A Jedi bites the dust

The other night I was sitting with Emmy in the bathroom as she took her bath. She had some toy she'd stolen from her big brother's Lego stash and was shooshing and babbling as she lived out some action-packed idea in her head.

I started out having all kinds of melancholy, sweet thoughts about how I remembered watching Thomas in the bathtub, years ago, just like this.

As Emmy played with her Lego whatever in the bubbles, I sighed and thought to myself, "Oh....I remember when Thomas was this little and how we could play with a little Lego ship in the bathtub, just like this...."

And he would - Thomas was famous for entertaining himself for long periods of time with a block or a train car or a Hot Wheel, laying on his back, with the toy up in the air, living out some extraordinary story in his head. 

But, suddenly, my reverie was busted with:

"NO, NO, NO!"

It was my Emmy, in the bathtub.

And the Lego ship had evidently done something really horrible and was facing the consequences via Emmy.

"NONONONO," she said with great gusto, standing up and banging the ship on the faucet and then on the wall. "Nonononononono!"

"Hey," I said, "You can't bang on the tiles like that, you're going to smash your fingers......"

"Nononononononono," she said firmly, completely ignoring me, pointing her finger at the poor mangled piece of Lego ship before throwing it into the water/bubbles with the other hand.

But evidently, deep under the bubbles, it must have made some kind of last twitch, because she started up again.

"No. Noooooooo," she said, trying to squash it into oblivion it with her bare foot.

How did we get from happily shooshing and babbling - to this -  in ten seconds?

"Whaaat are you doing?" I asked as I jumped up from my comfy spot, seeing exactly where this was going.

And KERPLOP, right on her tush.

"Waaaaaaaaah," she yelled, as I scooped her up.

I wasn't sure if she was crying or laughing, but then she yelled out, "BUBBY!"

That's what she calls her brother - "BUUUUUUUUBBBBBBY!" she yells, with a purpose not usually seen in an almost-two-year-old.

And it works. Thomas rushed in and said, "What?"

"It bit me," she said, pointing to the depths of her Bath of Death, "It bit me," she repeated with a look of pure pride on her face.

And she ambled off, naked, babbling to herself, "It bit me. OhNonononono....."

Thomas looked in the bathtub full of bubbles and asked, "Is there something in there?"

"Not anymore," I said.And I added, trailing behind Ms. SuperSquasher, "Oh - and you might want to put those Lego ships up a little higher, like I asked you to earlier...." 

Emmy 1 - Jedi fighter 0

Up and Adam (whatever that means)

Breakfast, Day 10ish

Organic granola cereal (Cascadian Farm)
Organic 2% milk
Homemade bread with organic peach preserves
apple slices

 So far, we like this cereal the best, I'll be trying out others. I'm hoping to get to Whole Foods in Cary sometime, I bet they have a larger selection than my local Harris Teeter.
 I feel like we need more protein, to make it last longer - I will be attempting the "give them an egg without them noticing" trick in the near future. Actually, my 2-year-old loves scrambled eggs, it's my 11-year-old that gives me problems with eggs.

We shall see .....

The juicy part

Conversation between me and my 11-year-old, T:

Me: Hey, we're going to be having different stuff for breakfast this week. We're going HEALTHY!

T: Are we going to have more of that good orange juice?

M: Well, we were, until you drank the whole bottle this weekend. That stuff is expensive and you have to save some for school mornings.

T: But isn't it good for me?

M: Well, yes....but you can't drink so MUCH of it, at one time. And it's for breakfast.......

T: So you got something different, that's good for me, but you don't want me to drink TOO much.....?

M: That's right.

T: That's wack. Why don't you just go back to the yucky OJ - then I won't want to drink it so much.

Sometimes, this whole new diet-healthy-eating-thing seems like a wacky (wack) idea.

Getting Started

This year, I'm going to try and feed my family better food.

No, I'm not taking cooking classes.

I'm going to try to replace a lot of the processed food we eat with more natural choices - and in turn - more healthy food.

Though I totally believe Jamie Oliver, Jillian Michaels and Dr. Oz, when they tell me I should go in my pantry and refrigerator and throw out all food that didn't come from the ground and have a mother - I am not a complete idiot.

I am only one person that cooks in 30 minute increments with about $100 to buy groceries this week.

Unless one of those guys is going to come in with a personal chef and about $1,000 to restock my kitchen with "healthy" food (given we've just thrown 90 percent of it in the trash) - not going to happen.

I'm starting out slow - one mealtime at a time.

First up is breakfast.

Out with the instant oatmeal, frozen HT brand waffles, frozen french toast sticks, pre-cooked bacon, cheap OJ, non-organic fruit and Cheerios and Wheaties. I'm keeping the organic milk, I was already buying.

I'm going to try:

• Organic granola cereal (I've tried the cereal by Cascadia, and we all like it) and organic milk. 
• Toast (from homemade bread I've been making this winter and will continue to make) with butter and jam. 
• Scrambled or hard-boiled eggs (The expensive eggs from chickens that were free on the range, eating only good things, or something like that)
• Simply Orange OJ (I think this is organic and natural, have to check)
• Organic fruit

Yes - they eat a lot at breakfast.

Here's what I'm worried about:

• I'm not sure what to do about Emmy's instant oatmeal. There's no way I could get up 30 minutes earlier and stir oats for 30 minutes in the morning, and I think that what you have to do with the natural oats. I hate to stop giving her oatmeal - some days its the healthiest thing she eats all day! 
• I guess we'll just stop with the bacon. I was giving Thomas pre-cooked, packaged bacon, warmed in the microwave, but the eggs will make up for it. He doesn't like eggs as much, but that doesn't really matter, right? And anyway, is there a healthy bacon? I don't think so.
• My kids are BIG fruit eaters. Organic fruit costs more, so I'm assuming I'll be buying less fruit. I guess I'm doing the right thing, giving them less fruit, that's better for them?
• Also, have you seen how much organic coffee is? Wouldn't the caffeine kill any pesticides in the beans?

I've done the math, and eating healthier for breakfast is going to cost me about $10 more a week. (This is not taking into account any oatmeal for Emmy, because I don't know what I'm going to do about that. Nor did I factor in coffee, for either breakfast menu). I figured we were spending about $25 a week on breakfasts and now it will be about $34.50. I upped the fruit category by $5 when going organic - we'll see how far that goes.

Next up is lunch - what in the world am I going to give Thomas, my 11-year-old, for chips and dessert in his bag lunch? He's addicted to Twinkies! And his chicken wraps - I'm pretty sure those packages of cooked chicken strips in the deli aisle are processed somehow .....

If you have any insight or advice on this, please leave a comment below! 

Emmy (almost 2) and Thomas (11): We'd like our high fructose corn syrup back, please!