Climbing the Stairs

We live in a 1-story house that has these amazingly steep steps up the front to the porch. I always carry the Biscuit up the stairs when we go in the front door (we usually go in the back door). This past weekend, I put the Biscuit down at the bottom of the steps and said, "Mommy watch."

My brilliant child walked up the 6 or so steps, holding on to the rail with both hands, with no assistance at all. Apparently, he had done the same when he went to visit his Paw Paw so I wanted to check to see if he could do it at the house. Let me stress again that we don't have stairs so this truly is a bit amazing.

I had the blessing of taking 2 semesters of a perpetual motor therapy development class during college. In class, we worked with kids with challenged motor development. Our two goals with the kids were to 1 - walk up a flight of stairs correctly and 2 - tie shoes by themselves. The girl I worked with was 6-years old. Many kids walk up stairs when they are learning by going up sideways. The Biscuit walked straight and held on with both hands (one crossed over his body).

This is why I am so amazed with the little magician. He truly is magic to me. I guess we'll start working on tying shoes now.

Spaghetti

Everybody has their favorite recipe for spaghetti, so I thought I'd offer my favorite toddler (and baby) recipe for spaghetti. We've been feeding this to the Biscuit since he started on table food (I'm not kidding) and he has been lapping it up every time we have it since. (Oh, and the adults in my house eat this too!)

Ingredients (sauce)
2 cans organic diced tomatoes (non-organic tomatoes are the most pesticide-containing veggie)
3/4 lb ground beef
2 cloves garlic (diced)
1/2 yellow onion
4 baby carrots (diced)

Instructions

1. Brown the meat and drain.
2. Saute the onion and garlic in the same pan for about 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes and carrots.
4. Add the meat back to the pan.
5. Cook for at least 20 minutes on low-medium heat.
6. Cook spaghetti noodles separately (according to package instructions).

I recommend (for babies and young toddlers) that you put some noodles and sauce in a small food processor and pulse/chop for a few turns to make it easy for the little ones to eat both the meat and the noodles. And, of course, everything's better with cheese so add Parmesan or some shredded cheddar if desired.

I've substituted the carrots for green peppers on occasion and I suppose you could probably throw in part of a squash or zucchini. Just remember that the veggies need to cook for about 20 minutes to turn soft (and to go unnoticed).

Applesauce & Carrot Muffins

So a friend gave me Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious book to help with toddler recipes (b/c I am always asking friends for tips on what to feed the Biscuit). While I won't share the recipe here (buy the book!) I will share with you which recipes in it work for the Biscuit and which ones don't.

So far we are 1 for 1. I made her Applesauce Muffins (which also contain pureed carrots) and the Biscuit devours them! (and the hubby and me aren't turning them away either) The Biscuit thinks they are cake. At breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner I'm hearing "CAKE! CAKE!" as he demands another.

I don't have any problem forking them over to him. They're loaded with oats so it helps on the poop department too. BTW, my ever-amazing 20-month old declared to me two days in a row "I poop!" Now, I'm not a linguist or anything, but that is advanced language development if ever I heard it. (Oh wait, I AM a linguist).

Potty training is just around the corner I suppose...

Sneaking in Healthy Food

A friend gave me a wonderful tip (that she read in the kids recipes book by Jerry Seinfeld's wife). She told me to start offering the Biscuit appetizers before dinner. The thinking is that you offer your child something healthy (veggies and such) before dinner when they are hungry as hippos so that dinnertime won't be as stressful (since you already know they've had something good to eat).

The Biscuit looks forward to his special plate of appetizers that he gets 15-30 minutes before supper. I usually only offer him 1 veggie as the app (more than 1 seemed to confuse him and make him less interested in eating the app). His favorites are:

• edamame (soybeans)
• tomatoes
• cucumbers
• carrots

It truly has served to make both of us happier. Of course he will often ask for a cookie as his app, but when he sees the plate with the healthy snack, he forgets the cookie request and eats the vibrant veggie instead.