January 30, 2008

Deceptive Cooking

Have you heard of the books Deceptively Delicious and Sneaky Chef?? I have both and they are very similar. Both are based on the concept of sneaking veges into your kids foods through the use of vegetable purees. At first I was a little against this concept because I want my kids to eat veges and know it. But then I read that just because you are learning to sneak more veges in doesn't mean you stop offering visible veges at lunch and dinner. Now I am completely on board. I was reading Deceptively Delicious last night while sitting in bed (with pink eye!!!) and it's great! I love the little tips that are peppered throughout the book. I bought all the stuff to do my purees. That's how it works. You make vege (and fruit) purees and then add them to the recipes in the book (or your own) as long as the colors seem to match or the vege won't show. That way the kids won't know! Pretty cool............stay tuned as to how they react (hopefully no reaction).

Current Charlotte-isms

(Excerpt from Charlotte's Journal)

Current phrases & sayings:

“I want somebody to ______” The request might be one of a hundred things like “get me a snack” or “come cuddle with me” or “find my Cinderella. ” And who is the “somebody” you ask? We aren’t 100% sure but I can tell you the person she’s directing this order to will do just fine. Why she doesn’t just ask the person in front of her directly we’ll never know. Or she might just say “I want som-ping” (something). This usually means food but not always. And then you might make the fatal error of asking “What som-ping do you want?” This is usually met with ferocious scorn where she will give you a HUGE stink eye and then just reiterate but about 10x louder “I WANT SOMPING!!!!!!!”

So it will go something like this:

C: “I want somebody to come cuddle with me.” Or “I want somebody to get me a snack” or our favorite “I want som-ping”
A: “Who somebody?” Or “What som-ping do you want?”
C: SOMEBODY!!!!!!!!!! Or “I just want SOMPING!”
A: You mean me? Or “How about _____? (suggested food)
C: Ya
A: (sigh) okay (wondering WHY she is not more specific)

Another cute one “Somebody needs to buy me boy toys!” She said this because for the past 3 or 4 mornings she had been waking early and John sets her up playing with Luke’s cars before he leaves. When Luke and I wake up we find her happily playing and of course Luke can’t have any of that so takes away the toys. She exasperatedly said the after one of those episodes.


Other cute things she says….she will randomly blurt out a question or a scene from a movie she saw recently - I mean random and with no warning. Just now Charlotte said “Her father blew away” I guessed (and was miraculously right) that it was the prince’s father who was blowing away in Cinderella III. When I said my guess she said “Yah and the father is four.” LOL Because I said “Cinderella III” she figured since the father was older he was four! LOVE those cute kid mix ups and would never dream of correcting them. LOL

Or recently she has said A LOT “Why does the mother die?” I guessed this one to mean ‘why does the mother die in Bambi.’ Apparently that guess was right too. I’m the bomb.

January 12, 2008

Current everyone

What can I say. The time just got away from me. But now that I am back on track, more organized, and have more energy, I see good things for my blogging self again.

Luke update: He is now 41/2 and in preschool. He is reading simple sentences (most consisting of 3 letter words) and is very proud of that. He just acquired a new Black Spiderman costume and is OBSESSED. Goes to bed at a decent hour, about 8pm and wakes about 6:30 (much to my chagrin). He would eat hotdogs all day if I let him (don't forget the bun and a straight line of yellow mustard) and anything sugar floats his boat. Here is a recent conversation I had with him:

December 2, 2007

Allie: “Luke, I don’t want you to take the advent calendar out of the kitchen”
Luke: “But mooooom! I want to cuddle with it!”
Allie: (laughing my butt off) “Luke, you can’t cuddle with it, I am sorry. I know you are just going to try and sneak another chocolate.”

Luke: (Leaves kitchen looking dejected and has head hanging)


Charlotte update:

Well Charlotte is quite the talker, my goodness! That girl not only talks A LOT but has a great vocab. People who haven't seen her in a while gasp when they hear the things she says and the length with which she will entertain you. Her favorite game right now is to pull out her doll crib (thank you Grammy) and her washcloths and tiny dolls (thank you Nana) and play and play and play and play. Nana saw how much she loved using washcloths as blankets for her tiny dolls and got her several ones of her own in girly colors, it's such a treat for her. I swear she never tires of playing with those toys. She is a girl through and through. She graduated to the 3 and 4 year old class last week at school. Very exciting! She is really proud of herself and double checks with me each school morning to make sure she's going to her new classroom. Her and Luke are together now in the same room, it's very cute.

Allie update:

Gosh, I am just loving life right now, every aspect. I recently finished reading Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, and by god it's the best book I have ever read to date, one that has had the biggest impact on my life so far. I can't wait to read the sequel. We are still reeling from an incredible Christmas. Thank so so much to all our family who gave so generously, it was amazing. I hope to donate more money to Charity next year to battle the slight guilt I feel in how blessed we are! Jeez!

John update:

John is doing so well! He too is reading a version of Dianetics, one called the Original Theseus. I can't tell you what fun it is when he comes home at night from our church and we talk all about Dianetics. Not only have we both gain a greater understanding of people and mankind it has helped our marriage because we have more to talk about and more in common. John seems to have a renewed zest for life and our business and is working in ways I have never seen him work before. He seems to have conquered the daily routines and is now working fervently on expansion of our business. Wow what a change.

Well, that's it for now. More to come on a more regular basis (I hope!)