Brooke's Christmas Wish List: UPDATED

I have been asked by quite a few people what Brooke needs/wants/would like for Christmas. Seeing as she is only 14.5 months old, there arent a whole lot of things she needs that mommy and daddy dont cover ;) As for her interests and likes, it is tough. Her attention span is shorter than anything I have ever seen. She likes something for a minute and then doesnt like it any more. But there are a few things she values: food, music, lights. Its tough to give a toddler food ... so I would go with something that is noisy and has flashing lights in general.

There are a few things that are always useful:

-CLOTHES (she is approaching the tail end of 18M size clothes and doesnt own a whole lot in the next size - 24M or 2T. She isnt there yet, so these clothes would be late winter and early spring)

-BOOKS (Brooke loves books. We cant have too many of them. She still needs the ones with hard pages, aka "board books", because in addition to reading them she also likes to eat them).

There are also a couple of toys that she has really enjoyed at her friends houses that she does not have at home.

PLAYSKOOL EXPLORE N’GROW BUSY BALL POPPER
LAUGH & LEARN LEARNING PHONE

SHAPE SORTER
Doesnt matter what kind, she is starting to like putting objects inside other objects, so we think she is ready for shape sorting ;) If you dont know what a shape sorter is, here are a few examples:


WOODEN NESTING BLOCKS
Melissa & Doug make nice ones, but there are others out there. Brooke has cardboard ones but she eats them and SITS ON THEM. They arent going to survive her rough handling. Brooke needs some made out of a better material so she cant destroy them (at least, not so fast)

Updated: 12/16 at 5:15pm!

Glutton For Punishment

Ok, I tried another recipe. I was trying to allow some error to the recipies due to Brooke's picky tastes. Maybe she didnt like the "buttered noodles" because she didnt like the shape, or maybe the taste. She eats macaroni & cheese that I prepare (with added calliflower), so I figured that I would try the Deceptively Delicious mac & cheese. I used elbow noodles just like she is used to. The difference between my mac and cheese and this one is that 1) this one is home-made, not from a box and 2) it has butternut squash versus caulliflower.




So I chopped up the squash (which was a pain)

And steamed and pureed it in the Babycook (which was easy)









After mixing all the ingredients together I had a very cheesy macaroni and cheese. It was so thick and heavy, it practically warped the spatula. But, since I'm used to the cheap box kind, maybe I'm just not familiar with the "good stuff".

I gave it a taste and thought it was ok. Honestly, the box stuff is better. But ... it wasnt up to me. It was up to the tiny food critic.
She inspected it.


It must have looked ok because she decided to give it a try.
Many items never even enter her mouth, they go straight to the dog.
This was a good sign.







or maybe not...


And to prove how poorly I learn a lesson, I have one more recipe we are going to try tonight. This one has pureed beets in it. Yum.

YoBaby 3 in 1 Meals

Brooke has recently been giving us a hard time at mealtime. She isnt eating a lot of her regular items and has been throwing (or on nice days, politely handing back) her food. Erica, over at But Mommy, is having a YoBaby giveaway that has introduced me to a new product.

Despite her new fussiness, there are a few things we can guarantee she will eat. YoBaby yogurt is at the top of the list. It was one of her first foods (they make a plain vanilla version that it hard to find, but was great for early solid introductions) and still a regular on the menu. I'm not sure how much yogurt you can give a toddler, but she sometimes gets it for two meals a day :( I buy the stuff on a weekly basis and make sure there is always one in the fridge. In the event she declines her meal (aka whips-it-at-mommy) I offer up a yogurt.

There is a new product called "3 in 1 Meals" that combine yogurt, fruit and veggies. A pretty crucial element we are missing (hence, the Deceptively Delicious cookbook). Of course, I entered the giveaway. But more importantly, I'm gonna need to get out there and hunt for this stuff. I'm not sure we have it locally yet, because I'm pretty sure I would have snatched it up already!

Santa

We had planned to take Brooke to visit Santa at a local shop after her nap. She went down a bit late, and slept for a while, so we were cutting it close. When she woke up from her nap she was cranky (I guess babies are like adults in that they occasionally "get up on the wrong side of the bed"). As we walked to see Santa we couldn't get her to crack a smile. She had an irritated look on her face and was pouting the whole way.

We got there to find a bit of a crowd (guess we werent the only ones sneaking in at the end) and thought about skipping it. Why push her when she was already in a bad mood? After some conversation we decided to give it a try anyway.

We waited in line for less than 10 minutes. Brooke was checking out the other kids and the decorations, but still no smile. Finally she could see Santa. She glanced his way but really didnt seem to care ... until it was her turn.

Brooke freaked out before she even got onto his lap, and did her best to try to jump off of it the few seconds she was there.

Nothing was going to make it better. Not even Mommy could fix it. You can even tell from Santas face in the pictures he was a bit irritated. I bet all Santas wonder why the heck parents would be cruel enough to bring their little ones (who dont even know who he is) out just to torture them. I'm not sure as a parent I even understand it myself, but it just seems like some sort of ritual each child must go through in life. And we gather photographic evidence for proof.

So we grabbed Brooke, who shot Santa one last horrified look, and carried her out of the store still screaming. In the end, it was fun for all. Let the Holidays begin!