M is for Monday & major rambling
I have to laugh at the title a little bit because I really don’t know where any of the words came from. I’m kind of scattered today and I suspect that this post will be as scattery as I am. So, my random thoughts for the night (it was day when I started this…)
Baby Food: I’m getting ready to move Logan into stage 2 baby food, which is wonderful, but there is a problem in my eyes. When I look at the “baby food aisle” the stage 2 foods are mostly dessert. Seriously people! What baby needs apple cobbler and peach pie? There were easily 3 desserts for every 1 vegetable in that aisle and I am just horrified. This is why Americans are fat folks… because we start our babies out with bad habits. I swear, Logan will not be eating banana creme pie or any other dessert until the cake I bake for him on his first birthday… the same goes for juice! Kids do not need all that sweet stuff. Water is just fine if they’re needing to be hydrated (aside from breast milk/formula) and water won’t rot their teeth out. The only time I will give juice is if there is an issue with constipation, then a glass of apple juice does the trick.
Hybrid Cars: Do any of you drive a hybrid? It has become painfully obvious that I need a bigger car. There is just not enough room in my sedan for a Logan’s car seat, Hunter’s booster seat, (often) Ella’s booster seat, Logan’s stroller, Hunter’s school stuff and so forth and so on. I have 2 boys folks and in the years to come there will be skis, football equipment, friends and so forth in the car… and as much as I hate to think that it is the way to go I think that I need to buy an SUV. The thing is that I don’t feel that SUVs in general are an environmentally responsible choice. So I am looking at two different hybrid SUVs. Anyone with experience with any kind of hybrid vehicle… I would appreciate your thoughts.
School: I cannot wait for school to start. 2 weeks from tomorrow Hunter will be a full time student! I know that he is going to love his class and his teacher and I know that I am going to love having him out all day learning and playing. On another note (same subject matter) School Lunches: Why is it that the food served at school lunch needs to be so freaking BAD for kids. Hot dogs, pizza, fried chicken… I’m sorry, but this again is a contributor to the obesity issue in America. If we don’t give our children healthy choices they will not learn to be healthy. I, for one, will not be getting “hot lunch” for Hunter at school. I am perfectly capable of packing him a yummy lunch that will give him energy and be nutritious.
Hunter: So, with the start of school getting closer and closer I asked Hunter last week what kind of “look” he wants to go for this year. Last year we settled for a kind of Preppy Grundge look which suited him well (he had a cool spiky/messy haircut that worked well with the look). Hunter looked at me (when I posed the question) and said, “Mommy. I want to go for a Punk Rock look this year.” Okay. Punk Rock. This is probably my fault because when we went to get his mohawk (which he is insisting on keeping for school) I said the following to the girl. “Can you do a mohawk? I don’t mean a faux-hawk or a high and tight cut… I mean a real 1980’s punk rock mohawk.” So, it’s my fault. I have obliged the wee Hunter though with lots of funky tshirts. The Ramones, CBGB, Green Day… lots of funky skulls and other graphic prints. He also has a brand new pair of black sneakers, lots of distressed jeans and some very cool accessories. I wonder how his teacher is going to react to his signature style.
Logan: My littlest dude is getting so big! He has 2 teeth now and today, stood up without holding on to anything. He has taken some preliminary wobbly little steps but so far has mostly landed on his bottom. I suspect that with the advent of getting to standing on his own today…. walking is just a couple of days off. Part of me loves that my kids walk early (remember, Logan is only 7 months old) yet there is another part that wishes they would just stop moving for one minute! Logan is the Prince of Jiggles. He has to be moving all the time! He won’t sit still for diaper changes, he hates being stuck in just one place and the only reason that I can get him to ever sleep is that I am still swaddling him up tight at night. I don’t know how much he likes this, but at least it keeps him from doing too much wiggling when he should be sleeping.
The Army: They tried to tell Tim this weekend that I had to attend a mandatory FSG meeting next month. I’m sorry, but I am not in the Army. I signed no contracts with them, they did not pay for my college and I do not owe them any of my time… they cannot demand that I attend any kind of meeting…. and since I think that the FSG is totally useless there isn’t much of a chance that I would go even if they asked me nicely. (Tim mentioned that they asked if I would be a volunteer this year and that he pretty much laughed in the woman’s face).
Okay… my bed is calling my name and my hands are hurting so much that I don’t think I can type any more. Keep your eyes out for a new freebie (tomorrow I hope) and have a wonderful wonderful week!
August 20th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Now that you mention the baby food and school food predicaments, I totally agree with you! Why doesn’t Hunter have a nice choice of grilled chicken breast and broccoli?? And not covered in cheese either! I hope that by the time my peanut reaches school age they will have done something about this problem!
August 20th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
I totally agree with you about baby food. Our future kids will be eating regular food put through the food processor. We don’t eat sugar or anything processed so it’ll be far better for them than anything you find in the baby food aisle.
August 20th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Okay, so I just commented on the papers then up popped another and my 2 cents is here. First, what does FSG stand for? I googled it and got some pretty interesting stuff but nothing that fit (one was an artistic site — surely not a fit!!!). I remember when the President of Band Boosters told me that our son’s grades wouldn’t be released until I submitted MY volunteer form for the next year. That was pretty quickly quashed by the principle — not quite the same but still the same. Forced servitude doesn’t suit me though I was generally glad to volunteer in the schools and did. Enjoy to feeding stage — our day will come!
August 20th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
I agree with you on the baby food, but my mom has been a cafeteria manager for years, and they are mandated by the federal government as to what they provide the kids. The hot dogs are probably made of turkey, the pizza, cinnamon rolls and most other bread products are made with wheat dough and splenda. They are required to serve a protein, a fruit, a vegetable, a bread and milk for every meal. Also, most likely the “fried” chicken is baked.
August 20th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
My neice is pregnant so I am sure I will be finding out similar issues from her in the next year or so!!!!! Still have a ways to go for school yet!! If you ever get a moment, I am still dying to hear the story about Brocade Home and how your studio turned out!!! You have a great week also!!
August 21st, 2007 at 4:30 am
OMG! I read your post and I am cracking up! Almost everything you mention (except the Army thing—what’s up with that???) I have been wrestling with as well. My son is 16 months and every mother’s day out/preschool I look at has menus of pizza, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, corn, etc. Crap, crap, and more crap!
Don’t get me wrong, I like having some junk food now and then (we ate some Wingstop last night as a matter of fact), but COME ON you can’t feed your kids like this everyday and not have serious health issues later. Regarding the baby food, I fed him organic baby foods from Earth’s Best http://www.earthsbest.com/ and Healthy Times http://www.healthytimes.com/htbabyfood.htm when he was little or I would just puree whatever we were eating. He really liked the soups, the vegetable turkey dinner, and anything with rice or green beans in it. I know they will drop ship to you, but I just went to Whole Foods and bought stuff so we could try it all and see what he seemed to like best (BTW—They offer a discount if you buy 24 jars at one time, but you have to ask for it…)
Let me know what your research shows on the Hybrid SUV’s I think we are getting close to having to go there as well…
Good luck!
Jaime
August 21st, 2007 at 7:20 am
What the heck is FSG?
DH is in the AF, and I have the same feelings about “mandatory” spouse meetings. I do feel like DH and I are in this together, but they cannot tell me what I have to attend; I didn’t sign on that line!
Hybrid! wahoo! I’m glad you’re going that way…my friend has a regular SUV, and she just told me they get 13 MPG. 13!!!! OMG, that’s about a third of what I get with my 15-yr old car!! *faints*
August 21st, 2007 at 7:42 am
Well, my wee one has been practicing standing on his own for a few seconds at a time lately, but I’m guessing Logan will end up beating him to yet another milestone.
I know what you’re saying regarding baby food, although believe it or not, there are actually a lot better choices now than there were 8-10 years ago. If I recall correctly, nearly every jar (except perhaps the Stage One types) had some kind of sweetener, starch, and/ or filler added in. Now at least if you read the labels you can find ones that have only “real food” in them, plus there’s several brands that carry organic varieties. Obviously it’s best to just make your own, but man, those little jars sure are convenient sometimes!
Can’t help you out in the vehicle department, as we drive a 15-passenger van - they haven’t made those environmentally friendly yet, that’s for sure!
Oh gosh, all this babbling and I nearly forgot to THANK YOU for those super-cool Build-a-Buds!
August 21st, 2007 at 8:13 am
Baby Food: I agree…my boys first desert was their 1st birthday cake!
School Lunch: They try but the choices at our school are still really bad. I do let my son ‘buy’ on Pizza Day, however.
Hybrid: Love the Hybrid Ford Escape…4 people in my family have it!
Kid fashion: Funny but my boys are also going toward Punk. Have to admit to leaning in that direction myself as I have been buying some really cool Wes&Willy shirts. However, they did pick out a bunch of ‘wish list’ clothes from MiniBoden…love the way they capture what kids want but keep it kid-like!
Freebies: Thanks so much!
August 21st, 2007 at 9:36 am
Don’t get me started on baby food… lol.. I think I took my daughter off of baby food as soon as she started trying to feed herself. I’d give her a little dessert but the majority of the time it was mostly tons of veggies. What I don’t understand is what’s with the graduate variety? Why would I spend the money on that when I can make it myself and it’s a lot healther for her?! Sorry I can’t help you with the hybrid issue. We’ve been thinking about one for the future as well but who knows when that will be. Right now we have a LandRover. With 3 children a dog and all of the army equipment my husband is constantly bringing back and forth to work it’s nice having a big vehicle. Though the gas prices are killer (probably why we got him a Harley). As for the Family Support group. I completely understand how you feel. I was the same way a couple of years ago. My husband is going on his 4th deployment within the next couple of weeks and he was put into a small group that no one knew what was going to happen with it. So in order to make sure that I get all the info about my husband that I can (and to make sure that the few wives in the plattoon get the same info) I volunteered to be Point of contact. It’s not something that I would have done a couple of years ago, but it’s my way of saying that I want to know what’s happening with my husband no matter where you put him. He’s infantry so if I don’t know who’s giving the info out I may not get any (that’s how it was until I started doing POC). As for them telling you it’s manditory, they can’t do that. They can tell your husband that something is manditory, but if you don’t want to go to a meeting or volunteer you don’t have to. If it’s manditory and you don’t want to go he’s required to go and get the info. There is also a form that you can fill out stating that you don’t want anything to do with the FRG or any info from them. They have to oblige by that. You can change that form at any time and get info. But as long as you signed the form stating not to be contacted they can’t contact you. Just don’t worry about that and ignore the fact that they’re trying to demand something out of you. FRG, or FSG as they as always trying to change it, is all volunteer and never manditory. Hugs to you.
Oh.. and thank you so much for for the wonderful freebies. You do amazing work and I always love to see what you’ve come up with when you do have something.
August 21st, 2007 at 2:36 pm
I am so glad to hear from you. I really have no idea what we are going to do whem our kids start eating real stuff. I am admittidly a sweet-a-holic and know that in order for my kids to be healthier I need to be healthier. It has been good lately since my DH is wanting to lose weight and eat better. I just need to follow more and not get so much junk stuff. It is really hard though since everytime i turn around the easy stuff to eat is the junk. It takes time and I have to deal with that.
we have also looked into hybrid SUV’s but we have a few years before we NEED to do anything about it. hopefully by then the hybrids will have gotten better.
Thanks so much for the build a buds can’t wait to use them. Type at you later chica.
Anna M.
August 21st, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Ok I don’t know much about hybrids but my lilttle sis just got a ford focus. And she said the gas mileage is AWESOME! I forgot how many mpg she said it got but I almost fell off my chair. I need a new car/truck soon and I was thinking about the ford hybrid. Now I am not a big fan of ford but i think they are trying to put out some seriuos compition lately.
At the risk of me sounding stupid-what does fgs mean?
I don’t know much about the baby foods they have now but i know when my little sister was a baby my mom made all of her food. We had a garden in the back yard and she would go and pick vegetables and comed in the house and make her food. I dont remember exactly how she did it though.
August 21st, 2007 at 7:10 pm
I’m sorry I forgot to say thanks bunches for the build-a-bud. Thanks again!
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Baby food: I got seriously annoyed with baby food even at stage 1. I have twin boys and they would BOTH turn their noses up at everything. Of course, I tasted it myself to see if they were just being extra finicky, but seriously, that stuff SUCKS. So I bought a Magic Bullet and spent an afternoon steaming, pureeing, and freezing all kinds of fruits, veggies, etc in ice cube trays. Each ice cube is basically an ounce, perfect! Once they got a bit older and were able to pretty much eat everything we could I just blended whatever we were having until it was just the right amount of chunkiness. I think birthday cake should be their first dessert, too!
August 24th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Decisions, decisions! Chosing the right vehicle now really does involve a responsibility to future generations! I get angry though because the market is not leaning toward the right choice and there’s not much incentive for us to make the responsible choice!
Same way with the baby food manufacturers. They know that the mamas want to see the babies smile and LOVE their food, so they fill it with sugar and carbs. Then not only do we have obese children, but the incidence of type 2 diabetes is skyrocketing (compared to 20 years ago) for children! (and adults!)
We are on day 23 of over 90 degrees. No rain either. Our cities and county are implementing water restrictions. It’s a sad thing to see your garden starve to death! (especially when you invest a small fortune in it!)
I’m rambling too! I’ve decided that I can’t wait for summer to be over. This has been the hottest one I’ve experienced here in SC and I flat don’t like it!
This is a college town so the population is swelling as the students returned this week. Everyone is in transition and fuses are short with the heat and humidity! I think its a good time to visit Australia!!!!! Let’s go!
The library pages are gorgeous and thanks for the buds.
HUGS!