10 top tips for....Cooking with Toddlers

When it comes to cooking with your toddler (or two) the prospect can be daunting.
You know theres going to be alot of mess over the floor, the kitchen, the toddler and yourself, its probably going to take a long time, they will eat raw cake mix and it will taste a bit funny.
But its so much fun that it really is all worth it, and here's my top tips for maximizing fun and minimizing the mess!

1) Pick a simple recipe with only a few ingredient and if you've got particularly young children try to find one with a small cooking time.

2) If possible bring a low table (I always use my coffee table from the lounge) into the kitchen so that the kids    can work at their height. This is safer as it saves wobbling off stools near counter tops and keeps little fingers away from, hob rings etc.

3) Invest a few pounds in a plastic table cloth, or buy some plasticated cloth from a fabric shop, we got ours (although it looks like I didnt bother with it for the picture, oops!) from the sale section of CH Fabrics for £5) this will protect your table and surrounding area from mess as it'll only take a wipe to get it all clean at the end, and also lets the kids know that this is a time its okay to get messy.

4) Let kids help to measure out ingredients. A toddler will be fascinated by your weighing scales, jugs spoons etc and you can talk about numbers, quantities etc in a way that's relevant to them, eg. How many eggs do we need? 'one, two'

5) Get stuck in, let them stir, rub, and mash things together, dont worry about a bit of mess on your tots it will all come off with a lick or a bath!

6) Join in! If your kids see you having fun and enjoying cooking they will too

7) When choosing what to cook decide whether it will be healthy, or a treat and then talk about this when your cooking. E.g. 'isnt this cake mix yummy, so sweet this will make a nice treat for pudding'

8) Let children cut ingredients up with plastic scissors. So many recipes need things cutting up but if your clever and pick the right recipes then most cutting can be limited to soft items suitable for the scissors! good example of food to cut with scissors are, ham, cheese slices, cooked spaghetti, bananas, bread etc. Try to avoid letting children handle raw meat/fish

9) Look at the food before it is cooked and talk about how it looks, ask what they think it might turn out light after cooking. Look again when the food is cooked, were you right? Will it stay that way when it is cool.

10) Eat and enjoy, kids love sharing what they've made and receiving praise for it. They are also much more willing to try new things if they've had a hand in making them.

Here come the hens

Well this weekend Im heading down to Brighton for my Hen Do.
Its crazily early as we're not getting married until October but was the only time that me and my two bridesmaid could do all at once (we're defiantly growing up if theres only 1 Saturday we're all free in 3 months!).

At the moment Im really not sure if Im exited at the prospect of a night out on the piss with 6 girls or slightly terrified! It has been 3 and a half long years since I had anything like a drinking session so Im pretty sure im going to be horribly out of practice in comparison to my footloose and fancy free companions (except my Sister in Law to be who will hopefully be there to rescue me if I get too horribly drunk!).

Im heading down on the Friday night to see my brother who still lives in Brighton, and then Saturday night with the girls so I will actually be away for 2 nights. I was chatting to the other half about this and realised I actually haven't spend a night away from Thomas ever, and it must be well over 4 years since I spend a night actually on my own. (if you count small babies as company!) so its definatly going to be strange and Im completely undecided whether I feel liberated at the prospect of two whole days dribble, dirty nappy, trouser grabbing free time or if Im just going to horribly miss my babies!

We're also skint so we're all going to try to squish into a 1 bed flat with a sofa bed (interesting for 6) so I'll have to make sure to pack a few extra home comforts...although I do feel its my right as bride to be to bags half the double bed!
Drinks will have to be on err..everyone else :o) *hopefully eyes*

Also no plan has been formed just meet around midday, eat and drink and hope the weathers nice enough to sit on Brighton's STONY beach. (just checked the beeb not loving the 'light rain' predicted for Saturday and neither is my hair)


I do at least hope that means I'll be avoiding strippers and giggling bits though!

Not sure quite where Im going with this, just aargh Im going to miss my babies, and Iv aged so horribly that what Im most looking forward to is a nice long lie in on Saturday morning and the chance to have an uninterrupted shower!

Im sure you'll all see my drunken tweets over the weekend! and hopefully I'll still be alive to write a post about it next week!

Silent Sunday

To Treat or Not To Treat

While I was nipping round my local Tesco this morning I bumped into a lady who's son also goes to Alice's preschool.
His birthday is today (he's 4 so in the Butterflies group not Alice's caterpillars) and she was telling me how having dropped him off this morning she was asked where the sweets were to give to the other children.
Consequently she was rushing round Tesco's stocking up on suitable junk for his party and for preschool.

I couldn't help but comment that i was shocked to hear that the preschool had actually requested that she bring in sweets to dish out.
When it was Alice's birthday on a playgroup day last summer I cautiously bought in a cake unsure whether this might annoying other mothers that I was promoting junk to their kids!

I'm now left pondering exactly which line of thought is the best!


Should we be discouraging our kids from eating sugary junk or is it actually the opposite that these treats are in fact designed for kids for a very good reason!

And also as much as I really do love Alice's preschool is it really right that for every child's birthday the kids are dished out packs of parent provided sweets that they are left eagerly clutching at collecting time. Presumably this is incase you didn't want your kid to eat them, but surely they must know the very fact their frantically clutching the packet is allowing it in the first place. I'm yet to see a single parent not just open it to ensure a peaceful walk home!

With Alice's 3rd birthday fast approaching and it falling on her one preschool day (at her other preschool) for the holidays I'm left very confused about what approach to take...without even mentioning the whole party issue!

The kindness of children

This is just a short post because I'v been very distracted over the last few days and struggled to finish my thoughts into anything I'v thought fit to inflict on the world!

I went into the doctors for what I thought was a routine question and having been referred to a different doctor for tests am now left feeling a bit anxious and worried and also having told my close family like maybe Im worrying them for nothing.
While Im sure this is the case, I still seem to be unmanageably stressed out by this!

I have both the kids at home all day on a thursday and had been dreading it a little to be honest, but actually this morning we all cuddled up o the sofa to watch disney films for hours and the children behaved themselves brilliantly all day, either playing nicely together (miracle!) or giving out nice hugs.
When Alice saw me looking sad and stressed this morning she instantly came over asked 'are you alriiiiight mummieeee' and then despite my reassurances that I really was fine and just being silly I was given a massive cuddle and 'its okay'.
From this point onwards I was much more upbeat and cheerful, partially because it genuinely did cheer me up, and partially because It made me think just how sensitive and connected children (even 2 year olds!) really are, and was amazed at how genuine her concern really was.

Just a tiny reminded that those babies we made, however troublesome and loud really can be mini miracles.

Comforters

My children have always been so different, that its impossible not to compare, because next to nothing they do is they same.

While Alice was walking at 1, Thomas was talking and while Alice is a thrill seeking explorer Thomas seems to have more of a practical problem solving sort of nature.

I was one of those non-mums who would loudly declare in my pre-baby days that my children where not going to have dummies, wouldnt be eating in macdonalds and wouldn't be shouted at in the street. I have so far broken all three of these 'rule'
However I feel in no was ashamed of that, because once you have kids, you realize what a stuck up idiot you actually were before!

I gave Alice a dummy in desperation when she was 3 weeks old, as I couldn't bare the crying (from either of us!) any more. In my moment of weakness I grabbed for the pack someone had sent us in a gift parcel and let Alice enjoy the sweet relief this seemed to provide us all to her hearts content.
I didn't even stop to notice that this was a pack of old fashioned cherry teat dummies, and in my opinion as with everything that wasn't designed in the last 5 years, this actually did the job, Alice fell in love with it, and became a grade A dummy addict within a matter of days!

Eventually the dummy had its problems though, like being thrown out of into the road for me to retrieve and err 'clean' and I was worried that Alice's speech may even have been slowed a little (possibly just a buggys pushy health visitor though!) and by the time Thomas was born she was allowed night time dummies only.
She is not quite three and this is still important for her, we have begun talk of the magical dummy fairies coming when she is 3 and im sure they'll be more on this to follow.

Back to the point though, consequently this was her most important 'comforter' and a string of toys have been givern pride of place with her finallly settling on a Jingling pink rabbit called 'Jelly' that she was given as a gift (therefore I now cant find more) and cant wash because of its bell! but she has never really struggled to settle down as long as the dummy has been there.

With Thomas I made sure he got the 'right' dummies from the start, and he reluctantly accepted that they may just be better than nothing and they did help him to settle as a small baby.
When we moved house (and kicked him out our room) last summer I decided that 6 months was a good time to take the dummy away full stop (most unfair as Alice was still parading hers around at bedtime) and Thomas has had to find alternative ways of comforting himself.

A few months ago I realized he was able to turn on his Rainforest PeekaBoo mobile himself, and we had a week of sleepless night when the batteries ran out, as this is clearly important to him. I have ignored the 'remove after 6 months' guidelines for the sake of everybody's sanity (and it cost far too much for 6 months use!!).
His other 'comfort' object strangely enough seems to be books. He will not settle for either bedtime or naps unless he is given at least one and preferably two interesting books.
I'll them hear him giggling and cooing away for about 20 minutes before he actually falls asleep.
I havent encouraged this on him, but do find it unbelievably cute!

My top bedtime book suggestions are:

Thomas Meltdown

Argh,
I just had the biggest toddler tantrum meltdown in the world.

Dropped Alice off to playgroup, wizzed round to Asda to grab some bits and pieces for the weekend (hopefully of a barbaque tomorrow) and saw Thomas had just dozzed off in the car.
Normally to wake him up is no problem and he is his usual merry self once he's in the trolly, but not today!

He screamed when I put him in, and was grumbling while we went into the shop, bumped into a friend and spent 2 minutes chatting, this was two minutes too long for Thomas though who deceided to start shrieking (that high pitched cry that sounds more like its indedned to attrackt wild dogs!) so I made my excuses and off up the aisles we went.
The noises didnt stop, I tried caliming him down, only to get slapping added to the problems, I tried telling him off, which increased the volume, I tried ignoring him for 10 minutes and then I tried feeding him the things I hadnt paid for yet!

None of the above seemed to work, and if anyone has any better ideas PLEASE tell me them!

We had only been 20 minutes when I deceided to give up, having a trolly full of purely junk we basically dont need from the attempts to grab things.
It got no better at the check out where taking him out the trolly for a cuddle only seemed to incite more slapping of mummy.
I was feeling like the lowest, scummiest mummy possible while the ladie infront of me deiced to chat to the checkout assistant for at least 2 minutes instead of paying, and I was about ready to burst into tears by the time my shopping was being scanned through.
I thought my order was surely over but no, the old lady returned and in her attempt to 'help' kept taking the shopping I had packed out of bags in my trolley and trying to pass them to Thomas, all this led to was double packing and double screaming, I sunk to new lows though by actually telling her she wasn't helping.

I now feel like the world worst mum, and am dreading the prospect of waking Thomas up in 10 minutes so we can pick Alice up.

2 coffees and a *aherm* packet of sweets later I am at least feeling calm(ish) again.

Lesson learnt, men hate shopping, avoid taking any age of male human shopping at all costs!