Tiny office manager

The other day I looked up and saw Ben walking around the office holding his toy tablet like this.

He would look at a toy, then glance down at his tablet, poking around on it a bit.  I think he was taking some sort of inventory, but I'm not entirely sure.

He was very busy, and he was very serious about it.  Everything appeared to be in order though, as he soon went back to playing.

Good thing we have a dedicated office manager to keep this place in line!

-Kim

Little pool

 Meo and Omi found a little pool for Ben to play in!  I think it's a good way to get us to bring Ben over to their place more. ;)  We tried it out for the first time on Father's Day.  Ben adored it!!  He loved that he could get in and out on his own, and that is was just his size.  He could sit in it, and practice putting his face in.  We all sat on the deck with Ben playing in his pool, happy as can be.  Plus, since the pool is so small it is easy to fill and empty.  I think it's going to be a summer staple and Meo and Omi's.

Yep, Tupperware for the win!

Belly flop!

Daddy got in on the fun!

Ben is just so happy when he is swimming!  I love it.  Be ready for a few more months of swimming pictures- it's Ben's favorite!

-Kim

Swimming with Daddy!

On Father's Day Pat jumped in the pool with Ben for his swim lesson!  Ben is getting a lot more comfortable in the water.  He didn't fuss or complain at all this time, he hopped right in.  He even put his face in several times!  He is really turning into a little water bug!  Both guys did a great job and had a lot of fun.  

Happy guys!

Ben looked back to make sure Meo, Omi, and I were watching a lot, but he was a lot more focused this week!  I loved watching my boys bond in the water.  Can't wait for all the swimming opportunities to come!

-Kim

Healthy eating balanced with summer fun (BFBN)

Today the ladies of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network (BFBN) are all posting tips and ideas for summers with kids.  I'm talking about one of my favorite things- food.  Summer is a great time for food.  Grilling hot dogs, ice cream at the river, and let's not forget all the festivals.  Pat and I adore that stuff.  Anything crazy or new or deep fried- we want to try it.  Now, this is not really the healthiest course of action.  We know this as adults, and try to balance out these 'fun' foods with healthier fare.  We want to share our love of fun summer foods with Ben, but also teach him how to balance it with healthy foods.  There are a few main ways we try to do this during the busy summer months.

Gotta keep this little eater healthy!

Eat Healthy While at Home
I know this sounds obvious.  But after a long summer day filled with work or fun, the last thing most of us want to do is figure out what to cook for dinner.  I stick to meal planning so I have a guide for the week.  My summer go-to when I don't want to cook much- grilling.  Grilling is a great option.  We can play outside while Pat cooks for us.  Grilled meats thrown on a salad is a no-brainer healthy meal.   Corn on the cob is plentiful around these parts.  Hobo packets can be filled with anything and prepped the night before.  Slow cooker stews can still be good in the summer.  It isn't always what you might think of on a hot summer day.  But anything that helps me get dinner on the table is a good thing.  Tacos are a great quick meal, and so are pastas with vegetables.

For Ben, normal healthy eating means good proteins, smoothies, fresh fruit, and pouches.  I make his pouches myself so I know exactly what is in them.  We are trying to get him to eat veggies as is, but, well, you can imagine how that works most of the time.  I try to ninja  vegetables into everything I can with him.  He has a smoothie and a pouch almost every day, so I know I can get at least a couple servings of veggies in him that way.

We also try to keep a ton of fresh fruit in the house.  Ben adores it.  Watching him eat it gets Pat and I to eat more as well.  The prices are lower in the summer, so I tend to stock up.  Whatever I think we won't eat I pop in the freezer to use in smoothies and pouches.

Plan for Success on the Go
I try to plan ahead as much as possible.  Summers are busy times, but I have to take a diaper bag with me everywhere and adding a couple of snacks to it isn't very hard.  Raisins are an easy one.  Apricots travel well and don't have the added sugar a lot of dried fruits have.  You can take dates, peanut butter, and oats to make a date bar to go.  Again pouches are awesome.  In the summer I don't put any yogurt in them, so they can last longer out of the fridge.  I freeze them, and they do double duty as an ice pack.  Pretzels are a treat for Ben that are easy to stick in your bag and not worry about.  I also make sure to bring a couple of water bottles with us so we can always have a healthy drink.  With these options I can make sure that Ben has some sort of good for him option to eat.

Sometimes you find yourself out and you haven't packed food for the kid.  Well, that isn't too hard either.  Pretty much every fast food restaurant, and really almost any restaurant has some sort of grilled chicken.  It could be a sandwich or on a salad, but it's there.  Ben will always eat grilled chicken.  Pair it with any fruit the place has and you are good to go.

Enjoy Yourself!
Finally, we enjoy ourselves over the summer.  We try to keep to healthy eating 80-90% of the time.  That means when we go to festivals and bbqs we can relax a little.  I try to look for not too terrible options at these sorts of events, but honestly the terrible for you food is part of the fun!  We are trying to teach Ben to enjoy food while still being healthy, so yes, we let him try a bunch of stuff too.  The key is to try to keep only to things you can't get at home.  I don't mind the occasional funnel cake because I know we only have one or two a year.  And yes, we try some of the strange deep fried concoctions.  We don't deep fry at home, meaning it is for sure a special treat.  I try to enjoy the treats and not beat myself up over it.  True, we sometimes eat more unhealthy things than we should at these events.  But we usually complement them with more hiking, swimming, and physical play as well.

Enjoying a balance of healthy food, tasty treats, and dancing!

Overall, we aim for healthy food whenever possible.  But we want to enjoy ourselves as well.  I think we are on our way to finding a decent balance between the two.

What other healthy summer eating tips do you have?  Feel free to share them with me!

-Kim

Be sure to check out the other ladies today as they post about summer with kids.



Amy Schlichter
Apffel a Day
Chronicles of a Babywise Mom
Faithfully Infertile
Giving it Grace
The Journey of Parenthood
The Moses Home
My Devising
Team Cartwright
Wiley Adventures

You can also check out the pinterest board BFBN Pinterest to see lots of great tips!

Prairie Fest!

This past weekend we went to Prairie Fest!  We did it a little differently than we have in past years.  This year we went early Friday morning and spend the whole morning there.  It was great!  We used to go on Friday afternoon/evening or on Saturday.  Friday morning is all about the little kids.  We started off at the touch a truck.  We got there really early and it was pretty quiet.  Ben was a bit overwhelmed by seeing all the trucks up close.  He enjoyed himself, we could tell because he didn't cry or say he was all done or anything.  But he wasn't comfortable getting on any of the trucks.  That was fine, we knew he would enjoy just seeing them up close.  He did enjoy walking up and down one that had a ramp.  We took a few pictures, but Ben wasn't really feeling it.  The fire truck was handing out hats.  Ben has been rocking that around the house lately.

After the trucks, we wandered through the rides and games.  They weren't running yet, and honestly it could have been a bit creepy if it wasn't a perfect sunny day.  Ben liked walking around and looking at all the bright colors.  We checked out the petting zoo.  Ben did so well!  I was worried he would be scared.  I was a little nervous when I was kneeling down and animals were face high with me.  He seemed to get a real kick out of it.  Ben thought the chickens were a hoot; he liked pointing them out.  There was a little pig who just ran around all over.  Ben liked looking at the animals, but wasn't super in to touching them.  Luckily most of the goats weren't too big, and Pat made sure none were looking for food too aggressively.

Overall, Ben loved having a ton of open space to run around.  We checked out the various vendors, then decided to get a snack.  By far the best part of the fest for Ben was the free pizza samples.  They were giving out large samples of pepperoni pizza, and of course Ben ate both the pieces Pat and I got.  We sat and he ate and danced.  Later we watched the rides start to warm up.  The fun house was blasting ABBA, and Ben just got down in front of it.  The kid was dancing so hard, he made everyone smile.  Around midday a kid's singer performed on the main stage.  Well we had to go and dance some more.  I knew Ben was wiped when he wanted to sit back in his stroller.

It was a very successful outing.  We got lucky with the best weather I've seen for a Prairie Fest.  It was warm, but not hot.  There was enough cloud coverage to keep from getting too much sun.  And as I said, almost everything was geared towards kids.  I think we'll be making this our plan for the next few years.

So many trucks!

They don't seem as big with Daddy there too.

Climbed in a truck all by himself!

Cheering for the police men

Fire Truck!

Goats!

Petting a goat

I always have to steal pictures from this busy guy

Pizza!!!

Doing a little dance

So much dancing!

-Kim

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads, grandfathers, and any other father figure out there.  I am very lucky to have an amazing father, a wonderful father-in-law, and of course a loving father to my little guy.  Thank you for all you do, Omi, Grampa, and Pat.  Especially thank you for all the love you share with Ben.  Thank you to Papa John for being such a fun great-grandfather to Ben.  And thank you to Uncle Chris and Uncle Jared for all the love you share with your favorite nephew. ;)

This guy is already trying to be just like his daddy!

Happy Father's Day!

-Kim

Give a kid a box...

...and he'll climb right in.  We had a brought a box home last night and Ben made himself right at home in his new fort. 

Later on Ben was pushing the box around the living room.  I peeked inside, and there was Dagger, enjoying the ride.  Silly kitty.  We're not sure if Ben knew she was in there, but both of them seemed pretty pleased with the game.  I bet Dagger is looking forward to when Ben can do more for her, like reach the treats!

I love my sweet, silly, babies.

-Kim

Summer Staple

This past weekend we introduced Ben to a summer staple- playing in the hose!  Our neighbors are out of town, and we are in charge of watering their plants.  Ben came out to help me, and I sprayed him with the water a bit.  At first he was not happy about it.  I have to say though he quickly came around to the fun that is running through the water.  Pat sprayed and sprayed, while Ben ran around and got soaking wet.  

I tried to stay out of the way so as not to get too wet.  Fortunately for us, Ben doesn't have the grip strength to spray us with the hose yet.  Sadly for me, he was so happy he kept running up and giving me bit, sopping wet hugs.  Totally worth it to see his sweet smile.

This counts as a bath, right? ;)

-Kim

Swimming!

This past weekend it stopped raining long enough to have Ben's swim lesson!!  I was super excited.  I think Ben was excited because something was going on, but he got really happy when we got to the pool.  This year we did the Water Babies class.  We were going to do that one last year, but not enough people signed up.  They let us do the preschool with parent class, but I was looking forward to being with kids closer to Ben's ability.  

Despite being the younger class, there was still a big range of kids.  There was another 21 month old like Ben, but there were also babies closer to six months.  It was cute to watch all of them experience the water.  A big different between this class and the preschool class- at any point in time one of the kids was fussing or crying.  I know that sounds bad, but it was actually pretty funny.  Getting put in a pool, being all wet, getting water in your face- these are all things that can be upsetting when you are little!  Ben did not like being put on his back.  The fun part about this class though?  That just meant we didn't do that part.  The kids didn't learn any real swimming skills.  The point is just to be comfortable with the water.  We played little games, sang songs, and played with toy watering cans.  It was almost a workout for us moms.  It was a lot of bending, squatting, and moving the kids through the water.  I enjoyed that part of it.  (Yay for bonus workouts!)

Meo, Omi, and Pat were all there to cheer  Ben on.  He really liked that part.  He kept turning to wave and make sure they were watching him.  He liked kicking and being allowed to splash as much as possible.  He really liked 'jumping' into the pool.  The watering can toys were a favorite of the whole class.  I love that the pool we have the lessons in has a zero depth walk in end.  Ben can stand and even sit in the water on his own to play with us.  It's so fun!  I can't wait to take Ben back to the pool to play in it more.  Until then we will just have to wait til next week's lesson!

Getting excited for his turn in the pool!

He looks so cute in his swim gear.

Playing in the pool!

My little swimmer!

You can see Ben swimming last year here and here.  Yes, Ben was able to wear the same swim shirt and trunks as last year.  We got them a little big, plus as a baby he was, well, fuller. ;)  Now as a toddler he has thinned out a bit.  I love that we're getting two summers worth out of them!

-Kim