Easy, Kid Friendly Snack Ideas

Lip Smacking Good Smoothies

½ cup fresh, frozen or canned fruit

2 Tbsp 100% frozen unsweetened fruit juice

½ cup yogurt (any flavour)

½ cup milk

Place all ingredients into a blender and mix well.

Dilly Snacks Trail Mix

1 cup Crispix Cereal

1 cup Goldfish Crakers

1 cup Cherrios Cereal

1 cup pretzels

1 – 2 tsp dill weed (to taste) *

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp dry powdered ranch dressing (to taste) *

Toss all ingredients together until well blended.

*Use whatever seasoning you would like – I have used seasoning salt as well

Cinnamon Crisps

½ tsp sugar

¼ tsp cinnamon

1 tsp melted butter

Whole wheat flour tortilla or pitas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine sugar and cinnamon.  Brush tortilla or pita with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon mixture.  Cut tortilla into strips and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 5 – 10 minutes.  Can also be rolled up for baking.

My kids like to eat it rolled up without baking it.

Yo – Yo Yogurt Parfait

1 cup cereal (crushed)

½ cup yogurt (any flavour)

½ cup fresh, frozen or canned fruit

Alternate layers of crushed cereal, yogurt and fruit in a tall glass.  Sprinkle top with crushed cereal crumbs.

Being a Mom

We are sitting at lunch one day when my daughter casually mentions that she and her husband are thinking of “starting a family.”  “We’re taking a survey,” she says half-joking.  “Do you think I should have a baby?”

“It will change your life,” I say, carefully keeping my tone neutral.

“I know,” she says, “no more sleeping in on weekends, no more spontaneous vacations.”

But that is not what I meant at all.  I look at my daughter, trying to decide what to tell her.  I want her to know what she will never learn in childbirth classes.  I want to tell her that the physical wounds of child bearing will heal, but becoming a mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw that she will forever be vulnerable.

I consider warning her that she will never again read a newspaper without asking, “What if that had been MY child?”  That every plane crash, every house fire will haunt her!  That when she sees pictures of starving children, she will wonder if anything could be worse than watching your child die.

I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish suit and think that no matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will reduce her to the primitive level of a bear protecting her cub.  That an urgent call of “Mom!” will cause her to drop a souffle’ or her best crystal without a moment’s hesitation.  I feel that I should warn her that no matter how many years she has invested in her career, she would be professionally derailed by motherhood.  She might arrange for childcare, but one day she will be going into an important business meeting and she will think of her baby’s sweet smell.  She will have to use every ounce of discipline to keep from running home, just to make sure her baby is alright.

I want my daughter to know that every day decisions will no longer be routine.  That a five year old boy’s desire to go to the men’s room rather than the women’s at McDonald’s will become a major dilemma.  That right there, in the midst of clattering trays and screaming children, issues of independence and gender identity will be weighed against the prospect that a child molester my be lurking in that restroom.

However decisive she may be at the office, she will second-guess herself constantly as a mother.  Looking at my attractive daughter, I want to assure her that eventually she will shed the pounds of pregnancy, but she will never feel the same about herself.  That her life, now so important, will be of less value to her once she has a child.  That she would give herself up in a moment to save her offspring, but will also begin to hope for more years, not to accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her child accomplish theirs.

I want her to know that a cesarean scar or shiny stretch marks will become badges of honour.  My daughter’s relationship with her husband will change, but not in the way she thinks.  I wish she could understand how much more you can love a man who is careful to powder the baby or who never hesitates to play with his child.  I think she should know that she would fall in love with him again for the reasons she would now find very unromantic.

I wish my daughter could sense the bond she will feel with women throughout history who have tried to stop war, prejudice and drunk driving.  I want to describe to my daughter the exhilaration of seeing your child learn to ride a bike.  I want to capture for her the belly laugh of a baby who is touching the soft fur of a dog or cat for the first time.  I want her to taste the joy that is so real it actually hurts.

My daughter’s quizzical look makes me realize that tears have formed in my eyes.  “You’ll never regret it,” I finally say.  Then I reach across the table, squeeze my daughter’s hand and offered a silent prayer for her, and for me, and for all the mere mortal women who stumble their way into this most wonderful of callings.

Sleep Deprivation

Who would have thought that with a new born in the house that it would be the 3 year old and 18 month old keeping me up at nights!  The new born actually sleeps quite well.  People quite often ask me either how I’m sleeping or how the baby is sleeping, the only ones who are not surprised when I tell them that it is the older children keeping me awake are the experienced moms.

Today during play group, I was chatting with another mom about sleep deprivation.  She said that her daughter is 8 years old and she is just now starting to recover from sleep deprivation.  She had mentioned that it affected every aspect of her life, she was constantly bumping into things, forgetting things and really just had trouble functioning.  Sleep deprivation affects different people in different ways and to different extremes.  I know of another mom who finds it unbearable to get less than 6 consecutive hours of sleep.  I think the newborn stage of 3 hour feedings will haunt her for years to come.

My work and this website suffer because of my sleep deprivation, which can be very frustrating.  Like for example, throughout the day I get several ideas for topics that I want to write about but when I actually get the time to sit down and write – all my ideas vanish.  I guess I should carry a notepad with me all day – however I can’t really see that being very successful either.

I’d say for me the biggest frustration with sleep deprivation is being unable to communication with adults.  I find I have difficulties starting and carrying on a conversation with another adult.  I always thought that when other mom’s used to make comments about how they have to remember that they are in adult conversations, that they were referring to their tone of voice and not using ‘baby talk’.  For me it’s just trying to find the right words so that what I’m saying actually makes sense and what’s coming out is actually what I’m trying to say.  Do any of my recent articles make any sense?!

Sleep deprivation is difficult to deal with.  I know that the only reason I can function at all is from the graces that God provides.  When I don’t lean on Him for support during these tough days, the days become unbearable.  Everything is a battle, even my interactions with the children!  He is the only reason I get through and can handle and manage every day.

I guess all will come in it’s own time & way!  This is just another stage of life that will all to soon change to a different stage.

Baby #3

Baby #3 has arrived safe and sound and although she was a week over due and as much as I hate being pregnant, I’d do it all over again – but only if I was a couple of years younger!

This labor and delivery was pretty much the same as the other two.  I was induced with the first and third, which does make the labor more intense but other than the intensity, all three were pretty much the same.  The only reason that the first one took so much longer than the last two is because the baby’s head was against his shoulder instead of pushing down on the cervix.  So with him I was in active labor for about 12 or 13 hours.

For me, once I move from active labor into the transition and then onto the pushing stage, everything goes extremely quickly.  My doctor has missed all three deliveries, (although he was out of town for the middle one.)  For the first one, once the head was in the right position, he was born within 45 minutes.  With the second one I labored at home for most of the day and made it to the hospital with barely enough time, she was born about 15 minutes after getting to there.  With the third one, I was in active labor for about an hour and a half.  It took about ½ hr to go from active labor, into transitional labor, then onto pushing and the baby was born.

So basically on average my transitional labor is about 10 or 15 minutes with the pushing stage being about 10 or 15 minutes before the baby is born.  I think for the most part my labor & deliveries are relatively easy compared to some, I’ve heard of so many women that have had such a hard time.

This is why our neighbor calls me the ‘baby machine’ – everything just happens so quickly, even conception.  The only part that takes a long time is the pregnancy and of course raising the children!

The Art of Sharing

Recently another parent asked me how I deal with the issue of sharing between siblings (or any other children.)  Documentation and studies show that children do not develop the concept of sharing until at least 4 or 5 years of age.  And really if you think about we as parents are probably the biggest ones to blame for this.

Right from infancy we teach our children what is theirs and what is ours – “babies bottle, babies blanket – don’t touch – it’s Mom’s (or Dad’s)” etc.  So we’re teaching them about possessions at a very early stage and when it comes to them touching our ‘stuff’ on the most part we teach them how not to share.  So really, why should we expect children to understand the concept of sharing at an early age?

Sharing is something that needs to be taught and as with almost everything else, best to start early.  There are certain items and times that I do not expect children to share.  ‘Special’ or ‘Comfort’ items do not need to be shared, the child can share those items if they choose but it is not expected.  As for times when I do not expect children to share – when a child receives a new item or toy (birthday’s, Christmas etc.)

Basically our rules are if ‘child A’ has something and ‘child B’ wants it, ‘child B’ has to first ask ‘child A’ if they can have it.  If the response is no, then ‘child B’ will have to find another item and try to trade ‘child A’ for the first item or wait until ‘child A’ is done with the item.  If ‘child B’ takes the item away, they will have to give the item back and apologize and patiently wait for ‘child A’ to finish with the item.

If the children continue to disagree on the item, the item is taken away and they both have to find something else.

This is the same with books, usually when I’m reading a story to one, the other one wants to join in.  Occasionally there are disagreements as to which page each child wants to linger on.  If they cannot agree to read the book nicely, I put the book away and ask them to each pick a different book to read.  If the disagreements continue, I stop reading books to them until they can co operatively read together.

So basically my philosophy is more of a taking turns rather than actually sharing.  So far it seems to be working well.  Let me know how you deal with the issue of sharing, I’d love to hear what you have to say!