Restaurant survival 101: Come armed!

There are two types of parents: those who take their toddlers to restaurants and those who don't. TDSH and I are the former.

We've taken Abner out for all sorts of dining experiences since she was just two weeks old (first dinner out was an Indian themed banquet if I remember correctly).

I'd have to say we've been pretty lucky on the behaviour front. But as she's gotten older, it has gotten just a wee bit more challenging to keep her entertained if the service happens to be slow. With that in mind, I decided to create a little restaurant survival kit.

Our kit contains a sticker book and stickers a small blank notepad and a bag of soy crayons (similar to these ones). [Yes, yes, we're even crazy enough to take her to restaurants that don't supply an activity menu and crayons!] The bag is compact so it's easy to grab on the way out the door and toss into my purse, ready to whip out at the first drop of the fork, clinking of the glasses or yank on the tablecloth [actually, that one's a stretch...I don't think we've gone anywhere with tablecloths...that's just asking for trouble!].

The bag is a Blue Q zipper pouch I picked up a few weeks ago in Nelson. It's called "French lecon." How cute are these retro illustrations?!?!

Here are two of my favourite little scenes...the cranky kid getting towelled off by "mama" (he's probably cranky because mama seems to have let the whole freakin' family into watch him get out of the tub).

...and teen aged girl in a bib. Can someone please explain why the heck she's in a bib at her age?

Before we had the survival kit, we've been known to resort to serenading Abner with Stevie Wonder tunes. I'm sure restaurant patrons everywhere are grateful we've come up with a better strategy.

Got any other suggestions for keeping kids entertained at restaurants?

Get to the Point

We made our way to Point Roberts for the first trip of the season recently. It wasn't exactly warm, but it didn't rain, so we can't really complain. The kids had a blast playing on the lawn and crawling all over the logs and rocks along the beach. We had a hard time wrestling all the rocks away from Abner...she loves rocks (we have piles of them around the house to prove it).

The cousins played so well together and we even discovered they're old enough for an actual kid's table (hooray! The adults can eat in peace once again.) We're so lucky to have access to this place. Can't wait to get back down there for some more R&R. Hopefully it will be warmer next time.

Abner's first brain freeze

During the recent heat wave that blanketed our region for far too long recently, Abner got a taste of her first popsicle. Hilarity and cuteness ensued...

Insert witty title here.

Abner called me momma for the first time today. Well, actually it sounded more like "meh-meh" which makes me think she's somewhat ambivalent towards me. Ambivalent or not, I'll take it!

Here's the first documented shot of her teeth -- four so far.

Thought I would share a few videos since it's been a while since I last posted one. If you were having a bad day when you landed on my blog, I can assure you, you'll be smiling after watching these. Enjoy.

Holy growth spurt Batman!

It's not like I've suddenly noticed Abner sprouting up a few inches overnight or anything, but I certainly couldn't help but notice that her appetite has gotten a bit out of control these days -- as in...teenage boys and their cavernous stomachs ain't got nothing on my little girl.

As I write this, she is sitting at the other end of the table scarfing down her lunch of:

• 1/3 cup chicken noodle stew with cereal
• 1/3 cup cottage cheese
• 3 steamed carrot sticks
• 1 strip of toast (left over from her mid-morning snack)
• 1 handful of peas
• 1 handful of puffed corn
• 1 handful of cheerios
• 1 inch of banana

It's insane! This is on top of what she ate this morning:

• 2 pieces of toast
• 1/2 cup apples and cereal
• 3 inches of banana
• 1/3 cup apple/mango/peach puree

Watch out people...she's an eating machine! You don't want to be around when she's hungry and mommy and daddy can't get the food to the table fast enough. Our normally sedate little girl turns into a holy terror of whining and screaming. It's actually kind of funny when she sees us reach for the box of cereal (a.k.a. baby crack) she starts kicking her legs and pounding on her tray in anticipation. She can't even wait long enough for us to stir the stuff.

Last month I prepared an entire deep freezer of food for her and we've been plowing our way through it ever since. We're getting to the bottom of the barrel and are looking for some new ideas. What are some of your kids' favorites?

Feeding follow up

Well, peas didn't go much better than apples. But, if there's one thing I can be sure of...no matter how much Abner hates the food I shovel into her mouth, I can always be sure she'll eat at least one thing at every meal...the facecloth I use to wipe her face at the end of the meal.

How do you like them apples?

Apparently not that much!

Adventures in feeding continued this week when we attempted to introduce bananas and then when that utterly failed, apples. Is it wrong for me to think that it's kind of cute to see her gag a little on food she doesn't like? Every time she does it, I am reminded of that saying from the '80s, "Gag me with a spoon." The shot above was taken approximately 30 seconds before Abner made her dislike of apples abundantly clear by vomiting. Bananas didn't go much better the other day, but at least she didn't puke with those. She just gets a little on her lip and looks vaguely like a cat trying to heave up a hairball. Gross, but entertaining.

She absolutely loves yams though! She gets really excited as soon as the spoon starts moving toward her mouth. The other day she sneezed just as I was on the final approach. When she raised her head, both nostrils were plugged with yam! I wish I caught it on camera. She's been eating yams for over a week now, but technically she's still on her first one. I swear I bought the smallest one they had in the store, but it made enough to last Abner two whole weeks, plus feed me and TDSH for dinner one night!

Thankfully, we were able to fool her into eating some apple this morning by mixing it with her rice cereal (which she loves and eats with reckless abandon). I'm not above a little trickery at the table. As a picky eater myself (I know...I can hear you all now..."You? Picky? I never would have guessed") I know all the tricks that people use to get you to eat un-liked food and I plan to use them all on Abner if necessary.

With the successful introduction of apples, that brings her dining repertoire up to: rice cereal, yams, apples, organic mum mums and water (which she drinks out of a big-person glass thankyouverymuch). Rather than making purees of everything, I've just been mashing them with a fork. So far it seems to be working quite well and there's less mess to clean up as I'm not dragging out the blender all the time. In the interest of adding more colour to her diet, I think we'll add peas this week! Yum.

Happy half birthday Abner!

Abner's half birthday kicked off with a bang - literally. Damn Halloween fireworks woke her up just after midnight. Thankfully, she settled back to sleep after a short feed.

It really is incredible to think that she's half a year old already. In the past, I've given my mom a hard time about how much she's forgotten about my own arrival some thirty plus years ago, but now I can't believe how much I've already forgotten about Abner's arrival in just six short months...what time did I go into labour? When did we arrive at the hospital? When did that lovely anesthesiologist show up with my epidural? Thank goodness I wrote it all down.

All things considered, I think the first six months have gone remarkably well. We've only had a few really bad nights of no sleep and we've avoided injury so far. There have been lots of laughs, adventures, hugs and kisses. The highlight was definitely that first moment of bringing her up to my chest when she was born. She was so soft, squishy and warm. The low-light (if you can call it that) has to be locking Abner in the lobby, but I choose not to dwell on that little incident.



Other mommy friends always told me that these first few months go by faster than you can imagine and they were right. How did my little girl get so big? She used to fit in my lap but now she's long enough to kick me in the face. When I look at her, I see more of a toddler than a little helpless baby. She can now stand herself up by holding onto our fingers, roll over to get places, sit for several minutes at a time, and can find and put in her own soother without mommy or daddy's help.



One of the big things I've been looking forward to about Abner's half birthday is the opportunity to feed her some solid foods. A lot of friends started their kids a bit early, but I'm a stickler for official recommendations...and in this case, the recommendation is six months old. So, we all got up nice and early and actually ate breakfast at the table (we usually eat breakfast in bed). Abner was probably completely confused, because we usually only sit at the table for dinner and then get her ready for bed right after. But not this time!

We decked her out in her adorable little Mally bib (thanks Auntie Tanya!) and put a plastic tablecloth on the ground for the inevitable spills. We opted for organic rice cereal to start, but I don't think she liked it. On the video, it looks like she ate a couple of mouthfuls, but I can assure you, nothing stayed in her mouth. I think this is going to take a bit of practice.



I've enjoyed these first six months of motherhood more than I could have imagined and am thoroughly looking forward to the next six and beyond.