Its Just Lunch

The context used to be a dating service. Now its one of my mantras.

I think I may have hit a new Mommy low. The other night I had an anxiety dream about making lunches for the girls to take to school. I had made peanut butter and honey sandwiches, but then I realized the school is nut free.

The thing about lunch. A professional child care provider is looking at what you pack. There is pressure to pack something healthy, balanced, in the right amount, and packed in an environmentally-conscious manner. And no nut butter. Its hard to figure the amount since what they will or won't eat and how much of it they will eat varies on an hourly basis. I heard Ms. Nooshi tell another Mom that she needed to pack more. Horrors.

On Fridays they bring in pizza. I'll sleep well tonight.

lunch

Sloppy dudes

They sort of ate it. Greg and I found it delicious. Rachel Ray recipe...

2 TBS EVOO
1 lb ground turkey breast
16 tomatillos, husks removed, rinsed thoroughly, coarsely chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 jalapeno seeded and chopped (I skipped this)
zest and jice of 1 lime
1 TBS cumin
salt and peppper
1 cup chicken stock
2 small ripe hass avocados
4 crusty rolls
1/2 red onion
2 tomoatoes


Place a large skillet over med-high heat and add the EVOO. When its hot, add the turkey and get aggressive breaking it up. White the turkey is browning, place the tomatillos in a food processor and pulse to a coarse puree. Add the tomatillos to the browned trkey along with the onions, garlic and jalapeno and season with the lime zest, cumin, salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes and then add the stock and simmer for 5 minutes more.

While everything is simmering, use a fork to mash the avocados with the lime juice.

Toast the buns. Spoon turkey filling onto each bun. top w/ red onion and tomato and slather the bun tops with the mashed avacado.

Yummm.

Museo Do Over

Our expedition to the Children's Museum was a much improvement over last week. [Note: do NOT go to Baby Bloomer's on a holiday. It. was. packed. There was a line outside almost to the corner. And the girls decided to go strollerless. When I told them we weren't going in because all of the people, there was crying. Now, I am used to crying. But for some reason, crying because they wanted to go to the museum broke my heart. I only got them to leave by promising "cookies ice cream". Whatever that is.]

Today as we approached they happily noted "there no all the people." Whew. Our friends Brooke and Kaitlyn were there, happy surprise. They were meeting 2 other sets of 2-something twins. They had a new feature at BB, the Spanish storytime/songtime. The girls were a little overwhelmed, but seemed to like to talk about "colores".

We all packed up and headed to McDonalds. My only experience with the McDs playscape scene was on our roadtrip to Florida, when I deemed it a menace. Its three stories high and you can't see what is going on in there. A toddler could be lost forever in the nooks up there, and its doubtful I would be able to get myself up the tunnel without getting stuck myself. And then I heard a story from my SIL that niecey DID require rescuing from such a situation. So, I forbade them to climb up in there. One day...

Instead they pretended to sleep in the low tunnel.



And then acted like clowns on the picnic tables. Just what you want, your kid putting their face on the picnic table at the McDonalds's play area.

Bedtime

is a little sketchy.

Tonight they both showed that they can (easily) exit their cribs. They are only staying in there by choice. Or maybe fear of leaving all of their stuffed animals. Its been about 40 minutes and they haven't settled in yet. Here are snippets of what I have heard...

Harper: I need water for my cough!

Lucy: Harper, talk about my brown eyes

Harper: Ice cream. Yayyyy!
Lucy: Yay!!!!

Harper: Oh no! Oh no!

Both: Bagel! Bagel!

Harper: Ding, dang, dong. (from Frere Jacques)

And I think they are asleep....

Free Fun

Is this down economy, we are always on the lookout for fun and cost-effective activities that are not the park. The park is great and all, but it can get old.

Our local Lakeshore Learning (a teacher supply store) has a Saturday craft. And its fun to let the girls run around and play with the toys. We didn't get out scot free after a purchase of dot paint pens and molding foam (kind of excited about breaking into that one soon) but it was a good 40 minutes of entertainment. Next week they are celebrating Dr. Suess' birthday with a hat craft and hourly storytimes. We'll probably be back.

When toddlers choose their clothes...

Bathing suit + rain boots + puffy vest

Love Auntie Eileen

Auntie Eileen often makes a post-yoga-bagel-coffee visit on Saturdays. She kindly shares bagels with the girls (or became sensible and started buying them their own).

They get so excited when she comes over.