Mommy stories

Lately, Audrey has taken to asking for "Mommy stories" at bedtime and naptime. A couple of months ago, tired of reading the same books she requests over and over (despite having tons of others that she never picks), I decided to tell her a made up story. I'm no author, so I pretty much just make everything up as I go along and use bits and pieces from stories she knows already. They range from ridiculous and short to sweet and long but she is enthralled by them. It's so fun to do something with so little effort by which she is just mesmerized. Lately, Nick has started telling his own, and at the end of one this morning, she just clapped and said "good job, Daddy!!" Here's an example of a story I tell often (with several variations). She knows it so well she fills in details now too, and picks the animals, which is so fun.

"Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Audrey and she wanted to go on an adventure. So she got her backpack and she filled it with her paci and lovey and owl blanket and Pooh and she told her mommy goodbye and left. She went walking down the road and what did she see but a frog sitting by the road and singing a song. (To the tune of whatever's in my head at the moment): "ribbit ribbit ribbit ribbit...." Audrey stopped for a minute and sang along with the frog, and then she thanked him and kept walking. Along the way she saw an elephant and it was giving itself a bath with its trunk. Audrey stopped and watched and then the elephant sprayed her all over with water. She laughed and laughed and then kept walking. A little ways away she saw a tiny mouse and he was crying. "What's wrong, little mouse?" Audrey asked. "I can't find my mommy!" The mouse replied. Audrey said "I will help you find your mommy" so they looked high and they looked low until finally Audrey found the mommy mouse behind a bush. The baby mouse squealed and hugged his mommy and said, "oh thank you for helping me find my mom!" "You're welcome!" Said Audrey. But then Audrey started to get sad because she missed her mommy so she said goodbye to the mice and went all the way back home where her mommy was waiting to give her a big hug. The End.

As a side note, pretty much all my stories end up with her hugging me, so she doesn't get any big ideas about taking a REAL adventure. ;)

Anyway, a fun memory-making opportunity came out of it, I guess.

Valentines

Audrey and I made Valentines for her friends at school and at church. Her school party was scheduled for tomorrow but Snowpocalypse round 2 is coming in so school has been canceled. I'm not sure if they will have the party or not now. The other Valentine's Day party we are going to will likely be moved back a day, so spoiler alert - here are the Valentines that she'll be giving out.

First we took the paper off a bunch of crayons (ok, I took a bunch of paper off crayons while Audrey transferred crayons to and from the bowl of water where they were soaking):

 Then we broke them in pieces and put them in this mini muffin mold:

Love this face - WHA???

Then we baked them and they got all swirly:

And here they are, all cooled off!  Fun craft! I didn't take a picture, but I glued each one on a piece of cardstock and wrote "Have a Colorful Valentine's Day! Love, Audrey"

Update on the vegetable sneak attack

So far so good. Audrey has had more vegetables in her in the last week than probably the last couple of months combined. And she doesn't even know it.

A couple of the recipes have turned out really well - Tortilla "Cigars" (kind of like taquitos, they have a mix of chicken, cheese, cream cheese, some spices, and yellow squash and carrot purees). She gobbled them right up and so did I - this was my favorite of the recipes I've tried so far.

 Sweet potato pancakes - another big hit with Audrey.

I've also made buttered noodles (with yellow squash) that she enjoyed, pita pizza with spinach pizza sauce, chicken alphabet soup (with cauliflower and sweet potato purees) and doughnuts with sweet potato and pumpkin purees. The misses have been macaroni and cheese with butternut squash (I may try it again and half the amount of sauce to put on the noodles - it was too thick), and grilled cheese sandwich with sweet potato mixed with the cheese - just too much texture for her.

Tonight she's having doctored chicken nuggets. This ought to be a major test since she doesn't like chicken all that much.

But so far I've been impressed and I feel like she's gotten some healthy foods in her!

Tricking my daughter

Unfortunately, Audrey hates meat and vegetables. Which makes dinners...not fun...at my house. She will eat a bite or two of what we feed her, but picks at absolutely anything that does not resembles cheese or bread.

So I'm resorting to hiding vegetables for awhile, to see if I can get some nutrients in her.

I purchased spinach, squash, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and peas at the store today, all vegetables she turns her nose up at. She WILL eat raw broccoli, carrots, and cooked green beans (though not much of those), but I may steam and puree those at some point as well.

I borrowed the book "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld and found a few recipes that I thought would go over well. Grilled cheese sandwich where the cheese is mixed with sweet potato puree. Delish! Hot "buttered" noodles where squash puree is mixed with butter and milk and then mixed with the noodles. I think she will go with it. And of course, the old standby, spinach puree in spaghetti/pizza sauce.

So here is the lineup of fresh veggies:

Steaming the peas:

Wilting the spinach:

Roasting the potatoes:

Steaming the squash:

Steaming the cauliflower:

 And then pureeing each to a smooth paste, just like I did when she was a baby. Haha!

This time, though, I have a Ninja, which is FAR superior to my old blender and doesn't leave chunks behind.

Then I scooped a 1/2 cup measure of each veggie into its own plastic baggie, labeled it, and threw it in the freezer. Here's hoping she will ingest some vegetables in the coming weeks!