Picky Eaters

Picky eating is something that runs in our family.  I was a terrible picky eater.   By the time I reached college, I found some courage and started trying new foods.   But at 38 years of age, I still have a list of foods I really do not want to eat.   Of course, if I had to I could be polite and eat these things.   I would just never choose to eat mushrooms, olives, Alfredo sauce, and a few other things.   They just don't taste good to me.   On the flip side there are many things I love to eat.  Sushi, I could eat it every day and be very very happy.  Almost all types of seafood, prepared just about anyway makes me very happy.   Indian food, Thai food, Vietnamese food, all make me sing happy, happy, joy, joy!    And much more.

I have two beautiful girls and I'm here to tell you, they are both very picky eaters.   When Maddy was a baby, it became apparent that she was definitely choosey on what she would eat.  I blamed myself for not teaching her to eat right, or introducing enough foods, etc.   All the while I was pregnant with Makena, I vowed to do things differently and surely Makena would be a great eater.   Maybe she'd even be such a good eater it would rub off on Madelyn!!    Well, I was humbled yet again in my parenting journey.

Makena is an extremely picky eater.  And not for lack of me trying.  I realized with kid #2, that its not all about what I do or don't do.   Some of this is just who they are.   And Makena is very much afraid of food.  She absolutely will not try new things.   I still put out many new items, over and over, and over.   And most of the time its thrown off her plate.  Yes, thrown...that is a whole seperate blog post.  Madelyn, at 3 1/2 years of age will break out into sobs when I put new foods on her plate  Its plain offensive to even have it on her plate.  But we still try.   Once in a rare while we have a success with a new food, only to be met with screams and crying when we try and serve the new food again.   How fun for us.

Here is where the soap box comes in.   I am very tired of the judging that goes on between parents.  I believe most of us are guilty of it.   I try to remind myself to each his own.   I recently had an experience where another parent was surprised, maybe even shocked, that I wasn't feeding my children what was on my plate.  We had Orange Ginger Tofu Stir-Fry last night.  If your child would eat this, well you definitely get the parental gold-star of the day.   My children would break out into screams if I attempted to feed this to them. That is just not how it goes in this house.    And fantastic for you, if your children will eat whatever you cook.   Maybe this makes me a bad, horrible parent, who's has done an awful job raising them.  Or maybe, just maybe this makes us pretty damn normal.   Someday they will eat things like spaghetti or PB&Js or maybe even Thai food.  But for now, they don't.  And we'll get there.....some how, some day, in our own way.   And hopefully without a lot of needless judging.

Leaving my soap box for now.

Random

“Play is the work of children,” Captain Kangaroo (aka Bob Keeshan) once said. “It’s very serious stuff.”

Maddy Says...

"When I grow up I want to be a Daddy so I can stand up and pee like you Daddy."
"Know we talked about in Preschool today?  We talked about Naked Mole Rats."
"Mommy, why don't you go talk to someone else."
"Pirates don't go potty" (She was playing dress-up in a Pirate outfit)  Her friend Molly came back with "Princesses go potty".   

And Makena isn't saying much yet.  She has lots of babbling, gesturing, whining and definitely gets her point across.  But words are not being said yet.  I'm sure one day soon she'll explode and then will have two little ones jabbering non-stop, and a mom who already feels silence is like gold.  You can never have too much.

Playing a little catch up in this post.   I got a chance to visit Madelyn's preschool on Valentines Day.   Makena came with me and did her best to interrupt their story time and make a nuisance of herself. 

Mostly, over the last few weeks, we did a lot of this.....

And this.....

When Madelyn is sacked out on the couch, with pillow and blanket....you know your in the trenches with the sickies.   We had a bad croupy cough the last few weeks.  It started with Madelyn and was tough for her, so I knew it wouldn't be anymore fun with Makena.   I am glad to be done with that, back to healthy kids, and getting some good nights sleep again.  

All Fools Day Parade

We've taken a little break from our blog.  Sometimes you just don't have much to blog about.   I'll do a catch up post later on our boring lives of the last month.  Mostly, just sick.   Mom sick, Makena sick, Maddy sick, Makena sick.  You get the idea, not real exciting stuff. 

 

And today that changed.  I took the girls to the annual All Fools Day Parade in Woodinville. Michael was off sailing, so it was up to me to wrangle two little ones.  Two girls,  mutliple sippies and snacks, one large wagon, two small kid chairs, and additional supplies for the event. We had some initial tears and whining, but once we met up with our friends, everyone seemed to get happy.

 

The parade is an adorable event, with the main feature being a brigade of basset hounds all dressed up in various costumes of sorts.   Its a rather small parade, but just perfect for little kids.   Makena surprised me on how accepting she was of it, happy to watch the parade and eat snacks.   I was impressed as I really thought she wouldn't last long.    We saw many friends in the parade and around town.  The looming threat of rain held off till the end of the parade, so we lucked out with weather. 

One of the last things we saw was Ronald McDonald bringing up the end of the parade on a Segaway.   Maddy screamed out "Hey, its Old MacDonald...its Old MacDonald!"     She thinks McDonalds is called Old Macdonalds Farm.   Hah!  So, I guess this must be Old MacDonald himself, in person, on a Segaway.    

What most nights at Dinner is like with Makena....

Sled Dogs

On rare occasion, Mom and Dad do get out for adventures sans kids.    Michael surprised me with a Dog Sled Ride for my birthday.  He roped my good friend Kathryn to come along and have some fun with me.   This is a bit ironic, because I wouldn't exactly call Kathryn a dog person.  Its not that she does not like them, more that she is just fine without them.  And the really hairy, fluffy, and stinkier they are......well, yeah she isn't so much into that.  

We met up with Tim from THZ Kennels for an hour long ride.   Hard not to smile and giggle at 12 huge, adorable, happy, fluffy tailed Malamutes.   Walking up to his truck with all the dogs tied up is just a bit intimidating.   They start to bark and howl and carry on.   Tim yells and they all pipe down.  All of them were very friendly and couldn't get enough pets.  

I asked if they all really get going when one starts to howl.  His response was they all like to have a good howl session after dinner each night.  I tried to imagine his house/property and 12 large dogs howling to their hearts delight.  Needless to say, I asked about his neighbors.  Well I guess the neighbors have dogs too, so no hard feelings.   But local campers have been reported to ask Park Rangers if Coyotes or Wolves in the area.    So if your out camping in the Lake Wenatchee area and hear what you think might be a bunch of coyotes howling....it just might be an easy going, happy bunch of Malamutes celebrating their nightly howl!

We loaded up in the sled and headed out for a nice ride.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and we really lucked out with the weather.   One thing became apparent immediately, that we really hadn't thought about at all before the trip.    And that is, how much 12 big dogs can poop and pee on a 1.5 hour dog sled ride.   And well, the sled being behind the dogs, we got a birds eye view of it all.   12 big doggy butts happily running along and if one dog has to pee, they all have to pee.    After awhile you just can't but help giggle and make crude jokes, the fourth grader comes out in all of us.   

Tim brings along another dog, Comet on each trip.   Comet is their house dog.  She is is part Border Collie and part Labrador.  She easily has the best job in the whole gang.   She is not part of the team, therefore just runs along and has the most fun any dog could have out in the snow.   I think this easily might have been the happiest dog I'd ever met.

It was a fantastic trip, on a peaceful afternoon in the snow.   Loved hearing from Tim and all his experience with dogs and his many stories.

The Clown

Makena is turning into a little clown.  Given an odd hat or a pair of shoes that are not her's, she will happily toss them on and either walk around the room or parade around with her hat like it was a prize.  Boxes also seem to be her thing, the smaller the better, not sure why she loves to squeeze herself into them but it sure puts a smile on our faces.

X-mas picture

I love all the test shots perhaps more than the final product.  People have their head cut off, eyes closed or in one of these Makena made a run for it.  It only took 12 pictures this year to get one great one.  Thank goodness for digital cameras.

X-mas

 Christmas went over big in the Potter household this year.  Maddy woke up at 10:00pm on x-mas eve and said that she "heard something on the roof!".  Our first present was that both of them slept in until 8:00am on Christmas Day morning, what a treat.  They eyes lit up when they spied the pile of presents under the tree.

Maddy is checking out the Santa cookies, milk and carrots that she left for Santa.

 Makena loves to play with cars, so she got a pack of wind-up cars.

 Stocking suffers!

 Happy girls

 Mom, Dad, Andy, Mellisa, Jesse & Lily came over for dinner and more presents.  Maddy loves to take pictures, she used the remote to take this shot.

Santa pictures take two

In the beginning we had this....

Mom found a rare opportunity in the Holiday Season. I took the kids for storytime at a shopping center nearby. Maddy happily sat listening to stories and Makena managed to entertain herself.  I  looked around to see they were doing Santa photos and no line!  We tried to get Santa Photos last weekend and what looked like a rather short line was estimated at 1.5 - 2 hours.  No way, would our girls wait that long.  I thought Santa Photos might be a bust this year.   

But....this was my chance. I jumped at the chance and we spur of the moment, went and got Santa pics.   But as we got closer the girls started to realize what was happening. I plopped Makena down on his lap..and we have picture below. Maddy literally shook her head and started to cry.    With a bit of luck from a fantastic photographer,  patient and wonderful Santa, and the magic candy cane....we got the photo below. Its a amazing we got both girls smiling. If you look close, you'll see Maddy holding the candy cane and Makena holding a cookie. Go figure, sugar helps every time.  

A huge thank you to our friends, Kari and Melissa who were with us, for helping us out and making it all happen.   This was definitely a day this mom was grateful for her other mom-friends to lend a hand.

And by the end we got some smiles!

First Haircut

 First haircut for Makena was last weekend, check out the chairs, 57 Chevy, Blue Angels jet.  Wow I'm jealous, I never had anything like that when I was a kid.  All we got was a board across a full-sized chair.  She was not terrible happy about the whole process, but a Disney Santa movie sealed the deal for us.

Preschool Pictures

Maddy is enjoying her time in preschool.  It's a toss up as to who gets the most benefit, Mom for a few hours of downtime or Maddy.  She plays 'Monster' on the playground, apparently she growls at the other kids and chases them all around, good times.  She gets to stay for lunch on Fridays as well.

Remember Curley?

The girls and I went over to Swansons Nursery today.    We did this last year, see here for a refresher.    They have a couple Reindeer over there, as well as Curley the Camel and Moe, the Miniature Donkey.     We met our friends Melissa, Molly and little brother Tate.    

The girls had so much fun checking out the animals, playing, and much giggling.  Again, this year I was amazed on how big Curley is....and then he started growling or grunting or something.  Ughh, when something that big growls at you...well, it was time to move on.  

 

We also had lunch in their cafe which proved quite hectic with 4 kids ages 2.5 months to 3.5 years. Tate sleeping, Molly giggling, Maddy talking very loudly, and Makena throwing food. Good times!  I should have snapped a picture of the spilled milk, endless food everywhere, and the basic carnage left behind as we left.  Instead, I just left a nice tip for the poor waitress.

On the way home,  I looked back and the girls were giggling softly and being so sweet.  Its rare.  I snapped a picture to prove it.  Can you blame me?

Oh Christmas Tree

Today was tree day.  The annual trip to a Christmas Tree Farm to chop down our town tree.   Michael have made this an annual tradition since before the kids were born.   I never did it as a kid, it was always the local tree lot.  But its kind of a fun thing to do.   The last few years we've headed out to Carnation Tree Farm.   Cute place, good trees, not too spendy, some treats, and far enough away to feel like we've taken a little drive out to the country. 

 Maddy went from tree to tree, screaming "This one, This one.  I like this one!".  

 And we found one....finally!   We managed to lose track of how far we walked, but certainly felt it trying to get the tree and two kids back to the car, with all gear and stuff intact. 

 Poor Makena lost a boot somewhere on the farm, which became an issue when she wanted to get down and walk around.  Luckily, some wonderful woman found it and saved the day.  Or at least made saved a pair of boots! 

Tomorrow's agenda.  Decorating the tree. 

Santa Train

We kicked off the Christmas Season today by heading up to North Bend for the Santa Train.    The Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie runs a Santa Train every year.   We bought tickets a few weeks ago as it fills up fast. 

We boarded the old train and stepped back in time.   The girls were pretty excited and waiting was not easy.   Its a quick little jaunt from North Bend to Snoqualmie.  You depart the train and find your way to freshe baked cookies in an adjoining train with hot cocoa, of course!  And then you find the rather lengthy line for Santa..and begin your wait.

 Makena sat in the seat for about 2 minutes, and then we walked up and down the cars until the train got underway.   Had a few crying fits about having to stay in our seats..and eventually settled down.   Trying to entertain an 18 month old with lots of waiting is not easy, to say the least.  I forget how much she wants to move, run, walk, explore..and many places are just not set up for this.

Finally ....Santa.  Madelyn was not sure about Santa or sitting in his lap.  But Santa has a way, and convinced her to come on up.    She wouldn't say a word but shook her head, yes or no, for all his questions.   After,  Santa's elves handed out cute wooden toy trains to the girls.  Makena quickly decided this was not for her, and promptly walked over and dropped it back in the basket!!    Santa's elf and I laughed pretty hard over this.

And finally on our way home.   Family photo for proof of our family fun, which was somewhat fun, a lot of stress, definitely cold, but worth the visit.   And maybe we'll go back...in a couple more years. 

Frosty

What could be more fun than waking up on Turkey day to more snow, watching Frosty the snowman and then running outside to make the real thing?