Serve It Up: A Book Giveaway!

Most parents of toddlers have a hard time getting their kids to eat enough of the right foods. Getting my boys to eat vegetables is actually finally getting a little easier, but it has been a battle. I've spent plenty of time hiding veggies in their food in the form of purees, using pasta made with veggies, and mixing fruit and veggies in juices and smoothies. The best book I found while teaching myself how to cook for picky fingers was The Sneaky Chef to the Rescue by Missy Chase Lapine. She's got a helpful website with her books and other tools. 

I thought I'd share three of the things I've used the most in my veggie-quest: I water down V8 Fusion or an off-brand of the same, for the boys to drink. When I serve the boys pasta, which they love more than life, of course, I try to use pasta made with veggies. I know Barilla makes it, I'm not sure anyone else does. And the Sneaky Chef to the Rescue is full of great ideas for purees to have on hand and recipes to use them in.

V8 Fusion with veggies and fruit

   

Pasta made with veggies

Purees and sneaky recipes

Recently, Laura De Simone, a local physical trainer and author of the book Serve It Up contacted me about the possibility of doing a book giveaway for my readers. So I took a look at her book. Serve It Up isn't like anything I've seen before. Its focus is on portion control. Maybe you know what nutritious foods and kid-friendly foods look like but you're not sure how much is enough and how much is too much for your kids. Her book breaks portions down by age but also by how active your kids are and then suggests exactly what is a healthy amount of each food for each meal. You can take a look at the description of her book and then just leave a comment below to be entered in the giveaway. If you have a Facebook profile, also go like Whispers & Shouts. I'll have one of the boys draw a winner on Friday.

* I should mention, I am in no way being reimbursed by anyone here, other than the free book to a reader. I'm simply sharing what has worked for me and helping a local author with some exposure.




Dawnee Fell Over

It had been a little over a year since my last seizure. I guess I was about due. I forgot to take my meds last Sunday night but remembered first thing Monday morning and took them. But it was too late and the meds didn't help. I had all three kids at home and didn't feel a tremor or anything coming on. Just nothing.

It was the usual super-confusion afterward, as I tried to desperately remember what day it was, what was happening, etc. I remember waking up on the floor and seeing Calvin hiding behind a box. He was patched and didn't have his glasses on-- which means that he couldn't see much of anything. I wonder in what order everything happened, but I'll never know. Did he willingly take his glasses off so he didn't have to watch me? Who knows. I asked the boys if I had a seizure, and they kept saying no, that everything was fine. I quickly got on Gtalk and told Brian and I emailed Alex's dad right away too. I don't have any memory of doing either of those things, but thanks to technology, it's all here.

The transcript to Brian was:

me: yey, i had seix;ure. Ca yuoiu copme home?

Brian: Okay. Will do.

me: THanks.

Brian: ARe you okay?

me: yeah i just feel very uconfused.

The email I wrote to Alex's dad was titled "siexuree." And its contents were:

"Is had a seizure this morning. Plaease come and get Alex wen you can. I'm so sorry. Everyne is fine."

Even though it's a little creepy, it's pretty comforting to know that I'm aware of what happens, even though I have no memory of being aware. And apparently spelling goes out the window when my brain freaks out. Understandable.

So, anyway, I seem to have pulled myself up, noticed a smoking pan on the stove and proceeded to finish cooking French toast for the kids, set them up to the table and served breakfast. Brian came home and I slept most of the day. The seizure headaches and post seizure confusion are intense. It was great to have Brian so close that he could be here so quickly.

Last year the boys talked about my seizure. But this year they will not, and I find it curious. Last year afterward they kept saying, "Mommy, you had a seizure," but this year they seem to have either genuinely not witnessed it (which just seems impossible) or they are choosing to deny it.

But, Alex is not in denial. In fact, she has the most insight of anyone into what happened. She's been telling her parents that "Dawnee fell over," "Dawnee knocked over a chair," "Dawnee was shaking." She even did the motions.

I worry about the boys and how they will handle my seizures. I can't imagine what it would be like to witness my mom having a seizure. I like to think it will make them stronger. Maybe it will make them creative.



I thought what Cal drew tonight fit well with the topic.

Thursday Thesicle

 

Dad doesn't just make dinner; he makes Mega Double Cheeseburger dinner

 

Learnin'

Late last Friday I began writing about the good day we had just had. For some reason I woke up that morning wanting to teach the boys everything I could. That was the day that they wrote their stories. It was a good day, full of unusual patience by all parties involved. All day I wanted to be teaching the boys new things. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a day like it before. I didn't care that the house was a giant mess, I just wanted to keep going. The boys were fun and focused and they soaked up everything we did. It started when we were talking over oatmeal and sprinkles about The Gruffalo, as is common for us to do. I told them what a main character is and they figured out that in The Gruffalo, it’s the mouse. I even said the word protagonist to them, but then thought they might get beat up in kindergarten for saying that word, so I toned it down.

They dictated their stories to me, with main characters, settings, conflicts, and resolutions. We did a sorting activity that had them figuring out what various groupings had in common with each other, We did a reading lesson where they learned the sound th and read more and more words. We even did an “engineering” game that I thought up with wooden blocks. And they stuck with it for an extraordinarily long time.

For the sorting game they came up with some silly categories, like "Things I Like," but also "Things with Wheels" and "Things at a Pond."



Pile of cut-outs for our sorting game

Things that go up in the sky

Felines!

Things with wheels

Trying to make towers the same height with the same blocks

Copying each other's patterns

Cityscape!

We watched Sid the Science Kid, which was about eating healthily. So we talked about the food groups and nutrition. Clark ate an entire apple and a half to show off his balanced meal. Cal ate just one slice after first pouting in bed about having to do it. We were going to work on their martial arts  moves but ran out of steam. When Brian came home he took the boys to the grocery store and to the driving range while I went running and vacuumed. I did not do those two things at the same time, just FYI.

All this made me think that I really need to record here some of the learnin’ things we’ve been up to. So here are the ones I took pictures of from the past few weeks or so.

In our little preschool group we did an activity with the book Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert.

Veggies and fruits in a pillowcase for the kids to touch without seeing

Philip did eat his alphabet!

Talkin' textures with Clark and a potato

More veggie and fruit touchin'

Time to color!

Drinking our alphabet via V8 Fusion!

Letters and words tracing

We have a little scribe on our hands!

Being the Gruffalo

Building a baseball field and calling the plays

Made a giant cookie ice cream sandwich cake for Dad

Geocaching with Aunt Bean!

Explaining the tedious rules of Candyland to Alex

How do you break open a walnut, Missy?

How to paint a mini pumpkin: start with three cute pumpkins

What's inside a pumpkin?

I don't really know...about...this....

Be-fanged Clark the Shark!

Final product

How to brush a girl's hair

Tea time etiquette

Pinkies up!

Playseum art!

Aunt Bean's bedtime stories

Watching that astronaut movie (Apollo 13) on TV!
No time to go to the bathroom? Bring the potty chair to you!

Becoming Abe and George

Finding groceries from a list (at The Playseum)

George Washington the supermarket clerk

My friend Susan's cookie craft to go with
the book Cookies by Amy K. Rosenthal

Accompanying chocolate chip numbers activity

And edible cookie pops!

Building a kite with Aunt Bean

 

First Friday Fables

This morning I was explaining the concept of main characters and conflict to the boys. We used their favorite story The Gruffalo as a model and then had them test their knowledge by telling me some stories while I wrote them down. Maybe I'll make Friday Fables a weekly event.

A Hungry Parachute
by Calvin

Once upon a time there was a girl lion named Facestamp and her husband lion named Booky. They had a baby named Pocho. They lived in a big forest. One day a parachute that looked like a balloon fell from the sky into the grass so they could see the whole thing. The parachute tried to eat the lion family so they tried to find a way out of the forest. They went down the long forest slide all the way out of the forest and they ran as fast as a motorcycle so the parachute didn't eat them. The baby lion Pocho found a little tree to eat. The parachute ate balloons. The end.

Golf Course
by Clark

Once upon a time a squirrel named Alth lived in the jungle. His family was Daddy Squirrel,  Mommy Squirrel, and Baby Bok. It was a really big jungle- gigantic as a Earth. The problem was that a lot of animals wanted to eat them. A fox, an owl, a snake, and a jungle lion all wanted to eat them. The squirrel family was scared and they screamed in their tree. Do you know what happened next? The squirrel Alth realized that a sea lion ran all over the place. A monster came and tried to eat them and the jungle. The squirrel family saw a way out of the jungle. They put on monster costumes and sneaked out of the jungle and into the feline jungle. Then a house came and roared with claws so they moved to a golf course. The end.



Do you want to know what happened next?

Thursday Thesicle

Find your inner Founding Father... and let yourself go crazy. *

  

 

*This was at The Playseum the other day...enter the giveaway now for free passes!

Epilepsy Awareness Month

November is International Epilepsy Awarness Month, and since my life is affected because of having epilepsy, I thought I'd spend some time this month reading other people's stories and other articles I find, and sharing some of them here. On the Epilepsy Foundation of America's Facebook page I found links to blogs with stories that just make my heart ache. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have a child who has seizures at all, let alone one who has multiple seizures each day for years and years. But there are so many cases like this.

While reading them, one blog stood out to me. It's called Calvin's Story. Of course it stood out to me initially because I have a son named Calvin who also wears glasses. This Calvin's case is so extreme, and his mom is so honest and strong in her writing and so active in trying to rally support and raise awareness to someday find a cure for this mysterious condition called epilepsy. She has a page called Calvin's Cure with a link for epilepsy research donations to be made in Calvin's name.

Click on the link above to read some of her blog, and get a sense of her story.

A couple other things I've come across this week and shared on Facebook are this article about the keto diet being effective, especially in children, and this short interview with the University of Minnesota's coach who had a seizure during a game in front of thousands.

I am thankful that I am able to live such a normal life, even with epilepsy. I pray that someday soon there will be a breakthrough in research that can help these people whose lives are so painful and limited.

November Playseum Giveaway!

I am happy to announce that my newest blog sponsor is The Playseum! My boys and I have been there twice and both times we've had a blast. Their themed play rooms, called CityShops, provide scenerios and material for creative and imaginative play. There is a Bethesday location, but the place we've been is the DC site. It is located a few blocks from the Eastern Market metro station, making it a fun outing if your kids love riding the metro like mine do. Here is the review I wrote about it.

This week I'm going a giveaway for four tickets to The Playseum. Just leave a comment below and give the Whispers & Shouts Facebook page a like. I'll have the boys pick a name on Friday and you can have your tickets in plenty of time to take the kids while school is out around Thanksgiving. Good luck!

Claim them before Cal eats them.

Thursday Thesicle

There's nothing wrong with a boy in a hair clip.

 

How I Will Kick National Novel Writing Month in the Teeth

When I write things down on my blog they seem more real to me because I get people asking me about them. This is sometimes a good thing, other times awkward, but it's the way things are. Therefore, I begin this month, National Novel Writing Month, telling you readers that I am resurrecting my half-written novel and going to work on it again, beginning this morning.

Actually, I've already put in some time on it today. I'm not entering the NaNoWriMo contest, since my novel is already partially written, but I'm using the month to motivate me. The people who sign up attempt to write with literary abandon for thirty days and finish an entire novel. I tried it once before when I had no children and I couldn't even do it then. With it halfway written I actually might have a chance.

Just wanted to tell you. If you see me, ask me how it's coming. Email me. Comment here about it. I want to feel the peer pressure. Help me kick National Novel Writing Month in the teeth. Thank you.

The end.