We made it, we survived! Our first airline flights with Tate were a success, defined as no meltdowns for child or parents!

Thank you for all the great advice you offered in the comments of my Travel Tips Needed post. Being that it was a shorter flight, we didn’t need a movie, although the laptop was ready to go. Opening presents was the biggest hit – there were books, Matchbox cars, a pair of sunglasses, stickers and animal crackers. On the return flight, he loved watching the videos from our trip on my digital camera.

My flight attendant friend, Sarah, suggested bringing a wide variety of snacks, which were also very popular. Our lovely Delta attendant gave me both peanuts and cookies, without my even asking. She also gave Tate a really cute “First Flight” certificate, signed by she and the captain.

I’m SO glad that we brought the stroller, as several of you advised. The long walk to our gate would have been reason enough, but he also fell asleep in it while we were waiting for our rental car. Well worth it, and a nice way to transport some carry-on luggage as well.

I bought an animal backpack/harness from Target, although I only used the leash part for about 5 minutes. It was still worthwhile as a distraction – he loved snuggling the monkey and making “ooh, ooh, ooh” sounds.

A few final tips: One that I learned from the Flying with Kids site is to ask the flight attendant which bathroom is best for changing diapers. Ours advised us not to use the one towards the front, as it was much smaller. Another, from my friend Sonya, is the site SeatGuru.com -simply select the airline and plane type (listed on your ticket confirmation) for a heads-up on which seats/rows are good or bad.

Our next travel adventure begins in a few days, as we’re off to Chicago for the BlogHer conference. What is normally a less-than-seven-hour drive will certainly be longer with Tate. Any roadtrip tips for me? Please?!

We had lunch today with my grandma. She’s in a nursing home, and the food is generally awful. So sometimes Tate and I bring over a little McDonald’s picnic to have in her room. She loves the Bacon Ranch Chicken Salad and I had a Snack Wrap today. I justified getting a medium size fries for myself instead of small, telling myself that Grandma might want a couple. Mr. Picky Eater doesn’t know what he’s missing, and only wanted carrots and bunny crackers.

I would have taken another picture with them smiling, but my camera battery died. Really, they’re enjoying the picnic!

Tate can’t say Great-Grandma, so my aunt had the idea to call her Gigi, as in G-G (for Great-Grandma). It was a genius idea, because he can actually say Gigi, but hasn’t yet mastered Grandma.

Tate loves to visit Gigi, and everyone there loves to see him. We went down to the main floor to look at the birds they have in a little aviary. While we sat there, not one but two different people (and not older, confused people) asked me if his curls were natural. Really? Like I curl his hair every morning? Or gave him a perm?

But my favorite part of the afternoon was as we were leaving, I asked Tate if he wanted to give Gigi a hug. He did, of course, and snuggled right into her. Then I asked if he wanted to give her a kiss. Again, yes, and he leaned in for a smooch.

Then he did the fingers-together sign for “more” and gave her another kiss! Then another sign and another kiss. She was tickled and I was cracking up. What a little lover!

In Tate’s short 16 months of life, his approach to food has been all over the place. He moved from eating homemade baby food to a sudden refusal to eat any food offered on a spoon, only wanting finger foods. But at least he was branching out, eating a lot of the same foods as us. Then gradually he was rejecting more and more foods until now there are fewer than 10 that he’ll eat. And never a great quantity at any one time.

Our staples are cereal with milk, berries, cheese (but only muenster or pepper jack), hard boiled eggs, peanut butter sandwiches, granola bars, carrots and most types of crackers. The plus side is that these are pretty healthy things (not that he’ll turn down any desserts that are offered to him). The negative is that from day to day I never know which of the “approved” items will actually be eaten.

I often end up feeling discouraged, like I’m failing to fulfill his nutritional needs. It was helpful to watch this Momversation episode this week, to see that others are in the same boat of frustration. My favorite quote was from Dana of Mamalogues: “My 4-year-old hates food! All food except cheese and chocolate!” So I guess it could be worse…

At what point is he old enough for me to say “this is it, eat it or be hungry!”? It doesn’t seem like he’d understand that at this point. The other issue is that he’s still nursing, so if he doesn’t eat a lot of regular food, he just wants more milk.

I’m actually ending on a happy note, however, as Mr. Picky ate a new food today! I’ve been babysitting my 3-year old niece and she gave Tate some of her noodles. He ate them, and a bunch more, as evidenced by the photo above. Apparently he just needed a little peer pressure – maybe I’ll see if she wants to stay all week!

How did you get your kids to eat, especially at younger ages?

Our Japanese guests left this weekend, so now I’m catching up on the rest of my life, including blogging! Thanks for your patience while I’ve been “away”.

There’s not a real theme for today’s post; I’m just going to throw together all my final stories about the visit. Please excuse the lack of smooth transitions. Just pretend you’re in Minnesota and there’s a can of cream of mushroom soup to tie it all together. Throw some french fried onions on top and we’ll call it Homestay Hotdish!

Before our homestay guests arrived, I was nervous about whether they’d like our food, especially Baby Riku. I shouldn’t have worried- Riku is a MUCH better eater than Tate. This picture shows him encouraging Tate to eat, or at least that’s what we thought. Maybe he was trying to steal some of his breakfast. Riku’s favorite “American” food was Golden Grahams cereal- he totally loved it, as did his mom and grandma. We went through 2 boxes of it.

Midway through the trip, Megu asked when she could eat a hot dog. She thought they’d be served at every American restaurant, but neither McDonald’s or Burger King (we’d already gone to both, since I’m such a good host) had any hot dogs. I typed ”stereotype” into her electronic dictionary, and she said “oh yes, like thinking that Japanese women wear kimonos all the time!” I told her that hot dogs were eaten most commonly on camping trips, at picnics and at baseball games, but promised to find her one. That very afternoon, she spotted them at the IKEA cafe, for just 50¢ each! Then we grilled some at a barbecue too, for good measure.

Riku kept trying to hug and touch Tate, who wasn’t really returning the affection. He kept persisting, so that it was usually closer to a tackle than a hug. Overall, Tate was pretty good about having another kid around, sharing his toys, etc. That is, however until one day when Tate was helping me unload the dishwasher and Riku tried to join in. Big mistake- Tate pushed Riku away and pulled his hair, bringing a quick end to the unloading project!

When I lived in Japan, I quickly became used to bowing and being bowed to. Seeing a 15-month old bow, however, is about the cutest thing ever. Riku bowed when he was asking for something, saying “sorry” or “thank you”. Towards the end of the visit, Tate also started bowing, following Riku’s example. And Riku learned the sign language sign for “friend”. I wish I had captured both things on video – so sweet!

We remarked over and over again how similar the boys are. Both preferred to fall asleep in the car rather than at home, during normal naptimes. With both in the midst of separation anxiety, there were tears whenever one of the moms left the room. Both utter a frequent refrain of “uhh, uhh, uhh”, accompanied by pointing to the desired object.

When I lived in Japan, Kyoko took me in as if I were her own daughter. My experience would have been much less positive without her family’s help and hospitality. I’m thankful that our friendship has endured, and that we could spend this time together. Hopefully, as Tate and Riku grow up, we’ll have more opportunities to do so- maybe next time we should meet halfway, in Hawaii!

Does your family have any friends from other countries? Have you travelled abroad with your children? Please, share your stories with us!

Tate didn’t want to eat his banana or Cheerios this morning. He had a slight fever last night, so maybe he’s teething again. I mention this only because him not eating breakfast = minimal time in the high chair = minimal time for me to make my own breakfast. Selfish to think of myself when my son is out of sorts, I know.

When I opened the fridge to get my grapefruit, he raced right over. The fridge door, filled with all sorts of interesting bottles, is his favorite party spot lately. The funny part is that for the last couple of days he actually puts the bottles back onto the shelves after he’s done playing with them. That’s my little firstborn!

But back to my story…Tate was happily pulling lime juice and salad dressing spritzer out of the lowest rack in the door, so I let him play there for a couple of minutes. I realize that’s not very energy-conscious of me. Family and friends, I’ll understand if you no longer want to eat meals at my house, for fear of food poisoning from a warm refrigerator. But come on, you can’t spoon out grapefruit sections while holding a child on your hip! So my back was to him as I ate, and I may have also been reading the paper a little bit.

When I turned around, this is what I saw. As you can see, my son has excellent taste in breakfast food. Why would you want a banana when you can have chocolate?

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Laying Tate down tonight, I marveled at how long he has become. When he scrunched up his little newborn legs, his toes barely reached my belly button. Lately, I have to give a little extra oomph on my tiptoes to get his feet over the crib rail. Having just passed his first birthday, I find myself marveling at a lot of “look how far we’ve come” things…

The biggest one is sleep. We were not blessed with a naturally good sleeper, and definitely made some parenting errors that made the situation worse. (Read the whole three-part saga, beginning with Our Sleep Journey.) But now, and for the last several months, this is not a struggle. He goes to bed around 7pm, wakes for an early-morning feeding, sleeps a little more and is up for the day around 7am. We can even have babysitters put him to bed. It’s wonderful!

Another one is food: from the first watery rice cereal at four months to the sudden demand for all finger food (Don’t Spoonfeed Me!), he’s now eating a lot of the same things we eat. Advice from many of you has been really encouraging- Allison, you said to try the spoon again every once in awhile. Sure enough, he’s been willing to do yogurt, avocados and now applesauce. Lisa, you told me how you mixed the rice cereal flakes with Bisquick to make pancakes good enough for the whole family. (I’m using up my ground Super Baby Food grains for this.) John, frozen peas are a hit! The self-feeding is obviously more messy, but it’s also pretty fun to see him enjoy new things, especially things I wouldn’t think a baby would like- BBQ meatballs, pepper jack cheese, parmesan risotto. Plus while he eats, I can usually make a quick meal for myself.

In Tate’s first few weeks of life, I hardly ever bathed him because it was such a traumatic ordeal for both of us. The nurse had done such a good job of holding him and getting him clean in that little plastic tub at the hospital, but I quickly realized that I was not as skilled. Once we switched to the infant tub with a hammock-style attachment, voila, bathtime was happytime! (Even though he doesn’t look super-happy in this picture.) Eventually we moved into the real bath tub. I laid him on his back in just an inch of water and he kicked his little legs furiously, surprised when he’d occasionally splash himself in the face. Now it’s all playtime- toys, splashing, “Tate, we don’t stand up in the tub!”, etc.

There are lots of other fun things, like playing with toys and reading books, instead of him simply eating both of them. He understands many directions and loves to be a helper.

And of course some not-so-fun things, generally associated with asserting independence and opinions-  cries that say “I want that and I want it now!” or “Mom, why are you setting me down when I know you can brush your teeth while you’re holding me?”. I’ve noticed that we have far fewer pictures of the last few months, largely because when I pull out the camera, he wants to grab it instead of being in a picture.

We bought more plastic bins last week, to hold the latest round of outgrown clothes. They’re lined up next to the infant car seat, the baby bath tub, and the sleep positioner. Each item had a period in which it was essential, and now they wait to be needed by a someday-little brother or sister.

Remembering all these changes suggests that maybe this first year hasn’t gone by as fast as it feels. I can’t wait to see what the next year will hold!

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Since Tate’s first birthday is this week, we’re in celebration mode! I’m excited to share this huge list of birthday freebies from Mommy’s Wish List. These restaurants all offer something free on your birthday, or when you sign up for their membership club. I just registered at Chili’s (free chips and queso, my favorite!) and Maggiano’s, which is where we celebrated my birthday last year.

I’ll add one of my own, that I look forward to enjoying every year: Caribou Coffee gives you a free drink, any size, on your birthday. I recommend a large Caramel Cooler- mmm!

Photo Courtesy:
Theresa Thompson

We celebrated Tate’s first birthday this weekend with a family party. Amazing to think it’s already been a year since the same group was at our house to welcome him into the world! That day, we had Tater-Tot Hotdish to celebrate our little “Tater-Tot”. (Here’s a recipe in case you don’t know what that is, i.e. you don’t live here in Minnesota).

This time we had regular tater-tots along with our “down on the farm” lunch: beef sandwiches, corn on the cob and green beans. It was inspired by these cute Old MacDonald party supplies that I found online at Parties 4 Kids. Old MacDonald is one of our favorite songs- for me, because it magically makes Tate stop crying when he’s unhappy in the car or on the changing table.

We had one cake for singing Happy Birthday, blowing out the candle, and for the adults to eat. You’ll notice that candle-blowing required an assist from me, which for some reason ended up like one of those old Primatene Mist commercials. Seriously, three tries and it wasn’t a trick candle! Maybe I have parenting-induced asthma. And yes, one of Tate’s favorite toys is a bag of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. Had he not been allowed to hold it, these pictures would have included tears even if we sang Old MacDonald instead of Happy Birthday. The magic has limits.

Tate’s “smash cake” was courtesy of a local grocery store chain that offers a freebie on a child’s first birthday. (Smart move on their part, since we bought the big cake there too.) As you can see, he did a pretty good job of devouring it! Who needs party games when you can sit around and watch this? In retrospect, it would have been wise to take off his cute farmer shirt and overalls before cake-time.

How was the post-frosting sugar high, you ask? Well, we’re relatively new parents, but wise nonetheless…we went to a wedding right after the party, while Granny & Grandpa took care of Tate. I think we owe them one, but everyone seems to have survived pretty well!

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First things first: Panera Bread is offering free coffee and samples of their new breakfast items tomorrow- Wednesday, January 28. Thanks to Freebie Shoppe for the heads-up!

Officially, however, I’m not drinking coffee anymore. You see, when I had the flu a few weeks ago, I decided that avoiding caffeine was a small gift I could give to my miserable stomach. Which meant that I had caffeine-withdrawal headaches in addition to the rest of what ailed me.

I think you could say that caffeine is the last socially-acceptable addiction, whether your drug of choice is Diet Coke, Mountain Dew or good old coffee. I’m not the classic “I can stop any time I want” addict, though. For whatever reason, my body is fairly sensitive to the stuff- I generally have only one cup a day, but if I haven’t had that one cup, my head is aching by noon.

So now I’m trying to stay off the sauce. In the back of my mind, I’m thinking that I wouldn’t have to go through the withdrawal whenever we’re ready to get pregnant again. (I know you can have some caffeine during pregnancy, but I prefer not to, and last time I had a total aversion to the taste anyway.)

But oh, how I miss my coffee! It’s my happy thought in the morning, especially when Tate wakes up earlier than I would choose. I roll out of bed knowing that we’ll make our way downstairs, pick up the newspaper off the front steps, make some coffee for me and slice up a banana for him. It works on so many levels- the fragrant aroma, the warmth of a mug in my hands, and the pop of energy that gets me to the point when the sun has risen to join our day.

Decaf is giving me two out of those three, with the energy burst sorely missed. I think I have it figured out that I can occasionally have a cup of the good stuff if I go 3-4 days before having another. I think tomorrow might be one of those days- Panera here we come! 

Would anyone else like to confess to an addiction that helps you be a happier parent?

Photo Courtesy:
samantha celera
faeryboots

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3 Words: Tim Tam Slam

I first enjoyed this amazing treat while living in Japan; a friend from Australia brought some back from Christmas holiday. Back in the US, I looked for them in the international section at several stores without luck. More recently, my brother returned from a trip Down Under, raving about the Tim Tam Slam. Then suddenly last week, while I was wandering the aisles of Target, looking for stocking stuffers, there they were! I got 3 boxes of Tim Tams to share with my family over the holidays.

I’m thrilled to announce that “Australia’s Favorite Cookie” (but wouldn’t they say Favourite?) is available at a Target store near you for a limited time. Please go out and buy some today, so that Pepperidge Farm & Target continue to produce and sell this yumminess. To fully enjoy said yumminess, however, you also need to read (maybe print out?) this post. PF has risked underappreciation of the Tim Tam by neglecting to explain the best way to enjoy them.

They’re fudge-coated chocolate wafer cookies, with a choice of either chocolate creme or caramel filling between the wafers. Sounds good enough, right? But the real trick is to take a small bite off the 2 opposite corners, then dip one end into a hot drink (I recommend coffee or cocoa). Sip the other end like the cookie is a straw, and as soon as you feel the drink reaching your mouth, pop the entire thing into your mouth (the “Slam”). If you wait too long, you’ll end up with a chocolate mess in your hand. If you time it just right, A-mazing!

Yes, I know this is supposed to be a mommy blog…mommies like chocolate, right? And in the interest of these cookies being available when my son is old enough to eat them, I’m encouraging you to GO BUY SOME RIGHT NOW!!!!! They’d be a fun addition to whatever you’re doing for New Year’s Eve.

Think I’m a little over-enthusiastic? Check out NYC Food Guy‘s post. He’s also raving, and calling for positive feedback to Pepperidge Farm. Otherwise, they’ll only be available through March 2009. At the PF website, you can view videos made by other devotees. Also, here’s a coupon for $1 off your purchase. What are you waiting for? Put your kid in the car and get some Tim Tams!

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