Baby Bento Box

We all know that both of my boys can be picky eaters.  Evan knows what he likes and it's certainly not vegetables or meats that aren't chicken nuggets or hot dogs.  Ben licks all toppings off of most crackers or bread products and doesn't eat the actual bread.  I always wonder what it would be like to have a child that just ate what you put in front of them, and I'm always looking for creative ways to get them both excited about their food.  That's why when a friend posted this on facebook, I had to try it out.

After I had created my dinner masterpieces, Ian thought they looked like baby bento boxes, a traditional Japanese meal served in a box.  Regardless of what you call it, we all had a great time with dinner that night.  I got an ice cube tray for each child and put a different food in eat spot.  They loved it.  We had goldfish, peanut butter, hummus, mac and cheese, carrots, grapes, apples, and lots of their other favorites.

Watching them eat really gives an insight into their personality.  Evan would choose one little compartment, eat it all, and then move on to the next compartment.  Benny just dug his fingers straight in to each compartment and shoved it into his mouth.  All of the foods were quickly blended together.  But regardless of how they ate it, they actually ate!  I will definitely have to serve food more like this in the future.

 (the feast)

(yum!)

Blocks

For a while we could not get Evan into building with blocks.  Then, all of a sudden, about when he turned 3, blocks were all he wanted to play with.  Everyday after nap he asks me if we can build together.  We build garages, ramps, fire trucks, towers, and anything else he can think of.  The house is filled with every kind of block imaginable-legos, duplos, wooden blocks, alphabet blocks, large legos, and cardboard brick blocks. 

Probably because of his older brother, Ben has been more into blocks than his brother at an earlier age.  He really enjoys building towers with the big plastic blocks.  He was even stacking candles up on our porch today.  Even though he loves to build, he still likes to knock them down even more.  That's why we have to make sure that Evan and I are done building by the time that Ben wakes up from nap because whatever Evan has created, Ben will knock down.  Oh, and Ben also has a love for throwing blocks everywhere and making as big of a mess as he can.  His current favorite are the regular tiny legos.  He can really get some distance with those!

The other day Evan and I got out the marble ramp blocks.  The boys love rolling the marbles down the ramps and knocking down dominoes at the end.  During this nap time Evan and I decided we would build the most elaborate ramp in the sample ramp booklet.  Keep in mind that this mainly involved me building and Evan testing with the marbles.  So, me and my non-engineering brain were very pleased that I was able to get this one built!  Evan and I had a great time building it, testing it, and then knocking it down before his brother could get the chance!

Take a look:

(Our masterpiece)

A Video Screen

Both of my boys like any device that has a video screen.  While we limit our video time, the boys enjoy every second.  Evan gets a bit of television during Benny's nap time.  For a while, it has been Sesame Street, recently we have switched over to Dinosaur Train-dinosaurs and trains, what's a three year old boy not to love?  Ben would love to watch anything, but for some reason his cruel, cruel mommy is making him wait until he's 2 to watch TV.  The only thing they both are allowed to watch is Duke basketball, and they both love it.  Evan comes and sits on the couch and Benny cheers "GOOK!"-his version of "Go Duke!".  

In addition to TV, the boys also love the computer.  If they get interested in something, we will pull up a You Tube video and let them learn about it.  Sometimes it's volcanoes, other times it's rams, then other times it's gymnastics, etc..  I don't know how kids learned about things before You Tube, HA!  The computer also has Alpha Baby on it, where Ben can pound on the keys as long as he wants and letters, numbers, and pictures pop up.  

Their final video love is Evan's new Leap Pad, or as Ben would call it "Le Pad"-maybe he's French.  Anyway, since Evan got it for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa, he has had a great time playing "Jewel Train" or drawing or playing with his virtual pet or playing one of several other games.  Usually, he's allowed to have it on some of our car rides.  It's amazing to watch how easy it is for both boys to navigate the touch screens.  

Even though we spend most of our days playing or doing other activities it's amazing how technologically savvy they are and they will be.  It will be such a bit part of their lives, and we can't even imagine what type of technology they will be showing their kids.

Take a look at my little computer boys--I think they were watching You Tube Kermit the Frog this time:

(Love this picture!)

Edible Art

Recently, the boys have been getting more into arts and crafts.  Benny has discovered drawing (on anything) and Evan has been helping me "clip" coupons with the scissors, creating tiny little scraps of tiny masterpieces.  They also really enjoyed decorating cookies, so we decided to try our hand at some more artwork.  This artistic activity was inspired by Gram.  Recently when she came to visit she gave us some edible markers.  The first time she mentioned these I immediately said ABSOLUTELY NOT.  I mean, who wants Benny to learn that he can eat markers?  But then Gram explained, "edible" markers just means that you can draw on anything and the ink that you draw with is able to be eaten.  Okay, I was fine with that-you're not actually eating the marker, just the ink.

So, what would we draw on?  How about marshmallows?  Our partner in artistic food creation, Edward, came over and we got started.  We put some jumbo marshmallows on some lollipop sticks, set the boys at the table, and then passed out the markers.  It was a great craft to let the kids show their creativity and simultaneously get their sugar fix!  Take a look at their works of art (and notice their lips covered in edible marker).  I can't wait to see what we create next!

(The artists are at work!)

(Evan shows off his masterpiece.)

(Benny the artist)

Seeing his Shadow and other Discoveries

Our little Benny is really discovering so much everyday right now.  Over the past few weeks he's been getting so verbal.  He's really discovered that he can get his opinion heard and boy does he have plenty of opinions.  During storytime, if we pick up a story he doesn't want to read he will say "NO" until we pick up one that is acceptable.  At dinner he will say what he wants to eat.  For example, last night he said, "Mo mame" which translated to "more edamame".  (That's right, he eats boatloads of edamame in one sitting, definitely different tastes than his brother.)

Right now he is obsessed with colors.  He will walk around pointing out what color everything is.  He especially likes blue things, but he seems especially excited when he finds something black.  He is also learning to count.  His favorite way to count is "one, two, five".  The cutest thing is Ben's newfound love of singing.  He got a toy for Christmas that sings songs to him.  Now, he sings along.  He'll usually sing the last word of each line and just giggle.  Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star has become one of our favorite sing-a-long songs.  In gymnastics he's learning about jumping which is still a bit beyond him, but I'm sure you'll hear more about those adventures later.

We'll leave you with a picture of the moment of one of his other discoveries-the moment he discovered his shadow.  It was on a hike a few weekends ago-so cute!

Mr Independent

Over the past few weeks we've really been working on having Evan do things independently.  He's been washing his hands, eating his meals, using the restroom, and putting on his coat all by himself.  Oh, and he's also been working on getting dressed by himself....

We didn't have the heart to tell him his shirt was on backwards that day.  He's getting to be such a big boy!

Cookies!

One of my favorite holiday traditions to do with the boys is decorating cookies.  We've done it for the past few years with our friends and had a blast!  There's something about sprinkles, messes, and sugar that is just fun.  However, this year the holiday season just seemed too hectic and we didn't get around to decorating our cookies before Christmas.  That didn't stop us though, we just moved the decorating to after the holidays.

To start, we had to make the cookies.  Evan was a big helper with the baking.  He just loves to "dump" every ingredient into the bowl, and he's become an expert stirrer.  Evan was a pro, however, I made a few mistakes-like not realizing we were out of flour until halfway through the recipe.  Oh well, fortunately my substitution of corn meal flour wasn't too weird.  After the dough was made both boys helped to cut the cookies into car, snowflake, and ducky shapes and then watched them bake in the oven.

Next, we got to do the fun part and decorate our masterpieces.  First, we headed over to our friend's Sarah and Edward's house.  They provided all sorts of delicious toppings like chocolate and cream cheese frosting, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, and crushed peppermint.   The boys had a great time, and lucky for us Gram was able to join in on all the fun.  Benny preferred the decorating part and wouldn't really eat his masterpieces.  While the big boys loved slathering their cookies with frosting and sprinkles and then downing three of them as fast as they could.  Where's the finesse boys?  HA!

We finished out our cookie decorating adventure the next day when I was babysitting Evan and Ben's good friends Quinn and Jonas.  They have been with us on our previous decorating parties as had Edward, so I knew they would enjoy it.  Their cookies were absolutely covered in sprinkles as was the floor.  I think I managed to sweep up most of the evidence though.

We've been having lots of fun with our baking and food crafts.  This week, we're going to try marshmallow lollipops decorated with edible markers, and we'll definitely let you know how it goes!

 

 (Evan in cookie decorating-2009)

 

 (2010)

 

 (2012)

 

 (Edward 2009)

 

 (2010)

(2012)

 (Quinn plays after decorating in 2009.)

 

 (Brothers-Quinn and Jonas 2010)

 

 (Quinn 2012)

 

 (Jonas 2012)

 

 (Ben at the decorating party 2010)

 

 (Ben's so glad he got to participate in the decorating this year! 2012)

 (Decorating party!)

(Yum!)