Author: kayris

Earlier this year, when my city was faced with a budget crisis, the mayor started making noises about eliminating bulk trash pick up. I knew the time had come to tackle a major chore I had been putting off for years–cleaning out the basement, thankfully we were able to  get a loan on the same day we decided the crisis was going to get us. With the introduction of sms lån service it is clear that telecom service providers want to give better and new services to their customers at affordable price. In case of emergency, SMS loan service will help you to 50 local and national SMS in your mobile number immediately. The loan amount has to be repaid by you on the next day with an interest depending upon the loan amount. Some of the operators have limited options to choose from a list of SMS plans. However, some operators are flexible in terms of plans and they let you choose the desired amount as per your wish. Do you need a car title loans? Essentially, you’ll need to send in photos of your vehicle or take the vehicle to a title loan specialist and the lender will appraise its condition and provide an estimate of the vehicle’s value using Car Title Loans in Los Angeles website. You can follow the process below to get advance SMS to you mobile number in less than a minute !

I’m not normally a procrastinator, but the enormity of this project was keeping me from forming a plan and getting to it. Our basement is accessible only by a very heavy trapdoor in the floor, and has low ceilings. Over the years, my husband and I had gotten into the bad habit of shoving things anywhere down there and it had become messy and crowded. I truly had no idea exactly what we had stored down there. However it has happened, your hard-earned cash is now spread so thin you cannot manage your debt effectively any more. Yet you have more options for Columbus purchase than you think.

As I said, I did it. A big part of creating order down there involved giving away or selling baby and toddler gear and clothing that we no longer needed, so I could help with the debts, and I help her with a contact so she could be able to get a loan and a business loan agreement with a professional. Out went the double stroller, the baby toys, the infant pool float and the baby pool. I gave the pack n play to a friend having her first child, and the changing table and boppy pillow to another friend.

The basement looks great, but I realized the other day that my house is no longer a baby and toddler friendly place. We don’t have gates anymore. Outlet plugs don’t always get replaced when they are removed. Legos and other chokables are on low shelves. When friends with little ones come over, I try to remove the obvious hazards, but the parents need to be on their toes for everything else.

Earlier this year, we went out to dinner with family, including my brother and SIL and their then-20-month-old son. My nephew was seated next to me, and when I accidentally put my large steak knife down next to my plate, within reach of him, my brother leaned over, rolled his eyes at me and relocated the knife. He figured I would know better, but it’s funny how quickly your forget. My kids don’t grab knives, put non-food items in their mouths, or need help getting off the couch or up the stairs.

I’ve forgotten what it’s like to scarf down your food while your partner walks with the baby outside. I’ve forgotten what it’s like to plan things around naptime. Stroller accessibility doesn’t play into my choices of where to go. I no longer have diapers or baby wipes on me at all times. In fact, I carry a regular purse.

I’m enjoying all the stages as my kids, now 6 and going on 4, grow up, but I’ve also found that it makes me feel a little disconnected from friends with babies. I love it when my Facebook friends post photos of their newborns, but find I have little to contribute when it comes to baby questions because so much has changed in just a few short years. When mine were small, it was okay to let your baby sleep in his infant carseat, crib bumpers were thick and padded, and pediatricians still recommended waiting to introduce peanuts until age 3. Many of my friends are just starting their families and my family is in a completely different place. How do you connect with a friend that wants/needs to talk about teething and breastfeeding when you want/need to talk about sending your child to school and peer pressure?

It reminds me a little of after high school, when the people who went to college drifted away from people who went directly to jobs, or the time after college when people who got married drifted away from their single friends.

What do you think? Have you been able to remain friends with people at a different life stage? Have your children changed your friendships with childless couples? Has the age of your kids made it difficult to stay friends with other parents?

The other day, I made lunch for myself and my two kids. Chicken sandwiches on wheat bread all around, apple sauce for them and a pickle for me. I was putting dirty utensils into the sink when I turned around to see that my 5 year old son had snatched the pickle off my plate, taken a bite, handed it to his sister, who also took a bite and handed it back to him. When he looked up and saw me watching him, he said, “I like it! I like pickles!” He took another bite, then placed what was left back on my plate.

Germ sharing aside, I couldn’t help but marvel at how far this once super picky child of mine has come. And within the confines of my brain, I heaved a giant sigh of relief and thought, “Yes! It finally paid off.”  In this photo, they enjoy a dinner of Asian Pork Linguine, broccoli and cantaloupe.

Picky eating is common among 1 to 3 year olds, and part of the reason is because it’s developmentally normal. As growth slows down, children eat less because they need less. But it’s also incredibly common for a child for a child who once ate everything with gusto to suddenly slam on the brakes and refuse to eat once favorite foods, certain textures, or any type of vegetable. It can be alarming.

As they get older, most picky kids will expand their palates and begin to eat more, but the key for you as a parent is getting through those picky years with your sanity intact. Some picky kids will indeed grow into picky adults (my brother does most of the cooking in the house because his wife found it impossible to cook for him when there are so many foods he won’t touch), but if you teach good habits now, even those picky adults with limited diets can be healthy and happy.

Some tips that have worked for me:

• Acknowledge your child’s right to not like certain foods–Chances are there are foods you don’t like, foods that are quite good for you. I’m not crazy about most kinds of seafood, pearl onions, or pancakes, and I won’t touch zucchini, beets or eggplant with a ten foot pole. Sure, presenting a food ten or twenty times might convince your child to eat it in the end, but then again, maybe not. Don’t be surprised if your child won’t eat foods that you don’t like either. Food preferences are partially genetic.
• Keep your expectations realistic–Sure, you know that avocado mashed with pepper and some lemon juice makes a scrumptious swap for mayo on a sandwich, but to your toddler, it’s a funny color and a strange texture. Go ahead and introduce foods that you drool over, but don’t blow a gasket if your two-year-old balks at kale.
• Model healthy eating–Take a look at your own eating habits. Do you skip meals, guzzle coffee or munch on junk all day? If your own food habits are less than stellar, try to clean them up a little. Kids notice things, and they’ll be quick to call you on what they perceive as hypocrisy.
• Try peer pressure–At my children’s preschool, the only food allowed for snack is fresh fruit. So my kids take a lot of bananas and apple slices, which are fruits they both eat well, but seeing other kids eat other fruits meant they each added one or two fruits to their “approved” list. It doesn’t have to be another child too. Seeing mom chow down on sweet potatoes is powerful. Eat as a family or invite an adventurous eater over and see what happens.
• Take advantage of distraction–If you’re truly worried about the volume or variety that your child eats, try getting them to eat when they are otherwise distracted. Many kids will mindlessly polish off a bowl of baby carrots while watching TV. I got my own son to eat melon a few weeks ago at the beach by following him around asking him to take a bite here and there while he was playing with his friends.
• Reconsider cooking separate meals–Do you make separate food for your picky eater? Be careful, because your child might start to treat you like a short order cook. My first child had a milk allergy when he was younger, and in the interest of getting calories into him, I did make him special meals, food I knew he would almost always eat. But when he got demanding, I quit. For the most part, the kids eat what my husband and I eat. I do try to keep their preferences in mind, making sure there is at least one thing on the menu that they like. The transitional period was rough, but both kids now know that they are expected to sit down with the family and eat what I cooked. They don’t have to eat something if they don’t want to, but I also won’t be making something else in it’s place.
• Make “kid food” healthy–Chicken is a good source of protein and potatoes are loaded with potassium. Homemade versions of kid friendly food will set your mind at ease when it comes to the nutritional profile.
• Watch your portion sizes–Think back to when you were pregnant, suffering from morning sickness, and a full plate of food had the power to turn your stomach and make you not want to eat at all. For a picky eater, being presented with too much food can be overwhelming. Keep portions kid sized and if you’re cooking a food on the “non-approved” list, make the portion even smaller.
• Look at the big picture–Some days, both my kids eat well, other days one eats well while the other picks, and some days neither seems to eat much of anything. If you’re worried, take a look at what your child eats over the course of a week or two and you’ll probably see that he or she eats more than you think.

And finally, hang in there. It gets better. It really does. My pickle snatching, watermelon eating, edamame snarfing 5-year-old is living proof.

Learning something when you’ve been told you need to know it is pretty boring sometimes. Following your child’s lead and letting natural interests develop is a lot more interesting.

My almost 6-year-old is having a lot of fun with this large map, finding the places he has heard about, comparing how far they are from Baltimore, and finding the corresponding flag for that country (pictured at the bottom of the map).

Today’s geography lesson came about after my 3 1/2 year-old daughter, while eating a banana, announced that monkeys like to eat bananas, but why do we never see monkeys in Baltimore (not counting at the zoo)? Her brother answered that monkeys live in jungles, like in Africa. In this photo, he shows her the distance between the US and Africa.

While we had the map out, we also talked about how many continents and oceans there are, the difference between countries and states, and how an island that is nowhere near the country it belongs to can still be a part of that country. And we added a new place to our list–Indonesia, where a neighbor is currently visiting relatives. Both kids listened with rapt attention, something I can say I never displayed during geography lessons in school.

My son will attend a traditional school in the fall, but I’m enjoying working with him at home and letting him choose the lesson of the day.  He’s taking me places I wouldn’t go on my own.

Where have your children’s interests taken you?