No Grasp of Your Reality

While I like to encourage toddlers to eat without help, a problem they seem to have is gaging how much food to put in their mouth while taking a bite. I know from experience that it’s certainly not cool to have to stick a finger into the mouth of a gagging shark to try to retrieve half a sandwich.

Here’s a tip to help them with their eating independence:

When making sandwiches, use scissors to snip the sandwich into bite-size pieces.

I like this method because:

• it’s less tedious than when using a serrated knife for the same task
• you don’t need a cutting board (yet another dish to wash) – just hold the sandwich in your hand
• it’s FAST.

To make about 1/2 inch sized cubes, I cut the sandwich into rectangles and then cut the short side into strips, almost all the way to the crust. It resembles paper “fringe” for a craft project. Then, cut the “fringe” in half going lengthwise (detaching the pieces from the sandwich into cubes). Next, snip the remaining strips all the way through the crust.

This method works well with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or other types of sandwiches with a moist filling (like finely cut chicken or tuna fish salad, egg salad, etc.).

It only works with meat and cheese sandwiches if there is “glue” involved, like mayonaise or mustard. An extra “glue” layer between the meat and the cheese and pressing down on the sandwich prior to snipping are tricks to making meat and cheese sandwiches hold together.

Here’s some PB&J trivia from Wikipedia to share with your kiddies while preparing their lunch:

Both peanut butter and jelly were packed with United States Army K-rations in World War II. The combination proved so popular that returning GIs made peanut butter and jelly a standard American food… Peanut butter and jelly has been available in the military instant food Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) for many years. The sandwich can survive in the field for up to three years.

For more on the invention of the sandwich, including their how they got their namesake after the Earl of Sandwich, click here.

Hooray for cooler weather!

“Red alert. Put the kettle on!”

Instead of my usual coffee (which can be spiced up by mixing a dash of cinnamon with the grounds before brewing – thanks to my friend Sarah for this tip!), I made a steamy mug of Stash’s Double Spice Chai Black Tea. The flavor of the tea made me want to bake some biscotti! (My own not-so-secret recipe is posted here in the NGoYR archives.)

In my In-Box this morning was a note from Carolyn McCulley. Even though I am happily married, it is important to me to understand and build relationships with women of all ages and stages of life. McCulley, who is unmarried, has a wonderful way of encouraging single (and married!) women in the Lord. She works with Sovereign Grace Ministries and authored “Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye:Trusting God with a Hope Deferred.”

I had asked her opinion of Debbie Maken’s book “Getting Serious About Getting Married: Rethinking the Gift of Singleness.” The Canon Press bookstore now carries title, and Nancy’s Wilson’s review can be found here. McCulley is now penning some thoughts on book to be posted on her blog, Solo Femininity. I look forward to reading her review.

Boundless, a Focus on the Family webzine for the college and career crowd, recently published an article by McCulley entitled, “You Made Me Sin”.

It’s easy sin by holding others in contempt, running them down (disobeying Ephesians 4:29) and by justifying yourself by saying that it’s not your fault, because the person deserved your tongue lashing. (James 1:19-20 comes to mind here.)

I love this article because in it, McCulley gets to the heart of this sort of blame shifting, citing Dr. David Powlison’s analogy of the sponge.

Read the rest of this entry »

A friend called me today because her angelic soon-to-be two year old was suddenly misbehaving.

“Daughter? What daughter? No… my daughter doesn’t bite. We can’t be talking about the same person here…”

You see, I, too, have a little biter in this age range. His nickname is “Micah Destroyer” because, while gleefully laughing, he can literally tear a room apart in a matter of moments. His favorite pastimes include putting non-food items in the microwave and hitting buttons until they begin to cook, as well as sneaking into the pantry and emptying the water cooler (while saying “DRINK!”). Sometimes he’ll combine the two activities by starting the microwave and then retreating to the pantry. One never knows what they will find when things have been “just a little too quiet.”

Here are some thoughts on toddlers’ tendency to bite – I hope they stir some ideas and offer encouragement to those parenting biters

Understanding the problem:
First, hurting others isn’t acceptable even if there’s a reason behind why they’re doing it. This is the time in their life when toddlers are testing boundaries and are learning what they can and cannot do. As parents, our goal is to teach them the right way to handle their frustration. Just keep reminding yourself: “They are learning and it’s going to take some time.”

While bearing this in mind, working to understand why a toddler bites and identifying the triggers help parents to prevent the biting from occuring. Read the rest of this entry »