Meal Time Battles

Claire has always been a good eater, chowing down on pretty much anything we put in front of her from 6 months on. Until last month. Suddenly she was picky. Suddenly her favorite meals were not her favorites anymore. Yes yes I know, toddlers, they can be like this. Yet something told me she wanted the food, something was just wrong. She wasn't sleeping well, waking up hungry at night and I was bleary eye from twilight feedings. Then TA DA! It clicked. Claire isn't a picky eater, at all. Claire just doesn't like MEALS. She likes snacks. So we took some of her favorite meals and broke them down into simple parts, serving her a bento box style dinner, essentially the same meal but just separated into its components. Suddenly she ate! EVERYTHING! And she slept, through the night again! So if you are going through an odd and sudden picky phase with your toddler why not give this a try, heck we moms will try anything right?! And honestly...making bento style meals is fun! This was Claire's dinner last night, and she ate every single bite

Rather then giving her a pitta sandwich with hummus and lettuce, edamame/avocado guacamole, and apple slices for dessert.....I served her pitta strips, romaine lettuce hearts for dipping in the hummus, steamed edamame, avocado chunks with some lime juice on it and of course her apple slices! YUMO!

Tutorial: Make a Nature Themed Sensory Box

I am a big fan of sensory tables for kids but they can be very costly to buy/build. Claire's Nana does have plans for one her, but to tide us over until it is ready I made us a makeshift one in a matter of minutes...and you can to!

A sensory table is an activity centre that encourages child led play and exploration, stimulating a child's keen senses. Being that it is fall I thought I would make a nature inspired one with different shapes and textures. The first thing I did was find a long rectangular box and reinforce it with some packing tape.

Then I went through my tupperwear cupboard to find some interesting shaped containers that were missing lids, instant containers for different nature finds! I traced the bottom of these on the top of the box. Because tupperwear has a lip to it for the lid to snap on to they were perfect for whats coming next....

Next I cut out the shapes I had traced making perfectly sized holes that I could slide the containers into so that Claire could reach inside the sensory box to discover items. Before I inserted them, I painted the box black, it could be any color you want though! Once the paint had dried I slid the containers in and filled them with little bits of nature that Claire and I found on a recent trip to the beach.

Pine cones, drift wood and big (non-choke size) rocks in all sorts of shapes and colors. A West Coast themed sensory box that took me 20 minutes and no money to make!