It's All In a Self-Assigned Name

It won't come as a huge surprise that the variety of vegetables that Ava will eat is small. She'll eat canned peas, but not frozen. She'll eat raw carrots with ranch, but not cooked carrots. She'll eat sweet potato fries, but not mashed sweet potatoes. And regular fries of course. And that's about it. No corn, no green beans, no tomatoes, no broccoli or cauliflower.

I finally resorted to subterfuge. I went back to making baby food essentially. (I still love my Baby Cook.) I steam and purée vegetables like butternut squash and carrot in batches. I freeze the purée in ice cube trays. Then I defrost and mix the cubes into her food whenever it wouldn't be noticed. I can get two cubes into her morning yogurt, for instance.

A couple of days ago I was making a batch of sweet potato. I had steamed and puréed it and was in the process of spooning it into ice cube trays when Ava came by to check out the action. She observed in silence for a few moments and then demanded, "I want some icing!"

I thought for a moment about correcting her assumption that the puréed sweet potato was icing, but that just seemed a waste of a golden opportunity. Instead I said, "Well, you can have one taste." Then I let her try a taste from the tip of my finger.

She made a face and I thought that would be the end of it, but a moment later she piped up with, "Mama, can I have a bowl of icing?". You can bet that I scooped sweet potato right back out of the ice cube trays and put it in a bowl for her. She then proceeded to eat three small bowls (about 4 ice cubes) worth of sweet potato. I guess sometimes it really is all in the name.

(It probably helped that she was starving because she didn't like anything I served for dinner that night.)

Busy Book - Chalkboard 2-Page Spread

Busy Book / Quiet Book Chalkboard

This 2-page spread is my favorite so far. On the right is a chalkboard. On the left is two pockets. One contains an eraser I made out of three layers of felt and the other contains a piece of chalk. There are also drawing ideas on the left. There are nine different simple shapes and drawings made of combinations of simple shapes for the children to copy.

Busy Book - Apple Tree Page

Busy Book / Quiet Book Apple Tree Page

One of my goals in making this busy book is to include a wide variety of fine motor activities. One way to do that is to use a wide variety of fasteners.

• The Shape/Color Matching Page uses velcro.
• The Caterpillar Numbers and Patterns Page uses magnets.
• The Underwater Bead Maze Page involves moving beads along string and feeding the beads through loops.

This new page uses hooks and eyes. The apples attach to the tree with hooks and eyes and the children can also choose to put a couple of apples in the basket. It is simple in concept, but provides variety in execution. You could also do this exact same concept using snaps, velcro, magnets, or even buttons.