Category: General Family News

My Personal I.T. Help Desk (my husband) has some sort of widget on my blog that lists “Google searches” which have led readers to discover my blog.

Sometimes, just for fun, I read the list.

It’s interesting (to me anyway), and sometimes frankly, disturbing.

I don’t know if this will amuse you as it did me.

But just imagine for a moment, that you are sitting down to surf the web for more info on . . . whatever.

Some of the searches sounded like things I google. And unfortunately, for my readers, this blog sheds little light on these topics. I mostly raise the questions for which these readers were undoubtedly seeking answers. For example:

• preschool centers that keep them busy
• fall activity centers for preschool
• preschool activities inside outside

Yes! Would someone please send me this info when you find it!

Some searches were very predictable–even boring:

• steroid shot to strengthen baby lungs
• curly red haired baby
• pneumogram preemie
• 15 weeks contractions

Others made me think: What does this say about me and the things I blog about? And is my blog completely incoherent?

• my 15 month old eats an entire sandwich
• baby hitting his diaper
• what type of pasta did olive garden use in the chicken castellina?
• eclectic day care for toddlers
• balloons how to get through life play simple things
• housewife purple balloon

What’s with the balloons? And why purple, housewife?

This one made me laugh out loud, wondering what prompted the search:

• dogs lesson plans preschool

Was the preschool for the dogs? Or were they struggling, like me, to keep up with a couple dogs while trying to do lesson plans for preschoolers?

Or this one:

• bread & cheese

Seriously, friend, you need to narrow your search if you’re pulling up my blog when you’re searching ‘bread & cheese.’ Have I even written anything on that?

Then, there was this Google search:

• t

First of all, why would you Google “t”? Second, why would my blog appear in the results? And third, if results appeared, why would you click on them?

Wouldn’t you, at that point, be thinking, “Oops, I just googled ‘t.’ The rest of my word got cut off.” and start your search over?

Probably I shouldn’t ask those kind of questions here on my blog, because the next time someone googles ‘t,’ they will undoubtedly feel alienated . . . and if it was you, these are honest questions! Feel free to reply in the comments! 🙂

On Friday we reached the halfway point: Little Boo is 20 weeks along!

Although, technically, the halfway point is at week 21, since you’re not even pregnant during weeks 1-2, but I digress . . .

The home health care nurse came out on Saturday afternoon to teach my husband how to administer the progesterone shots. (Since they go in the rear end, it’s kind of challenging to give them to yourself.) My husband, as you can imagine, was not exactly thrilled at the prospect of giving his wife shots for the next 16 weeks. As I mentioned, there are reasons he is not in the medical profession, all very valid ones. But it is saving us money and time and finding babysitters (or Daniel missing work to babysit, while I drive 1/2 hour each way to the doctor’s office once a week), so it is well worth it.

The nurse listened for the heartbeat, and she jokingly said, “I heard two heartbeats!” Earlier, we had discussed the nurse’s sister finding out (at eight months pregnant) that she was actually having not one, but two babies.

While she was searching for the heartbeat, I felt Little Boo give several very strong kicks–pow, pow POW!–as if to say ‘leave me alone!’ This was the first time Little Boo seemed even remotely feisty. Micah’s kicks were much stronger by this point, which contributes to my thinking that maybe it’s a little girl.

But Mara is still convinced–convinced–it is a baby brother!

We find out on Monday morning! Can’t wait!

Several weeks back I started researching “toddler lunches” on the internet, and began cutting and pasting random ideas I found into a document.

Unfortunately I didn’t document which sites the various ideas came from. . .

But when a Facebook (and real life!) friend mentioned she was looking for kid-friendly meals, I decided to post my cut-and-pasted document, with acknowledgements to whoever actually wrote these ideas down (and there were several people).

Hopefully I have made clear, I take no credit for the following toddler snack/lunch ideas! And since my blog makes me no money or profit whatsoever, I figured it was okay to re-post these somewhat-plagiarized ideas for other moms who may be wondering what in the world to feed their toddlers and preschoolers.

There’s honestly nothing incredibly novel on this list. But it’s good to see a lot of options laid out at once, rather than staying in the peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwiches-or-chicken-nuggets-for-lunch-and-animal-crackers-or-goldfish-for-a-snack rut!

• Peanut-butter and jelly roll (in a soft tortilla)
• Wrapped cheese slices or cheese sticks
• Pickles
• Cereal/fruit bar
• Chunks of cheese spread with pretzel sticks
• Raisins
• Granola
• Muffins
  
• Orange wedges, berries/grapes cut in half, bananas
  
• Dried fruit
• Carrot or celery sticks (optional: peanut butter for dipping)
  
• Jello
• Pop-tarts
• Individual servings of applesauce
• Hot dog (already cut up and ready for dipping — save fast food ketchup packs to send with their lunches)
• Tiny boxes of raisins
• String cheese
• Make-your-own “lunchables” with deli ham and cheese, cut into squares
• Whole grain crackers with cheese, tuna fish, or peanut butter

LUNCH IDEAS

• Diced chicken, turkey, cheese sticks cut up.
• Veggies – peas, carrots, green beans
• Fruit – diced apples, pears, peaches, strawberries, banana, watermelon.
• cheese whole wheat quesadilla (just one slice of cheese and heated in a pan till melted)
• romaine lettuce shredded with a tiny bit of light honey mustard dressing
• ham n cheese sandwich on whole wheat or whole grain bread…you could also make it grilled style
• egg beaters omlet with turkey bacon
• grapes halved
• blueberries or strawberries
• apples with a spoon full of peanut butter for dipping
• baby pickles

DINNER IDEAS

• fresh mini raviolis with a dab of sauce or butter
• corn on the cob
• cooked broccoli, coliflower or string beans
• grilled chicken breast with a side of honey mustard for dipping
• sweet potato french fries (baked)
• angel hair pasta with sauce
• teryaki pork loin  w/mashed potatoes or potato wedges
• chicken noodle soup and toast
• cooked spinach mixed with bowtie pasta and butter
• broccoli and cheese quiche
• turkey meatballs and penne with sauce
• pita wedges with fresh salsa and shredded cheese

Cheri Sicard of Fabulous Foods had a lot of wonderful ideas for the preschool set:

• Core an apple and stuff the inside with peanut butter. Top with raisins, nuts, sunflower seeds or toasted coconut. The filling will keep the cut apple from turning brown.
• Cream cheese and jelly sandwiches, or spread bread with cream cheese and top with dried fruits like raisins, apples or apricots.
• Mash a banana together with cream cheese and top with fresh apple, pineapple or peach slices.
• Pack fresh fruit with yogurt dip.
• Make fancy sandwiches by cutting shapes out of the bread with a cookie cutter (use the crusts and scraps to make breadcrumbs or croutons). Kids love the novelty and will be more likely to finish their lunch.

Another website discussed nutritional information, which was a bit disturbing, because now that my daughter is almost 3 years old, she hardly eats anything any more! (There’s no way she’s getting 6 servings of grains, 3 servings of vegetables, and so on!)

Anyway, I would love for this to be interactive! If anyone reading this post has ideas to share on toddler meals, please feel free to leave a comment!

Thank you!