper take a bite of chili and he decided he wanted a bite. Thank you Juniper.

Today I've been listening to the break out session from the BlogHer '10 conference called Family Foodies: Creating a New Generation of Gourmands. I've embedded the postcast for your convenience.



Here you'll find tips on introducing kids new foods, picky eaters, an entire discussion on organic food and where to buy affordable sustainable foods. Also, good tips for mommy food bloggers.

Yay, for internet and the sharing of information!

Enzo creates his first recipe

My son really wanted to bake cookies using a recipe that he's been telling me about. It's a special recipe that calls for a cup of salt, a cup of flour, water, and lots of chocolate chips. I've been trying to dodge his demands but I finally succumbed and held back the urge to give him directions. I stepped back and watched my son bake all by himself, minus the oven part. He started with 1 cup flour, 1 cup water, and lots of chocolate chips. He then added an egg and oil. "Not good," he observed, and added more flour and a whole lot of baking soda and baking powder. He went for the orange juice instead of milk and then more flour until he felt that the consistency was good enough.

And you know what?

The consistency was good enough. The thing actually baked. I took one bite and had a chunk of baking soda to swallow. However, he had two of his creations and pronounced them, "different." Christian, had 3 and didn't think anything of it. In fact he came home late so he assumed I baked them.

I'm not sure if we'll have any more. I'm guessing no, but Christian won't let me toss them. We kind of hate wasting things around here. This is why it was so hard for me to just let Enzo go at it with the ingredients. But hey, if a 4 year old knows the basics of baking and is completely aware that flour, eggs, oil, water, and baking powder can create something than I am happy.

And truly, I am happy.

Here is a video where he tells me his recipe. The final recipe was a bit different from the one he narrated here, but not to far off. Normally, I only speak to Enzo in Portuguese, he gets super weired out when I speak to him in English and pretty much doesn't know how to respond to me in English. Hence, the back and forth in English and Portuguese. For blogging purposes I figured I wanted to get the recipe in English so you could appreciate his little foodie brain along with me.



ps. Please excuse the baby. She's crazy. She's a crazy baby that has figured out how to open the windows and remove the screen. I know!

why my baby eats butternut squash soup with shrimp {and a recipe}

Butternut squash soup with shrimp is my new favorite soup. I made it two weeks ago when it was a little less than 100 degrees outside. Then we ate it the next day cold because the weather was so hot and the thought of putting anything warm in our mouth just sounded unappetizing.

Luckily the soup tasted really good cold, refreshing even.

This weekend it was more on the chilly side so we had the rest of the soup warmed up with fresh biscuits. I had saved some for my friends who were coming from out of town.

The soup was a success. Everyone loved it minus my Enzo.

Butternut squash and I developed a tight relationship 4 yeas ago when Enzo started eating solids. Our daily ritual consisted of

Freezer corn and a popcorn story

Last week I blushed and blushed and blushed. Dana from the wonderful blog Made had me on as a guest blogger. I shared a popcorn story you might enjoy.

Then she went right ahead and shared some practical tips on how to make your own freezer corn.
She is pure brilliance.

Bento adventure #2

Yesterday Enzo and I had a park date and I knew that we would end up strategically staying there till his nap time in the hopes that he would fall asleep in the car on the way home. I thought I had to take lunch but found out that I actually didn't because the city brings free lunches to the parks EVERYDAY in the summer. I'll leave that for a future post about why I want to live here forever but will never be able to afford it.

I got a cute Bento box from my friend who went to Japan earlier this summer to visit my sis-in-law who makes very cute Bentos herself.I made my first Bento a while back and wasn't set on doing it again. It seemed like a lot of time and energy trying to make food look like Japanese stationary. (btw that is not my Bento on the picture below in case you had any doubts of my poor bento making skills)
I then met Biggie from Lunch in a Box and am now fascinated once again about bentos. NOT time consuming bentos, that is. She even had a great post about using Brazilian food for bentos. Which I will have to try sometime next week when I have a bit more time to make salgadinhos (appetizers).


Yesterday's bento was simple. No cutting out fruit leather into heart shapes like last time! This time I just made rice and used the rice molds that I already had . I make chicken with pineapple and used my new little animal skewers to keep it together. I also had carrots, banana, and orange on the top part of the bento. Enzo was totally into the rice and eating the chicken and pineapple from the skewers. Not so into the carrots and fruit. Maybe if I had skewers for that too he would like it. Next time I'm in San Francisco I need to go get some more skewers and maybe some other bento gadgets in case I decide to make him bentos when he's off to preschool in the fall.

Mom-I-am! How to get the stinker to eat?!

If Sam-I-am is a parent then he's pretty amazing! I realized this weekend after reading "Green Eggs and Ham" for the 127th time to my son that Sam-I-am is the bomb/my new hero. Here I am slaving away in the kitchen making healthy things for him to eat (nothing as cool as green eggs and ham, of course) and he just doesn't want to eat them. Not here or there or anywhere. You've read the book, you know how Sam offers the dish to the sticker on a train, on a boat, in a house, with a mouse. Sam is persistent and most importantly totally good attitude. He knows that if the stinker just tried the dang thing he'd like it. I've been bending over backwards trying to get my own little stinker to eat and I am NOT as good attitude as Sam. If I'm successful it's only because

A) I bribe him
B) I convince him that ____ (fill in with current obsession, i.e. Thomas the Train, Elmo, dinosaurs) eats his food and that if Enzo ever wants to be a dinosaur then he too must eat his mashed potatoes and fish.
C) I make it a competition. This is my least favorite because I am not a competitive person but it totally works. I put food on a plate that is decorated with animals and I tell him that if he doesn't eat his food fast the animals on his plate will eat it first. He's all about competing with the two dimensional animal drawings. In the mind of a two year old this makes perfect sense, of course.

I know this is bad parenting. I never said I was a good parent but I do love my child and I want him to eat something other than rice cakes. If I don't get new ideas fast I'm totally going to turn into the evil version of Sam-I-Am. Instead of offering to feed him with a fox, I'm going to feed him TO a fox.

Any thoughts on how to get my 2 year old stinker to finally say...

I do so like
________ and ______!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Mom-I-am!