Meet the Biscuit

One early morning in May, I was blessed with the birth of my son who, for the purposes of this blog (and the public nature of the information and for privacy reasons), we'll call "The Biscuit." I actually do call him the Biscuit from time to time as a term of endearment.

The Biscuit is 19 months old and quickly approaching the terrible two's stage. I thought this was a perfect time to start blogging about my experience as a mom raising a toddler. Hopefully this will help another parent who's going through the same stuff out there (I'm always looking for helpful advice for toddlers and can't seem to find a holistic, Internet source) or will at least give someone a good laugh. If nothing else, it'll keep me sane when I decide to do this all over again with kid #2.

The Biscuit was nursed for the first 13 months of his life. I'm a big fan of breastfeeding and you CAN do that and work full time. It was lucky for me that I did because on those very few occasions when the Biscuit had to have formula, he got sick and couldn't digest it. I made the choice continue working after he was born, so the Biscuit goes to daycare full-time.

The Biscuit is a handsome handful of a boy. Of course I'm biased, but I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't find his baby blues and curly locks irresistible. He's a hefty boy, weighing in at 32 pounds (he's always been a chunkster). Since he is a big boy, and I am a believer in organic products and a healthy environment for your family, I raised him on organic milk and as much organic foods as I could find and afford.

From Trash to Compost

"Let's go compost!" What a proud mama I was to hear my 2 1/2-year old say those words for the first time today. Yes, I know I'm a green freak, a "crunchy" girl (as one of Biscuit's pediatricians called me), or perhaps a run-of-the-mill environmentally conscious 21st century realist. Truth is, we're living in a different world today from the 1 our parents raised us in and just as technology shaped our lives differently from our parents' then, for our children, their worlds will be shaped by an environmental mind shift (and technology changes of course.)

For the Biscuit, the mental model that he has for the word "light bulb" doesn't look like the old-school image of an oval-shaped bulb but a curly-shaped one since all the bulbs in our house are CFLs, it's all he sees.

And (soon) his concept of grocery bags might not look like a plastic bag, but a cloth bag, instead. (I'm still working on the shopping bag thing... I get a 50/50 on it.)

The Biscuit lives in an environmentally conscious home where we turn everything off when we leave the house (the router, cable modem, TVs, phones are all unplugged when we aren't there), and where we have low-flow everything, where we compost, recycle, reuse, and don't waste. We eat organics and use environmentally friendly detergents, cleaners, and other products. He is learning that we are given the gift of living on this planet, that we don't own her, but we must protect her.

The Biscuit knows words that I never knew at 2, like compost, recycle, and Mother Earth. And he's learning that most plastic is really bad for him (as we've tossed all of his sippy cups and plastic cups and replaced with glass). Maybe some will judge that I'm raising an environmental geek... for me, I'm raising a responsible, loving child who will be prepared for the "Age" that he's already living in. An age where the word "trash" loses its meaning (and use) and is replaced with compost and recycle, or where the word "trash" at least becomes as unusual to readers of this blog who find the word "compost" unusual today. Here's hoping.

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).

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.