Alphabet inspired lunches Week C

This week was brought to you by the letter C.



Week C Lunch 1: C= Cupcake

Breakfast for lunch day! I took advantage of left over pancakes from my free birthday breakfasts over the weekend and used them to put together a quick breakfast for lunch with our C theme.

Using a cupcake cookie cutter I cut two large cupcakes from the left over pancakes (also great with a "pan" pancake that is baked in the oven). I then added butter to the top of the cupcake where the frosting would go just thick enough to look like frosting but if you spread it out its just enough for the entire pancake to be buttery when warm. I then added candy sprinkles and rather than a cherry on top these cupcakes have a veggie/fruit drop on top of each.  I sliced an orange and then cut the slices in half alternating how they went into the container and trimmed a banana to fit. Bananas never go to waste at our house if they are getting too ripe t we freeze them for smoothies and "banana ice cream" and I did the same thing with the trimmed parts of the large banana.

He also had a cupcake snack bowl for the day. I put out a snack for him each day and it varies from fruit, cheerios, mommy mix, pretzels, popcorn, it's usually something that needs to be eaten that will stay fresh enough all day. He knows where it is and when he gets hungry in between meals he can get himself something to eat. If it runs out and he is still hungry the bowl mysteriously ends up on the kitchen counter and mommy get's summoned to the kitchen to help unless I left the package on the counter then as I'm working I usually hear the kitchen chair being moved so he can reach it.




We did skip a inspired lunch this week Little S and M took me out for lunch on Tuesday to celebrate my birthday after having arranged for time off for me with my boss.


Week C Lunch 2: C= Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

As I have mentioned this is one of our favorite books so I used it to inspire little S's lunch today. In the large container I used shredded cheese for a beach, super thin pretzels for the tree trunk and cut coconut fronds from a quesadilla. I used a 6 inch tortilla along with taco flavoring and the same cheese that made up the beach and made the quesadilla. I then took 1 drop of green food coloring and two drops of water and applied it to the cooked  quesadlila with a wet napkin to make our coconut tree.

For A told B - I diced apples and bananas and for when B tells C I added mommy mix - cheerios, chocolate chips and coconut to help stick to our theme.

If you have never read the book it's a alphabet book that centers around the letters racing up the coconut tree and then crashing down. The first lines of which are.. "A told B and B told C. I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree. "



Week C Lunch 3: C= Cat and carrot

Today little S has an open faced salami sandwich (salami is under the bread) that was cut into a cat shape using a cookie cutter and given sugar eyes. The cat has a cat food dish of carrots and sun flower seeds for his lunch. I sectioned half an orange and cut the sections into bite size pieces and gave little S a cat fork to eat them with. The top container is Greek yogurt drizzled popcorn that is dusted with blueberry and acai berry powder. He's too little to ask but if he was older I would have gone with that being the litter box.



Week C Lunch 4: C= Cars

Three super fast salami cars are racing down the cheese highway on their way to today's lunch. I sorted through a box of Bitsy's Brain Food Zucchini Gingerbread Carrot smart snacks which are made with organic whole wheat flour, zucchini and carrots (this was not a sponsored lunch but h if they want to send some Little S loved them!) for letters to spell out cars - since we didn't have an A I used a U and a broken piece to make the A in CARS. I added a few baby carrots and diced apple that I covered with the front end of a car (play-dough cutter) and I finished his lunch with more C inspired mommy mix I made earlier in the week and topped it with his magnetic C for the refrigerator.



We have been reading our library books nonstop since we brought them home.

A trip to the library

Sunday we took a trip to the library, little S and I. We spent more than an hour together while he played with the other kids, ran around, and played on the computers. He picked out a few books as soon as we got there and then enjoyed the time. There was this girl who had to be nearly 7 that approached him while he was playing in the toy kitchen and asked if she could play with him. I let her know he would love to play with her and that he is very little and is just learning to talk. She was so sweet with him and as I hovered near by he played with her and in his own way complimented her on her jewelry. She had on a necklace that he stopped and looked at then pointed to she told him what it was a picture of but I didn't overhear and he smiled at her. All that might seem very normal to most moms; to me it's amazing. My son is most of the time an only child and when his half brother and sister are here they are a lot older than him so he doesn't have a lot of time playing with kids near his age or that are strangers. I hovered nearby to ensure he was playing nicely but also gave him some space to play with other kids.  I didn't know if she was going to really play with him or just take over where he was playing, when he went to touch the necklace I got really worried would he pull it, would she scream, would she push him, I didn't know how the parents would react to my son touching their daughter, and I couldn't have been more amazed. The little girl was so sweet and kind to him, she told him about her necklace and didn't freak out that he was touching it, her dad who looked up didn't give it two seconds of thought likely because she was calm, and my son just smiled at her and let the necklace go. He just had a  connection with this stranger who took the time to let him get to know something about her with patience and grace, and it touched my heart. Honestly it still brings tears to my eyes. 

This little wonder that I brought into the world after ten months of putting him together just experienced another human connection and I couldn't have been more thankful for this little girl. He wasn't bullied, teased or pushed aside because he couldn't talk or didn't know how to share very well, she cared for him and was tender and calm and sweet. They played together a few more minutes before he went to explore something new and realized our library has a ton of computers.

We found a computer in a quiet area and i let him bang on their keys for a while, and almost lol stopped him in time from rebooting their system. He even let his OCD out... someone had left two books on the couch near where I sat down so he could play some more in the kitchen area, he grabbed the books and put them away. I don't mean he shoved them wherever. He literally took them to where that book went. He put one book in section 9 and the other book in section 4, three books back from the front. It was like he had memorized where all the books were when we chose the books as soon as we got to the library and put them back where he remembered them being. It was such a him move I laughed. 

We had a great time and he left under protest. I don't want to overload him and I wanted to keep to our schedule for dinner; also leaving while you still want more is a great way to ensure he'll want to come back and do it again. 

We checked out eight books, two that he chose and six that mommy chose with the next  letter of the week in mind. He fell asleep on the five minute drive home so I call that a successful outing. 

Mommy's birthday

January 18th is my birthday and this year because of life and all of it's changes little S and I were alone together for the day. M had to work so we got everyone out of the house for a quick free breakfast meal out.. and went to IHop.  This is hands down the best free birthday deal out there. Not only do you get a free meal up to a 8.99 value but even at 6am they will bring you a sundae and sing to you. This was no ordinary sundae either it was a two scoop sundae with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and a cherry. Little S took some warming up to the idea of ice cream at 6am but once he got started we finished the whole thing. 

It was a quiet day with just he and I playing and avoiding all chores while we were stuck in the house because of snow and cold (again). Any time I can spend with him makes me happy so all in all it was a great day. 

Week B also meant spending a lot of time with our Books.

One of the things I make sure we do is read everyday. Some days we are busy and it may only be one or two books here or there; other days it could be an hour of mommy sitting on the floor reading whatever book you hand her. I also make sure on the days daddy has off he reads at least a few books too. I want reading and books to be a big part of his life because like I've said before if you can read, you'll never be lost, lonely or without adventure and the knowledge you have is the one thing no one else can take from you. I don't just stop at Mommy and Daddy, I rope in the big kids when we  have them also. I have H read her books out loud to me so I can check for understanding, pronunciation and answer any questions she may have. It also acts as a way for her and I to spend time together while I'm working that benefits all of us. A doesn't usually bring a book as he has an aversion to reading like his father that I am trying to avoid in Little S; so I have A read Little S's books to him. I want it to sink in deep inside that everyone he loves reads and that makes it important also it helps build his vocabulary.


These were the most popular books of the week.  I read them so many times this week I have them all memorized and many of these are new ones, obviously not the Easter Bunny book which I can recite in my sleep and we use to play another game. This book in particular I may have mentioned before is one of his favorite books and since I have it memorized he can turn to any page and Mommy reads (tells him) what is on the page. It's super fun to slam the book shut or open it to another page and Mommy stops mid word and changes to the new page or just waits for him to reopen the book to start from the top. One day we must have done this for hours... slam the book Mommy stops reading, open the book and Mommy starts over this was apparently very hilarious. This seems to be the only book he associates with this game, which just means he hasn't yet noticed Mommy has all the other books memorized also. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is one of my grocery store songs/stories if he is starting to lose interest, which seems to tie into a alphabet obsession I am just recognizing in myself.

Alphabet Inspired Week: B

This week we are continuing our Alphabet inspired lunches and I not only tried to incorporate words or shapes that began with B but also foods that began with B throughout the week.



Day 1: B=Butterfly

Main Compartment:  one Peanut butter butterfly sandwich and one sun seed butter butterfly sandwich on a bed of corn chips.
Top Right: a few chocolate covered pretzels, and baby carrots in a mini silicone cup.
Bottom Right: Cantaloupe and Pineapple chunks with a yellow and pink butterfly pick.





Day 2: B= Boy, Balloon and Bat

Main Compartment: two ham boys stuck together cut using a clay cutter. Salami and cheese balloons tied with Parmesan cheese strings pulling the boy off the ground. I also used a single Parmesan string for his belt. Top Right: a few chocolate covered pretzels, and baby carrots in a mini silicone cup because it went well the day before.
Bottom Right: Cantaloupe and Pineapple chunks with a left over Halloween Bat pick.




Day 3: B= Bear, Broccoli and Blue

Main Compartment: One Cheese pizza bear cut with a cookie cutter, and a pepperoni pizza bear cut with the same cookie cutter, and a new bathtub squirting bear toy for use later.
Top Right: Smaller Mango bears - slices of mango were cut using a smaller bear cookie cutter.
Bottom Right: Broccoli Slaw - Cole slaw made with broccoli shreds instead of cabbage, and a silicone cup of blue M&M's.


Because today was bears and blue we also used a new fizzy tub color tablet to make Little S's bath super blue (we used 2 tablets) and gave him the new bathtub bear.

Day 4: B= Bumble Bee, Bread stick, Broccoli, Banana and Blueberry (It's a day of B's)
Everything in his lunch today is a B word.

Main Compartment: two ham Bumble bees cut with a cookie cutter and a Bread stick (Olive garden left over) cut to size.
Top Right:Broccoli Slaw - Cole slaw made with broccoli shreds instead of cabbage with a Bumble Bee pick.
Bottom Right: Sliced banana and blueberry salad - I liked this because it also fit the color scheme of a bumble bee with the contrasting colors.




Day 5 B= Boot, Berries and Blueberries

Main Compartment: Peanut butter sandwich cut into the shape of a cowboy boot using a cookie cutter, and a magnetic letter B for the refrigerator for learning about B for the week.
Top Right: Blueberries (hands down his favorite food) with a Halloween Witch's Boot pick.
Bottom Right: Popcorn coated in Acai Berry, Blueberry and Raspberry powder and drizzled with Greek yogurt.

grocery shopping play

One of the coolest things Little S got for the holiday was a metal shopping cart. His cousins Neil and Nash sent it to him and it's perfect. Because it's metal it is super sturdy and with the red seat and handle it really looks like the carts we use at the store.

I've set up our wall unit before to be a store for Little S but today was the first time he could use his shopping cart to carry more items. We use boxes and bottles from our recycling bin, washed out in the case of the bottles and tapped shut in the case of the boxes, in addition to our pretend play IKEA food. I set up different sections for different types of food - like a produce area and a beverage area and he goes shopping.


It is a lot of fun and it teaches gross motor skills, colors if I ask him to get me a red tomato or a green onion, and it is food recognition. Little S loves to cook with me anytime I am in the kitchen for over a minute he's pushing a chair into the counter corner and climbing up to help. It's a mommy and son thing that we can share and enjoy and teaches so many skills. Right now he stirs things, adds things if I give him little containers of stuff like the do on TV shows when they cook, and tastes things for me. Later I'll have him measure (math and science) and  cut things (building up hand coordination and muscles for writing). If he hasn't been all that excited about eating something in the past the easiest way to get him to eat it is to have him help cook it.


These are some pictures of the wall unit and the shopping cart:

The learning fairy visited and brought us a vocabulary center.

I'm thinking of making the learning fairy a thing like the tooth fairy around our house. The learning fairy will be a nice fairy who brings things to help Little S grow, learn and develop but when he least suspects it. Today the learning fairy brought us a new vocabulary set up.

On the back of the door that leads upstairs she added some clear contact paper; she must know clear contact paper is mommy's best friend. Clear contact paper is a cheap and quick lamination if you do not have a machine, it allows stickers to be peel and stick and there are a million things you can do with it. Once she had covered the back of the door with clear contact paper she cut to fit; she then spelled out Spencer's Words with foam sticky letters. The learning fairy then added eight first word flash cards that included several things he is already familiar with and a few new words.

Across the top row of cards are: Shoe, Dog, Bus, and Cup

Across the bottom row of cards are: Cat, Ball, Sock, and Car.

As soon as little S saw them he ran up and pointed to each of the cards and I said the word. Then he would point over and over again to different ones or the same ones and each time I said the words. I gave M specific instructions to always answer what the word is and to pronounce it clearly (M mumbles). Little S also pointed out his name and said his version of each of the letters (lots of e's and r's) then pointed to the other letters in the word "words" and mommy said each letter for him. He LOVED it. 

We have continued to use it daily.. Sometimes I point to something and say the word.. other times he points and mommy says the words. Sometimes mommy points to the shoe and says go get yours we're out of here. He even matched them himself one day as I had a large stack of the first word flash cards on my desk; he grabbed them and ran to the door and tried to match the cards in the pile he had to the ones on the door. Only.. his wouldn't stay on the door like the magic ones the fairy left us. 

Little S's vocabulary really consists currently of: Yeah, No, Noooooooo, Hey, howya doing?, bye bye, night night, off, mom, momma, and dada (when he's feeling generous). He does really great at understanding a ton of words and follows two or three step directions but his tongue still speaks alien and although we talk all day most of it sounds like "blah, giggle, giggle. gerbel and other various sounds" 

When I say we talk all day I mean it. We had the funniest experience the other day while shopping. We had an entire conversation like we usually do where his answers are completely appropriate. I have made it a game of sorts for myself to be able to have a running dialogue with him that would make sense if you were in the same isle with us. For example Do you think we should get some cream cheese for Daddy? Nooooooo ok no cream cheese for daddy. Do you think he'll notice? yeah. really you think he might notice we didn't get him any cream cheese? hum no. Yeah I didn't think he would notice either. or Do you think we should get ______ <enter item here> for dinner tomorrow? yes or no determines if we get it or not. I let his opinion matter so he recognizes that the word he chooses means something and that he and his choices matter to me. While at the store the other day we came across two older women ( One was in her late 60's and the other looked to be in her 80's and in a wheel chair)  who had heard some of our discussion and commented about his answering. I replied that I was looking forward to when not every answer was a no. They laughed and we all went about our shopping.. We ran into them again 10 isles later and little S and I were still having our conversation and they both we're really happy to see him and waved and smiled (he is a huge flirt and a charmer). After forever at the deli counter we ended up in line behind them at the check out. Oh.. it's you guys, big smiles, did he learn to say something other than no yet? I laughed and pointed at what he was doing (grabbing the toilet paper from our cart and putting it on the conveyor belt with their things) No but he has apparently decided you need this more than we do and everyone laughed. Even if he doesn't say a bunch of words I know he and I while we had a super time made two strangers laugh and smile through their shopping trip also. 

Our First Alphabet Inspired Week of lunches: Week A

I have been singing the alphabet song to my son since the day he was born. I

blame the pain meds the hospital was giving me after the C section but the reality was I didn't prepare any lullaby's because I was convinced I wasn't going to live long enough to meet my miracle. I went to sing my baby boy to sleep and realized I had nothing.. I couldn't remember a lullaby to save my life. Since that first night the kid has heard the Alphabet song, twinkle twinkle, and (aging myself) the Bologna jingle from tv when I was a kid. If you remember that jingle they spelled everything. My bolony has a first name it's O S C A R my bolony has a second name it's M A Y E R.. I love to eat it every day and if you ask me why I'll say.. because Oscar Mayer has a way with B O L O G N A.  It least I came up with something and I can halfway justify it as educational ;). Naturally my child now thinks everything is a letter and not a word.. so he tries to recite the alphabet with me.

Around here a learning opportunity is never very far away.. so I started him on letter weeks hoping that down the road it should be even easier for him to recognize letters like old friends he has had lunch with; well at least that's my theory. 

After sorting though my supplies and thinking about the letter A I did come up with a few ideas. 

Week A Day 1: A= Apple (Starting out easy)

He had for lunch today - two apple shaped jelly open face sandwiches with pretzel's for the stems, the rest of his half sandwich with a stamped apple and pretzel stem also jelly inside. Pretzel pieces with the apple stamp I used added on top and a half an apple cut with an A into it. 

Along with our lunch today we got a large arrow that pointed to our letter of the week on our wall.

Week A Day 2: A= Airplane

I cut two jumbo jets out of pepperoni pizza, and a biplane out of apple (there are two of them as well) and then popped air popcorn to represent clouds. 

Today little S go a Alphabet sheet and some washable crayons. He has super great motor control so he doesn't really need large crayons he can write and scribble with the little ones. 

Week A Day 3: A= Alien (this is for Omi)

One hard boiled egg dyed green and yellow once it was peeled (just wipe on the food coloring and wipe it back off) cut in half to make the eyes, cranberries for nostrils and a baby carrot mouth. He also had cucumber slices, and more cranberries, some BBQ chips and a few baby carrots. 

Week A Day 4: A= Ark and Animals

Little S has a peanut butter sandwich I intentionally made with the heel of the bread and decorated with a food color pen to look like wood, the top portion was a piece that was cut off and flipped over to make the captains quarters with port holes. He also has apple slices, baby carrots, and a pen of animals. He has both animal crackers on the bottom and a few sour apple green frosted animal cookies on top. 

Week A Day 5: A= Arrow

Today's lunch features two taco cheese quesadillas cut into arrows pointing to the ABC's of fruit and veggies. Apples, Banana and Carrots along with a handful of Chex Mix completes his week of A Inspired Lunches. 

On top of his lunch container was a magnetic A for him to place on the refrigerator. 

Breakfast burrito for lunch

Today I made for little S a quick breakfast burrito for lunch. I was doing a clean out of the refrigerator and we had one left over baked potato, a little shredded cheese, some fresh salsa, one tortilla, and some breakfast sausage so I whipped it all together with an egg into a breakfast burrito for Little S.




Main Compartment:

Breakfast burrito - Scrambled egg, Cheese, potato, salsa and sausage.

Top Right Compartment:

Mommy mix- this is a mix of the ends of the cereal boxes, one bag of Chex mix original, and a cup of mini chocolate chips. I usually keep a bag of mommy mix around and as things are returned to the kitchen with one serving or less I add it to the bag so what's in the mix is always changing. Sometimes it has cheddar gold fish other times it has caramel corn and no chocolate chips. This is a way my cabinet stays organized and I have a quick way for the odds and ends to get eaten up.


Bottom Right Compartment:

Diced Orange - Our weather has been cold, snowy and gray for all but a single day and I know little S and I could use some sunshine so I diced us a large orange and we both shared a little bit of sunshine today.

First inspired lunch of 2014

Well sadly the holidays are over and even more sad the big kids have been taken home and we need to get  back to our everyday routine. Today I made little S a New Year's inspired lunch

Main Compartment:

Confetti  Ham and Turkey - take two slices each of your chosen thinly sliced lunch meat and pull them into small chunks with two forks - to make edible confetti.

Colby Jack 2014 - I thinly sliced four pieces of Colby Jack from the block and then free hand cut out the 2,1, and 4. the 0 I used a veggie punch for to give it some flare with scalloped edges. The rest of the slices of cheese (scraps around the numbers) went into out scrambled eggs for breakfast the next day.


Top Right Compartment:

Fruit and Veggie Blueberry Squeezie - Dole makes two flavors that are both fruit and vegetables mixed together so that each squeezie has 1 and a half servings of fruit and vegetables. This one happens to be blueberry which is little S's favorite fruit.



Bottom Right Compartment:

White cheddar popcorn - M received one of those tins of popcorn so we opened it without him and shared his popcorn.

One nice day! Car Wash Bathtime

During the entire two weeks around the holidays we had a lot of snowy days and ones there the cold goes through all the layers of clothes you have on; but we did get one nice day. It was sunny, clear and 40F!!! That's practically T-shirt weather in southern Wisconsin, so I set little S up with a Car wash themed bath.

His sister H was looking at me strangely while I gathered up all the plastic toy cars from the toy bin and hauled them to the bathtub. Little S has figured out now that if mommy takes toys and things to the bathroom its time to get naked and so he started stripping down while I decorated and since he is pretty fast he beat me. I can't help but laugh because when he decides he wants to be naked he strips everything off (diapers slow him down but not long enough) and he RUNS.. I mean RUNS through the house completely naked and I have Calvin and Hobbs flashbacks from comic strips when I was growing up. All you see is naked boy butt run bye.


I did a quick mix of red and blue food coloring with shaving cream to give me some bathtub paint and made a quick sign since I was on borrowed time (no diaper = bound to have at least one puddle)

This was so quick and easy a less than 5 minute assembly.

Car wash 5 cents - written with shaving cream paint
Cars - from the toy bin all in need of a good bubble bath
Bubbles - can't have a car wash without bubbles

Inspired Lunch Witrhdrawls

During the holidays while the big kids were here I took a break from making little S inspired lunches. Part of the reason behind the break was that I now had three hungry kids who would breathe down my neck starting at 10:45 am looking for lunch; and while being the only one present at work between all the vacations I couldn't always pull myself away from my desk quick enough.

I did start to miss it though and one quieter morning assembled little S's breakfast into a quick flower bouquet.

He had orange slices, and halved red grapes, and two slices of salami that I cut to form into the stems and not pictured is the yogurt squeezie that rounded out his meal.

Christmas Memories

This is the first Christmas that we have had all three kids together. The last time we had the big kids near this holiday little S was still incubating and although provided presents he wasn't a huge presence yet. I wanted to make sure it was as memorable as possible for all of us.

Dad and daughter sprinkled Reindeer food all over the snow out front. H had made a bag of reindeer food in school to help guide the reindeer. It was oats and red glitter in a bag that H decorated to look like a reindeer.

I and H made some almond joy cookie bars so we could put them out on a plate that night for Santa along with a glass of milk.

We all staked out a place in the living room and because we were switching cars around little S had his car seat inside and chose that as his chair.

Some of little S's gifts included a new 4 in 1 tricycle from his Omi and Opa, a talking bear from his godmother, and a shopping cart from Neil and Nash.

Santa came and left little S a desk/art easel and a discovery kid laptop so that he has a desk right next to mommy's and his very own computer.

I was actually a little surprised that little S wasn't into presents as much as I thought he would be; he really lost interest after the second one. After talking my disappointment over with my wonderful sister it seems that really he just isn't big enough yet to get that presents are things that are for him. He's still happy with knowing Mommy will make sure he has fun and everything he needs.

The BEST part of a snow day!!!

The BEST part of a snow day is when it stops snowing and you can go outside to play!

The big kids spoiled little S while mommy shoveled the sidewalk and the driveway.

Snowing outside Play a game inside

Since it is still snowing I decided we needed a game to keep the kids moving. I layed down an outline of painters tape on the floor and broke out the container of pompoms. I gathered several lengths of cardboard tubes - and got the game going.


You could chose you pompom and your tube.

Items needed:

long tubes - gift wrapping insides
medium tubes - paper towel rolls
short tubes - toilet paper rolls
tiny tubes- Cut one paper towel roll into pieces about half the size of a toilet paper roll.
pompoms - I added a handful of different sizes and colors to a small container


The Game-

Get your pompom down the track, around the u-turn and back over the finish/start line first without touching your pompom with any part of your body or a tube. If your pompom went off the coubirse you needed to get it back to the course where it went out you couldn't move it ahead.

We did this several times while H (age 8) tried to determine which length of tube worked best. Although there was some cheating (blowing your pompom ahead when it went out) and some blocking (so sorry your pompom can't pass me because my body is taking up the whole course) it was a lot of inexpensive fun.

If you didn't have pompoms you could do the same with a piece of paper, wadded up clean toilet paper, or foil.

Snow Day Bath Time

Keeping with the snow day theme I enlisted the help of the big kids A and H to help me set up a snow day bath for little S. A kept an eye on the stripping S while H and I decorated. I pulled out the shaving cream, food coloring and some craft brushes and we made snowflakes.

I use sensitive skin shaving cream but any kind of "foam" cream will have the same effect. Just add a few drops of food coloring and mix to get a paint that washes right off. (Note RED lingers- it takes a little scrubbing to get the red paint off all the way)

We made blue, purple and white snowflakes all over the shower/bath stall.

 I then grabbed a package of blue necklace length glow sticks and once glowing added them to his bath. The final addition was the while bubbles to give him a blue and white winter wonderland and glowing bath for our Snow Day Theme.

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