Alphabet Inspired Lunches - Week E

Now that Valentine's Day is over we are continuing our alphabet exploration (notice the e word there) with the letter E.

E= Ewe

Main: A taco cheese quesadilla cut with a sheep cookie cutter into a ewe. Summer sausage slices with the letters E and W punched out to spell ewe. Sides: baby carrots, a mini silicone cup of M&M's, dried pea pods, and berry beet rice cakes.

E= Egg Head


Main: three egg shaped salami slices stacked together, mini egg shaped cheese forming the sun rays, and eyes of our happy egg head sun along with a piece of cheese for his smiley mouth. The sun is out today and it's going to be 43F (which after more than four weeks of sub freezing temps and over eight weeks since we have seen 40F is a very welcome thaw). Sides: Slices of Kiwi, baby carrots, blueberry filled cereal, and super thing ginger cookies.

E=Elmo

Main: Elmo is a open faced strawberry jam sandwich cut with a Elmo cookie cutter. I used the same cookie cutter to cut the eyes and nose area out of a tortilla and a piece of cheese for his nose. Once I had the toritlla in place I added chocolate chips for his eyes and the cheese nose and Elmo was looking good. Sides: A mini silicone cup of M&M's (the last of his from Valentine's day) dried pea pods, dehydrated strawberries and fresh banana slices.

E= Elephant

Main: Both the mommy and the baby elephant were cut from a single slice of bread with two strategically places cookie cutters, then covered with Biscoff spread and given candy eyes. Sides: Lays stack chips, and a dried strawberry, dried banana and yogurt covered raisin mix.

E=Elf

Main: A taco cheese tortilla cut with an Elf cookie cutter and decorated with food color markers, the rest of the quesadilla was turned into the ski slope he is standing on. The E is his latest refrigerator magnet letter since this is the last lunch of E week. Sides: (same as yesterday since they were a huge hit) Lays stack chips, and a dried strawberry, dried banana and yogurt covered raisin mix.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's day for me is another time to help little S learn that he is loved and cherished; while carrying on a piece of my mom. Growing up we would come downstairs the morning of Valentine's day to find a package waiting on a decorated table with a red outfit or shirt something we could wear to school for valentine's day. This is now little S's second Valentine's day and the second time he has come downstairs to find presents and a new red shirt.


This is what the table looked like:

This is a close up of his 14th heart message of love:

Each of the first 14 days in February I leave a heart message and a heart chocolate on the table for him. Either his dad or I read to him what is written on the heart - each heart has a different thing I love about him written on it. Then I take the hearts and tape them to one of the two mirrors in the hallway so when he is lifted up to see himself his image is covered by all the things I love about him. I am trying to ensure that on some level when he sees himself in the mirror he sees how much he is loved, subconsciously if you are being held by someone who loves you and your image is covered in loving messages you have to know you are valued and supported. I want to subtly increase his self worth and teach him how much he means to me and the world. This is now the second time I have given him the fourteen hearts of love and the second time I have collected and saved the hearts so that they can be added to a scrap book. I want to be prepared if there is ever a time when he feels unloved or unwanted or under valued to be able to share the book of fourteen things I have loved about him since he has been born. If I do a good job and that time never comes then I will wait to give him the book at a different time, maybe at his wedding, the birth of his child, or should I die I want it there for him so he can always know how much his mommy loved him.

Because I want "bath" time to be fun he also had a Valentine's Day bath. This is red tinted water, white bubbles, and candy heart like containers. He loved playing with the containers washing the bubbles off them.

February 14th also happens to be International Give a Child a book day - So instead of a card I gave him this book about how a mommy loves her son. Little S was also given several books by from his god mother which you can see him reading below wearing his new red sweater,

Give a child a book day - Feb 14th

February fourteenth in addition to being Valentine's Day is also International Give a child a book day. This year to celebrate that tradition and carry on the lesson of giving back, saying thank you and helping others Little S and I decided to donate some new board books to a local hospital for their waiting rooms.



We went to our local Dollar store and chose all the board books we could find for both girls and boys that we could donate. The selection for boys was very limited and we ended up with two of the Spider man books, but this way little boys will not need to share.

This was our haul. Little S looked through them all when we got home just to make sure they were good books.

The next day I gathered all of his bathtub friendly books and ran him a reading bubble bath. He had a ton of fun reading (he doesn't actually read yet.. well not in English. he looks through the pages and talks through them or laughs at the pictures) He also liked to wash the bubbles off of the books in the running water.

I try to tie together the concept of what we are doing to a bath, lunch or event to help stick the idea. Kids learn better through action and play.

Count down to Valentine's Day

During the week of Valentine's Day I managed to sneak in a few more love inspired lunches and a couple of left overs.

Left over Monday:

Main: shredded chicken nachos - shredded chicken taco meat and Monterrey Jack cheese were heated atop corn chips. Sides: diced cranberry and pears, and a package of crispy chews purple berry carrot flavor. 

My heart:

Main: Pressed and cut out Mac and Cheese heart. The men had mac and cheese with their dinner last night (Mommy doesn't eat grain) and the left overs were placed into a plastic wrap lined pan. Fold the plastic wrap over to completely seal in the mac and cheese then add cans of whatever you have in your cabinet to press it down and refrigerate. The next day you have a solid block of Mac and Cheese that you can cut with cookie cutters (plan for the thickness of your cutter with the size of the pan you press it into). I have a deep heart cookie cutter and used that to make this heart shaped mac and cheese patty. I added a mini silicone cup of baby carrots like cupids arrows waiting to pierce a heart. Sides: dehydrated strawberries, and a package of crispy chews purple berry carrot flavor.

SWAK - Sealed with a Kiss lunch

Main: A open faced (lipped) strawberry jam sandwich free hand shaped into a set of lips. SWAK spelled with lemon broccoli cookies. Sides: baby carrots, diced Kiwi, berry beet rice cakes and a treat of M&M's. 

Love you Bunches inspired lunch:

Main: summer sausage and cheddar cheese cut into hearts, a mini silicone cup of roasted peanuts and sunflower seeds. Sides: dehydrated strawberries and apples on heart skewers, Blueberry filled cereal. 

Valentines Day:

Main: Two heart open faced jam sandwiches, a silicone cup of valentine colored M&M's. Sides: fresh strawberries and coconut, Greek Yogurt drizzled berry popcorn. 

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Opening Day Inspired Lunch

The 2014 winter Olympic games start officially Friday February 7th 2014 and Little S has an Olympic inspired lunch to celebrate today.

Main: SOCHI spelled out in lemon broccoli cookies, a small strawberry jam sandwich decorated like the official Olympic flag. Blue, Black, Red are the rings across the top and Yellow and Green the bottom rings. I wrote these on with food color markers.  Sides: diced blueberry rice bar, and a Olympic inspired fruit salad. (which became very muddled because of the blueberry)

Blue - blueberries
Black - chocolate chips
Red- cranberries
Yellow- pineapple
Green- Kiwi

Thank a Mail Person Day

Feb 4th is Thank a Mailman day and what better way to teach Little S kindness and thoughtfulness other than showing him.


I got out a thank you card and wrote inside:

"We are mothers, and fathers.And Sons and Daughters, who everyday go about our lives with duty, honor, and pride, and neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever"

(The above is the text that appeared on the United States Postal Service commercial after 9/11.)

I continued with:

All of which would be so much easier in Hawaii rather than Wisconsin!

Thank you for being our tough and determined mail person.

We wrote Happy Thank a Mail Person Day Please Enjoy on the front of the envelope and attached the card with ribbons to a XL Hershey bar.

Then we went outside and decorated our mailbox with streamers, and a balloon sign. We put the gift inside the mailbox for the mail person.

In honor of today Little S had a mail inspired lunch:

Main: A slice of bread decorated with food color markers to look like a letter, with a freeze dried strawberry for the stamp, served with a mini silicone cup of strawberry jam to make a self serve sandwich. Sides: Baby carrot, diced pear, corn chips and a silicone cup of Mommy's Lime in the Coconut - coconut chips.

Love inspired lunches

I wanted to take a little break from the alphabet to fill Little S with love. I have started the countdown to Valentine's day with some love filled lunches.



Love filled lunch:

Main: a strawberry jelly sandwich cut into the shape of a heart with a heart window cut out to show the red jelly. The word LOVE is spelled out in Orange beet chocolate cookies.

Sides: freeze dried strawberry slices to look like hearts, I diced up a apple kale rice bar and placed the pieces into a pink silicone muffin cup, and added some dried pea pods.


Two Hearts one lunch  inspired lunch

Main: Dual hearts - one cut from a breaded chicken breast using a large heart cookie cutter, and the other made with ketchup for dipping.

Sides: Chili lime mini tortilla chips, and a fruit salad of apple, apricot, and cranberry.



Cutie Pie Lunch

Main: A small tortilla folded in half and heated with cheese and taco seasoning inside to make a quesadilla. I then cut out the side by side hearts with a cookie cutter. I colored the cut out with food coloring (1 drop red and 3 drops of water) applying it with a wet Q-tip. (if you use a wet cotton swab the fibers will not get on the food). I placed the hearts back into the quesadilla and trimmed the edges so it would fit inside the container. I added organic Lemon Broccoli cookies to spell QT (cutie) PIE.

Sides: freeze dried strawberry slices, dried pea pods, and a pink silicone cup of popcorn.





There are only 3 lunches this week because we did have a few other things we celebrated in between all the love inspired lunches.

Building Fine Motor Skills with Cheerios

I wanted to give little S a chance to play with a sensory bin that was both a tactile experience as well as something that would develop his already great fine motor skills. I had a box of expired Cheerios and put that into our sensory play container, I added valentine colored pipe cleaners, and chopsticks with a kid helper attached. the thought was that he could thread the cheerios onto the pipe cleaners and play with the chopsticks trying to pick up the Cheerios to build muscle strength in his hand.

I sat down with him and showed him how the Cheerios thread onto a pipe cleaner and he came right over sat down and took all the Cheerios that I put on the pipe cleaner off. So I filled four pipe cleaners and he pulled the Cheerios off one by one putting them into the container with the other Cheerios. I showed him the chopsticks and how to pick up a Cheerio with them but they were cooler apart rather than stuck together so he removed one from the kid helper and stuck it back into the bin of Cheerios.

For those keeping score that makes this week

1 win for the cardboard box
2 losses for camping and Cheerios



                                     

Invitation to Play Camping Picnic

It has been so cold out that we have not truly spent time outside in months. We have had snow on the ground, falling or below zero temps since November and I miss one on one outside time with little S. On my phone I have a picture of him on our last well truthfully only picnic - it was a mommy and son day. We went to the library and chose a bunch of books, then I drove us to a park we had never been to before and put out a blanket, snacks and gave him a bottle while I read all our books from the library to him. We played on the swings and slide and spent time in the quiet park together. He collected leaves and handed them to me. At first I thought he was cleaning up the park that his OCD had kicked in but soon I realized these were treasures that we needed to bring home and I put them in our bag with the library books. It was such a great day and one I know I will always treasure. Today I wanted to recreate that sort of with a invitation to play.

I made a camp fire (we didn't have one on our original picnic but its about 60-70 degrees colder outside than it was then) using some toilet paper tubes and a paper towel tube, colored construction paper and some red and glittered tissue paper. Considering I can count the number of times I have been camping with a camp fire on less fingers than I have on my left hand and I have not been in maybe 30 years I think I did a pretty darn good job.  I grabbed a jean duvet cover as it seemed the most appropriate for the event and laid it out. I added two meals from his play food.

meal one: bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich

meal two: bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich

I then put out a basket of play fruit and filled one of his cooking pans with mini marshmallows. I twisted together 2 pipe cleaners to form each of two sticks. Not for the first time in the last two months have I said to myself  "man I wish I had brown pipe cleaners" each of the times I have said this to myself I have stopped and taken a moment to think: I am so blessed to have this problem. I never thought I would need a pipe cleaner in my adult life having almost given up hope of having a child this little miracle has brought so much into my life. I hope I can be a good enough Mommy to deserve him". Not having brown I had to settle for orange. I twisted them together and then added a marshmallow or two to the ends and place them near the fire.

When he saw it after breakfast, he promptly cleaned up his toy food, set onto the couch the marshmallows on a stick, threw away the other marshmallows and got back inside the box from yesterday to color. This invitation to play apparently was  to teach mommy some you win and some you just do for the memories.

Invitation to play cardboard masterpiece

I have been feeling pretty guilty this week about the amount of time I am spending during our day on work. I work a twelve hour day from 2am to 2pm but normally there is downtime where I can take time to make and have breakfast with the men, make lunches for them, do some housework, and spend time with little S. For some reason this week between being needed more at work, his dad being gone on his days off and things around the house needing to be done; I feel like I have been letting little S down. He is a fabulous kid who I don't send  to day care so he has been having a lot of alone time playing with his toys and not a lot of me time.

I decided to make an effort to give him some invitations to play either with me or without me that are special for him.

This was super quick to put together - I grabbed one of the boxes from our Christmas in January day and opened it up. I wrote on a piece of paper.. Can you color the whole box? Mommy thinks you can. I then put it in the middle of the living room where we spend our day and added a box of washable crayons and washable pens, and his two easy grip crayons. The flat box would be great for kids of any size.

Little S caught a glimpse of this as his dad brought him downstairs for breakfast and couldn't wait to check it out. He refused to get into his high chair, refused his milk, he wanted nothing but to go check it out. So we postponed the breakfast which was getting cold on the table and I let him do his thing. I read to him what the paper said.. and showed him that he could use a color crayon on the cardboard or the paper. That's all it took and he was scribbling away. After a quick examination of what it was and how it worked he was hungry, and we had breakfast. After breakfast he went right back to playing with the pens. I knew the pens would be his favorite part we just started playing with them the other day and he loves putting the caps on and taking them back off. Since these are washable when he gets it all over his hands or face it comes off with a baby wipe.

I happen to get a delivery of our Amazon Subscription today that came in a larger box and thought he's really liked the flat box but he's small enough to get inside this box. I put the pens away and added the crayons to the box and then put him in it. SCORE one for mommy. This has been something he has enjoyed playing with for a week since I first gave it to him. He's scribbling on the sides and learning to close the box and likes the in and out process because it involves mommy lifting him both ways. This box has been a great toy and is still box shaped after a week.

Chinese New Year 2014 Year of the Horse inspired lunch

I don't know if I was too focused on work, or letters of the alphabet but some how I completely missed the approach of Chinese New Year. Little S is a black water dragon and I am a metal dog (I am a January birthday so if you look at the place-mat at the Chinese restaurant you need to know that Chinese new year the year of my birthday like this year fell after and I am the previous sign.) I had planned on doing his final D lunch which of course would have been dragon but today threw together a horse lunch last minute instead.

Main compartment:

Black forest ham cut into a horse shape with a cookie cutter. Free hand cut 2014 from a slice of cheese.

Sides:

A fortune cookie - luckily we had a few on hand because if little S sees one he wants to eat one they are his favorite cookie.

pita chips to eat with the ham and cheese

diced kiwi

Alphabet Inspired Lunch week D

This week we're continuing our alphabet lunches focusing on the letter D..

Day 1 D= Dolphin

Main - A pod of dolphins created by cutting crepes with a cookie cutter. I made basic crepes and dusted them with sugar and butter then stacked them and cut them into dolphin shapes. I added candy eyes to make them stand out more.

Sides - red grapes, baby carrots and pretzel sticks.

Day 2 D= Dog

Main - Cheese slice cut into a dog shape with a cookie cutter, dalmatian like spots added of free hand cut ham, and a candy eye to bring him to life. The word DOG was spelled out using zucchini, carrot ginger cookies.

Sides - red grapes, half a slice of meat loaf (left over) and a mommy and son made mini apple pie with crumble topping with a puppy pick.

Day 3 D= Duck and Dragonfly

Main- There is a broccoli pond with red grape reeds made by stacking grapes onto toothpicks or a dragonfly pick and a peanut butter tortilla cut into a duck shape using a modeling clay cutter. I added a food coloring dot blue of course to make the duck's eye. I really liked the 3D effect of the duck and pond.

Sides - the remaining tortilla sandwich, this is a 6 inch tortilla folded in half with peanut butter in the center, baby carrots in a mini silicone cup, and duck spelled out in Orange Beet Chocolate cookies. Having tasted both the carrot zucchini ginger cookie and now the orange beet chocolate cookie I'm with little S and prefer the ginger cookie. The orange beet ones are not bad they taste like those chocolate oranges that you whack on the table to get pieces off of the ginger ones were in our opinion better. (as evident by the ginger ones being gone and the chocolate ones still around days later)

Day 4 D=  Dinosaur

Main- three dinosaur buddy nuggets playing in a salad field with broccoli bushes.

Sides of disks of baby carrot, cucumber slices, and RAWR (dinosaur for I love you) spelled in orange beet chocolate cookie. The RAWR came out looking more like wrap because I didn't have another R in the package. The cookies come with random letters some of which are broken and I made due with a P and a extra piece to form that last R. Luckily little S doesn't read yet so I can still get away with things like that.



We do not have a fifth D lunch although I had one planned as I realized it was Chinese New Year and quickly switched gears to make a inspired lunch for that.

Valentines Day is coming

Every year shortly after my birthday I decorate for Valentines Day. It's really a pretty nondenominational holiday about loving people and giving them chocolate. Little S helped with the decorations today.