Mealtime is funtime

Just read a nice article from The New York Times about eating out with children. Writer Susan Dominus talks with New York restaurateur Nicola Marzovilla who has this to say about children and dining:

Children’s menus aim too low, he argues — they’re a parenting crutch.

“The table is very important,” Mr. Marzovilla explained as we sat around one at his restaurant early Sunday evening with our five collective children. “It’s about nutrition, it’s about family; you go right down the line. And the children’s menu is about the opposite — it’s about making it quick, making it easy, and moving on.”

We've tried to expose Slane to a variety of foods, especially fruits and vegetables. She's liking big people food and now ignores food that's been cut up. It's as if she is saying, "I'm a big girl now. I don't need your gastronomical patronizing. Cut up your own food, daddy." She is a slow warmer to new foods, but like Sam-I-Am, she tries it and likes it.

Fellow parents, how do you manage to introduce new foods to your kids?

Image from Suessville

clean and climbing

I think Slane is slowly getting over her fear of the bath. For quite some time bathtime has been something we all dread. Slane would cry as soon as we took her into the bathroom, and then scream and try to climb out of the tub. Toys didn't help, me attemting to take a bath with her didn't help. Then we tried a shower. We took a shower, sang a silly song about the shower, danced, and played with foam letters that stuck to the side of the shower. Twice now, that has worked. So, we can now have a clean baby without the tears. I hope that trips to the pool and possibly a sprinkler this summer will help even more.

Slane is a climber. Last week she pushed her stroller over to the piano, climbed up on it, climbed up on the piano bench, climbed up on the piano itself, and got a crayon from the top. Then I helped her climb down again. She is good as pushing that stroller over to things so she can climb. I've even heard that she did it in the church nursery a couple of weeks ago...

Slane also likes to go out our front door, down the steps (she is stepping down the steps now, not climbing down), and take the sidewalk to our nearest neighbor (which happens to be a big party house). We do this almost nightly, so I wasn't totally surprised when she insisted on doing it during block party. I didn't necessarily appreciate drunk students proclaiming over a baby at block party, or accusing me of bringing my baby back for block party, but Slane loved watching all of the kids and gave out a lot of high fives.

How do you do it?

I have been struggling lately. I want to know how some moms work full time, have clean houses, make dinners, do laundry, eat well, exercise, and still have time to play with the kids and have some personal time. I feel like I have to do it all, and most of the time I am too exhausted to do that. I know Dan helps, probably more than most dads, but it still seems like I have to do it, and if I don't then I have let the team down. And somewhere in there I would really like the baby belly to go away and my clothes to fit better. I keep thinking if I can just hang on until summer then I will be at parks all day and playing and biking around town...but how do I get that exercise in the winter? When? And still keep up on laundry without forgetting I washed a load two days ago and never got it into the dryer, or have dinner prepared in a timely manner for those of us who need to eat, eat, eat right now.

I want to spend more time with Slane but when I am spending time with her I feel like I should be doing dishes or unloading the dishwasher or cleaning out the fridge or something more useful, when I know the best thing I could be doing is chasing a toddler down the sidewalk or playing ball with her.

I never had intentions of working full time when I had a baby, but it seems like I didn't have a choice, and I couldn't pass up a full time job, even if it is not necessarily the grade level I would rather be teaching.

I feel guilty if I have to stay at work late, and even more guilty if I have a meeting and leave Slane with Q (though I don't think he feels the same guilt). Taking time for myself doesn't seem like an option, and Q often tells me my Sunday nap (which never really catches me up) is my time to myself.

It just seems like by the time I get home, pick up Slane, attempt to start dinner, wait until Q gets home so I can really start dinner, feed everyone, do the dishes, pick up a bit, and maybe, just maybe get a walk in, I'm done. Nothing left. Even if Q helps with some of that (which he often does), there is nothing left.

So, I was just wondering, how do you do it?