Not So Deceptively Delicious

Like all moms that actually care what their children are eating on a daily basis, I try my best at trying to get Hailey to eat a balanced, healthy diet full of good foods. Some might think I'm a little on the crazy side and restrict her from take out, store bought refined treats, and even something it seems every toddler has in tow... juice. I'm not a total freak about sugar, but if my baby is going to have it, I'm going to be the one baking the goods (reducing preservatives and excess junk) and I think that is a system that has served us well so far. When she gets a bit bigger I will be a bit more lenient on what she eats, but my rule is now if she can't ask for it she isn't going to be getting it. The only exception to the rule at this point is grandparents, because I know that when Hailey goes and spends time with her loving grandparents they will spoil her. I might not like that her Popa gives her ice cream after almost every meal, but I know that Hailey also doesn't spend a lot of time with him so it's not really going to cause too much damage. I guess it was all a part of letting go of some of the control when I went away on our vacation last summer, but I'm at peace with what happens while we are away in the eating department.

But getting to the point of this blog, for Christmas this year my BFF gave me a cook book by the master of vegetable disguise Jessica Seinfeld, Deceptively Delicious. If you haven't heard of her clever little books, they are basically recipes crammed full of vegetables but all sneaky like. I was super excited to give this a try, Hailey gets a lot of veggies in a day but if I can get in a couple more servings in then I'm totally game. So yesterday I got out my baby food making arsenal and steamed/cooked/roasted/chopped/peeled/pureed all the veggies I had bought, bagged them up and froze them for future use. I had totally forgotten how much work it was to do! It's been close to a year since I whipped up my last batch of homemade baby food, and back then I had a system one batch a week, needless to say yesterdays task was quite ambitious. I have made two of the "supper" recipes so far and I haven minded them so much and Hailey eats it, the hardest person to sell on the idea is Mitch. He actually said to me yesterday while eating dinner "if this is the way Seinfeld lives, what is the point of having all his money". So now I don't even tell him what I have put in the food so he will at least try the food that I make for dinner, it seems to go over a little better when he isn't concentrating on the butternut squash or the peas hidden in the pasta. Sigh... I think I might have to stick to the baking recipes as I have tried a few of the cookies and bars that my friend has had out on play dates and I'm sure Mitch wouldn't even really know the difference. So I guess what I'm saying is that dispite my best efforts on trying to get our little family to eat a little better, Jessica you are not so deceptive and you do not have very delicious ideas. Although I'm not ready to quit after 2 recipes I have lost a little faith and quite a bit of enthusiasm on what could have been.

I don't believe that children (or husbands in my case) should be tricked into eating vegetables, and they should know what it is like to eat them in their natural form but I was just hoping that this might be a way to get us all eating better. It's a lot of work to get all the ingredients prepared to make any of the recipes, so if I'm not getting the feedback I want then I'm pretty sure that this cook book is going to be gathering a bit more dust then the rest we have in our house.

L

been a while

Wow it's been a few day's since I have been in here to write something, guess it's because I don't really have much to talk about! It's been snowing here like crazy over the last few days so needless to say I haven't had any ambition to venture very far from home.

Tonight we are having a work shindig here at our place, I think we are going to have a full house as the last time we did a head count there was going to be about 25 people here. Hailey is going to sleep over at grandma's house so I can relax and enjoy myself and not worry about the noise level (one of the drawbacks to our house is that Hailey's room is on the main floor where the party is going to be happening). I'm a little anxious for this party as I have been absent from the office since August and there is a bunch of new people working for Mitch that I haven't met yet. One couple for instance, are expecting a baby and there is a chance that there is going to be some major complications. They found out the sex of the baby yesterday, and they are going to be having a girl, and next week they will find out the results of the genetic tests. I just have been sick thinking about these people and tonight I'm going to be meeting them. I can't imagine getting that much information about my baby before the dr's recommends if you should continue with the pregnancy or not... I guess that is why Mitch and I didn't opt for all the tests that they can run when you are expecting, I would never want to be put in a position to have to choose. However I have seen the devastation of continuing a pregnancy to full term knowing that the baby will not survive when it is born and that is just as tragic to watch. A girl we worked with had a baby a few weeks after Hailey was born and her daughter was born with a brain/heart and lung problem, something that would occur again with the combination of her and her boyfriends genes. Mackayla only lived for 3 days, and they knew from about 25 weeks into her pregnancy that the baby wouldn't survive. It was very hard to see and it made me feel a lot of guilt having an absolutely perfect baby to have an hold.

Well I really should stop procrastinating and get on cleaning the bathrooms, getting the food ready, washing the floor.... you get the idea.

L

things that make you go hummmm

So last week I was labeled.... I was called a Homophobe. I was talking to a bunch of my favorite ladies in a very relaxed setting without fear of judgement and I was really surprised that I was given the title out of all the ladies in the group! I like to think of myself as a pretty forward thinker on the issue, I don't really care who you are with, as long as you treat that person the best you can, then I'm cool with that. Soooo why was I singled out? I had mentioned that I didn't especially like the lesbian love scenes in the book I was reading. But I also want to make it clear that I don't read romance novels because I really don't like reading about any kind of hot lovin' in any book I read, regardless if it was between a man and a woman or some other combo. Wowsers, I have been meeting with my bookclub for almost two years and I thought that these people would know that I'm pretty tolerant when it comes to quite a lot of various issues. I'm really not too sure why I got so bothered by it, but maybe the bottom line is I don't like being put in the same category as all the psycho gay bashes that get up on their soap boxes and talk about how it's morally wrong, thus going to some kind of hell, or that they in some way are making the wrong choice (as if it was really a choice that they are making...), or that it is disgusting in some way. I'm going to put it out there that no matter if you are hetero or not I don't like gross PDA's and think that it should be left to do in private no matter who the heck you are kissing. Hey I'm the one that firmly believes in marriage remember!!! If you want to go get hitched to your mate then go nuts, besides there are plenty of examples of how not to be married out there so maybe it would bring up the percentages for couples staying married. Ack maybe a little fear bubbled up in me because I know that there is a high percentage of homophobes in my family and I certainly don't want Hailey to be exposed to attitudes like that, I think that tolerance is essential for her and for everyone I spend time with. Oh well, I tried to reason with the group and I don't think that they care either way but I wanted to make it pretty clear that it doesn't really matter to me. Guess I just should keep my dislike of love scenes to myself because that could open a whole other can of whoop ass on me altogether.... ps I'm not a prude but I would totally prefer to read about someone solving a crime or kicking someones butt over pure romance cheese. But I'm in my bookclub to expose me to books I would never read on my own and even though I might not like the book, I like the people.

L

It Must be Genetic

I have been doing a wee bit of self reflecting in the last couple of days as I watch my little baby girl transform into an independent toddler and wondering what the next stage holds for us. As I mentioned in the last post with the failed time out lesson I'm beginning to think that we are a little over our heads as Hailey heads into toddlerhood or as some may call it the "terrible twos". I consider myself as a pretty patient person, lack of sleep, lack of time and handling Hailey on my own most of the time has nothing on me, but I fear that I will be tested in the next couple of months. I have noticed that she has a tendency to be a little bit of a diva sometimes when it comes to deviating from what it is she wants to do, and I was wondering is that something that she gets from me? or could there be another guilty party hanging out in the family tree somewhere? I'm pretty sure it's not Mitch modeling this behaviour for her so where on Earth is she learning it from? Overall I do believe that you are a product of your environment, paired with parenting structure and a lot of love I think you will produce a pretty normal kid someday ready to be released into the wild. But there is this side of me that thinks man "you act just like your..... enter family member name here" even if that person has been totally absent from your life for the majority of it, maybe we can't escape totally from our DNA. Pretty scary considering my gene pool, let's just hope that most of the retard gene gets bypassed for some of the better options, let's just hope that natural selection will do it's job. I do know a lot of people that use family history as an excuse to suck at life, that's not really the point I'm trying to make here I just am left thinking, if it's not Mitch or me teaching her this behavior then it really must be coming from a deeper level. I know Hailey is one smart little cookie, the tantrums were bound to hit our house at some point, I know it was delusional of me to think that we could get away from it altogether but I'm hoping that with a few tricks we can sidetrack the majority of them. I know she is only one, it's hard to say what will happen or not happen with her in the next couple of years, but my feisty, strong-willed, independent little lady certainly has me a little on edge when it comes to me thinking about the teenage years. Bottom line is I guess I really don't want to fail her by not giving her the skills she will need to be a success, and it all starts with what we are doing today that will have an effect of what happens tomorrow. I best be brushing up on my Dr.Phil episodes, seems like that dude knows a little something about somethings.

L

Happy New Year!

The CEO of Casa Carr is back to work, the holidays are officially over and it's back to the grind. Christmas has officially disappeared off the face of the Earth and we are ready to welcome 2011! I for one am very excited to see what will happen this year, and I haven't felt this way in awhile I normally lament over the ending of the past year and the starting of a new one. Looking back at 2010 we had a resurgence of weddings to go to and a few more little babies entered the scene but otherwise it was a pretty flat year for us here at the Carr house. Maybe it's Hailey being a little older that is going to allow us to adventure a little farther as a family this year that has me really excited or just the fact that almost all our friends have found a groove and are returning to life after all being shell shocked with newborns. Thinking about another baby? Hell no especially after the last three nights of not sleeping, that will not be happening by our helping it this year and that makes me happy as well. Which by the way means that we will not be moving this year either, which also makes me very happy.

So were there any of the superficial New Years resolutions made this year, nope. Just going to try my best to be at my best. I need to brush up on some new "Super Nanny" techniques for timeouts so that means a little more time devoted to reading some parenting books but that about is it for me. Mitch and I tried to time Hailey out last week which resulted in a total and complete failure, she thought it all was a big game and you might as well have stamped a big fat L on both of our foreheads. Mental note, do not let your one year old start controlling the situation now you have far too many years ahead. Ah well at least we can laugh about it, and in the meantime I will develop a new strategy to handle the little miss. It's just hard to be serious when she goes around "what does mommy say... No! Mommy says No plants!" with finger pointed, ahhh to be in her head for just a day...

So my major slacking has left me to a humongous pile of house work, but it feels good to have my house back and to ourselves.

Happy New Year everyone

L