I know I make a big deal about Babyman's distaste for vegetables, but actually I'm not being entirely accurate. The truth is, he will eat a limited variety of vegetables, provided they are pureed beyond recognition. The slightest hint of a lump and he'll reject it, but if prepared to taste he will happily eat broccoli, cauliflower, and spinach (though I have more success with the latter when mixed into "green eggs"). Perhaps I am giving him too much control by catering to this foible, but the sorry fact of the matter is that I want the little guy to eat his darn veggies, so if I must puree ... [READ MORE]
Stone Soup
December 14, 2010 by 1 Comment
This holiday season, Babyman's teachers are all about cooking. A single recipe takes a week to produce: first, the students discuss and vote on ingredients (this spirited debate I would looooove to see; I can just imagine Babyman offering up "chocolate," repeatedly and exclusively). Then they go shopping, prep and, finally, cook. Our preschool offers a project-based curriculum where the subject matter is derived from the students' collective interest in a certain topic, e.g. Transportation, Weather/Temperature, Bears, and so on. If that sentence sounded sort of ridiculous, please be ... [READ MORE]
Stop and Smell the Pepperoni
November 17, 2010 by 1 Comment
In one of the previous posts I described a recent battle over hand-washing before dinner. Turns out, hand-washing has become something of a trigger point in our routine. Using my keen observational skills, however, I am slowly but surely getting better at recognizing the signs that may presage a hand-washing meltdown, and I have developed a handy trick for skirting the issue (which, I have no doubt, will cease to work the very minute I hit "Publish" -- because that's how toddlers roll). You see, a good chef always washes his hands -- before he can put on a "cooking glove" (pot-holder) or ... [READ MORE]
Animal Crackers in my Alphabet Soup
November 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment
My mother, Babyman's Nana, loves to throw theme parties. Whether she is having her next-door neighbor over to celebrate their dogs' birthdays (last year's theme: Go Dog, Go!, inspired by one of Babyman's favorite books) or staging a holiday-themed Jeopardy match for me and my sister on Christmas morning, there's always an excuse to celebrate. When I was growing up, a trusty standby for these types of events was shaped food. What is shaped food, you may wonder? Well, it's heart-shaped meatloaf on Valentine's Day, or bunny-rabbit shaped pasta over Easter weekend, and so on and so ... [READ MORE]
The Trouble with Peanuts
August 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment
My favorite columnist in Time is a fellow named Joel Stein, with whom I became enamored largely because his "lovely wife Cassandra" was pregnant roughly at the same time as I was, and I felt we were bonding over his satirical take on impending parenthood. So now Joel and I are navigating the wild world of child-rearing together and I am always excited when his son (Laszlo, if you can believe it) shows up in his column. Well, it appears poor Laszlo has been afflicted with a nut allergy. (It is worth noting that this revelation has caused Mr. Stein to recant an article he wrote last year ... [READ MORE]
On Packing a Lunch
July 12, 2010 by 2 Comments
Lest my more loyal readers fear that I am wholly fixated on Babyman's vegetable consumption, take heart: I am also pretty obsessed with lunchbox packing (and shoes, but that's for another blog I suppose). What is it about lunchboxes? At the preschool level, at least, it means someone else (i.e., Babyman's wonderful teacher) has a window into the weird world of his particular tastes. I mean, with all the friends and activities and distractions at school, it's not exactly an ideal place to test-drive new recipes. But if I loaded his lunchbox with his favorites, it would look something like ... [READ MORE]
What’s Up, Doc?
July 8, 2010 by Leave a Comment
This is the dichotomy of the (now) full-time working mommy: by day, triumph consists of finally landing somewhere that allows some measure of work-life balance and also holds the (possible) promise of affording one's young child a world-class education in a fabulous but expensive city; by night, triumph consists of...carrots. Yes, Babyman consumed a carrot -- two, in fact! -- by which I mean he not only tasted said root veg but actually chewed and swallowed it. Enjoyed it, even, chewing for several minutes with careful contemplation of the crunching sound and the chunky texture. And there ... [READ MORE]
