Good Eats

I wanted to share with everyone a really great article that my sister in law sent to me, it's called Raising An Adventurous Eater and if you don't have the time to read it (but I highly recommend it) I'll highlight the author's main points:

1) Exposure: Expose kids to new foods often but keep in mind that it may take several offerings to get them to try it.

2) No Pressure: Never force a child to eat something

3) No Junk Food: offering kids unhealthy over processed foods with too much sugar and salt desensitizes their taste buds to where they will not enjoy the flavor subtleties of more wholesome foods.

4) Involvement: I love this one! Involve your child in preparing, picking, and growing food.

5) Example: lead by example, of course SO important. I need to work on this one : )

This is my food philosophy since reading this article. I'm certainly no health food Nazi since I admit to regularly giving the boys vienna sausages (hahaha, but they really like them!). I'm happy to report that the boys have yet to have any out right junk food! That's right, no candy, cookies, ice cream, fast food, cakes, pies, microwave dinners, soda, or even juice. I'm sure there's been occasions where they've gotten "tastes" perhaps intentionally or unintentionally by others. So many of our adult eating habits are formed before the age of 5 so it's very important to give our kids a good start.

I thought it would be a really big challenge but really it has been a breeze. If baby doesn't know what it is and has never eaten it then baby won't ask for it, crave it, or want it. It's as simple as that! The biggest challenge has been leading by example because they always want to try what I'm eating and many times they end up eating half of my breakfast, lunch or snack. So I have to be careful when sneaking in a cookie to be out of sight and yes I know I will need to kick the habit as they get older : )

I'm excited about our veggie patch this year and I am hopeful for a good growing season and time to care for it. I have two blueberry bushes I planted a couple of years ago and can't wait to let the boys go to town on it, I have a feeling they'll clear the bushes in one go! When the boys are a little older we are getting them each a chick so that we can have chickens and best of all delicious organic eggs!

 I had to take a picture of this rare occurrence, everyone is up at the same time from nap and happy!

 Good things come in small packages : )

 Check out our new Ergo carrier, it's so awesome and good till 40lbs!

 I don't understand their obsession with paper and am constantly swiping it out of their mouths. I let them go to town on some junk mail to see if they'd just get it all out and not be so interested in it anymore. Well they were in heaven and probably ate a pound of it each. I don't think my plan worked though : (

 Some fun with stickers

Unlike real t.v. the boys love watching videos of themselves, what egos!

.

Baby Updates

It happened as clear as day, I asked Caleb if he wanted more (without even signing it myself) and he signed back to me! He got lots of praise and kisses, so now they all know the sign for 'more!'

The boys all wave bye-bye now, but only if they feel like doing it. 

Caleb silently snaps his fingers, so cute!

Caleb points at everything now and is constantly hyper extending his lips which makes him look like a duck. 

Phil witnessed Caleb and Thomas going back and forth pointing at something and babbling on and on to each other. 

Eli popped a new tooth on the bottom. He now has 4 on top and 4 on bottom. That's one more tooth than Thomas and two more than Caleb.

Happy Friday to everyone and congrats to Phil! He passed the first of 6 exams towards getting his architectural Licence, it's quite the process to even qualify to start taking the exams. Next one is in March!