the art of feeding

We had a play date this morning with a beautiful friend and her son. Her and I are a lot a like in our unique ways. One of the things we were talking about was food, the expense of organic the conundrum of having to shop on a budget knowing what we want to feed our families and what is within our means. It made me wonder.....is this something that my daughters will deal with as Mom's (assuming they too will some day be Momma's)?

I prefer to buy and eat organic. If I had an unlimited budget I would likely buy everything we put into our mouths organic. I know how important it is right now to vote with our dollars. I know what goes into growing our food, ethical treatment of animals raised for food and the bi-products of all of these things. It's sad that currently we have to feel guilty feeding our kids anything that's labeled as food. Seriously! In a perfect world if it's sold at a grocery store it should be safe, healthy (to a certain degree) and I shouldn't have to wonder what it's going to do to my or my families bodies after years of eating it. If it's sold as food, it should in fact be food. We pick and choose right now what we're wiling to take a risk on and eat of that which are conventional foods having a handful of things I only buy organic (eggs, chicken, milk & some fruits). Other things I buy conventional that are supposed to be generally safe with little or no chemical pesticides used and some things I skip all together because I can't afford to buy organic but refuse to buy conventional. I try to educate myself on reading labels and knowing exactly what it is in that long ingredient list on some processed foods. Mostly we try to cook whole foods knowing that making it at home from scratch is always the best way to eat but I'm just as guilty as alot of Mom's pulling that blue box of mac n cheese off the shelf and no amount of organic milk or butter will make up for everything else that's in there!

I wonder if by the time my girls are women if enough of us will be fed up with what's happening to our food that we can evoke change.....or if it's going to be another broken mess we will leave for future generations to try and sort out. I hope it's the first.

wishing well...

Royce worked yesterday but got off early so we played outside (beautiful day!) and then after dinner decided to wander around Centennial Lakes Park. It's a great park, really close to the house and has a walking path around a little man made lake with paddle boats, mini golf and plenty of places to stop and swing. The girls loved it! As we were walking we came across a little waterfall and Royce pulled out two quarters and handed each of the girls one and told them to make a wish and toss it in the water. They were both excited to do it. After he asked Rasa what she wished for and she smiled and said, "I wished for a pony!!!". Royce asked Adia what she wished for and she quickly replied, "I wished for MONEY!!"

Friday Fun Day! Hot Sam's!

I did a photo session with an adorable six month old at Hot Sam's in Lakeville a few months ago. It's an AWESOME place and I knew I wanted to go back with the girls! The bonus is that it's only 15 minutes away from our house. The owner is paranoid about little kids being there because there are wild roosters that apparently are aggressive and lots of places for little kids to get hurt. We kept a close eye on them (my parents and I) and we had fun. Rasa kept taking off and chasing after the animals but we all had a good time. Check it out if you're ever down in that area just know that the owner will be watching you like a hawk lol! My parents and I met for breakfast first and stopped at the cupcake boutique before we left. It was a fun day for sure!
I wasn't going to bring my camera but at the last minute I ran in and grabbed it. I'm glad I did even though my kids now HATE a camera anywhere near them :)

Everyday Things

My little Adia....

Adia's been in a mood lately. She's been running around here yelling at me, "DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" I'm not sure what but she says it with such conviction I'm afraid! She's been obsessed with saying people are stupid, something I reserve only for road rage (half joking) but seriously not something we say or are ok with. The other day she said Dr. Manney is STUPID to which I replied, "Dr. Manney is a doctor. Doctor's are smart. He is VERY smart I assure you and by the way, Adia I'm not ok with you calling people stupid."
Adia, "Lucy is stupid!"
Me, "that's not nice, we don't call Lucy stupid. No more calling anyone or anything stupid or you're going to spend time alone in time out"
Adia, "But I NEED to call something stupid!!!"
Then she looks at me out of the corner of her eye and mouths the word stupid but is careful not to actually say it.

Good GOD.

The girls are still in pull ups at night and in the morning they switch back into big girl undies. This morning Adia was protesting and saying she wouldn't wear big girl undies because babies wear diapers. I kept telling her she's a big girl and not a baby and she wears undies, just like every other day.

Sobbing.

I couldn't figure out what the issue was except that from time to time Adia gets worried about getting bigger. She doesn't want to be big, she doesn't want to go to school, she wants to stay a baby. She's told us this time and time again for the past year.

I looked at her red face with tears streaming down and I told her the story about when she was a baby and she started eating food. She could hold her own spoon but she didn't want to. She would ask me to feed her, even though she could do it herself.

She smiled.

Ok I get it. Adia needs to be a baby today. But I'm not giving in on the pull up.
I told her she is still very little. "You're only three Adia. You're just a little tiny child. YOu're a little girl. You're not big". She smiled and replied, "Yes, I'm only a little tiny girl, Momma".
I said, "That's right but you're still going to wear your undies because that's what you do now but you're not big. You're just a little tiny girl."

Truce. Undies on, meltdown over and tears wiped.

I love you tiny Adia. You're not a big girl. You're my baby. You always will be. Always and forever.

The things they say...

As my family is sitting at a quant little cafe on the patio for desert Saturday night Rasa tells Royce she needs to go to the bathroom. I had just brought her to the bathroom so I asked her if she could hold it for a few minutes because we're going to be leaving and going home. She ignored me and got distracted with something else. Five minutes later she stands up on her chair and yells, "Mommy! I have to go to the bathroom! I have to POOP and pee!!" The packed table at the other end full of kidless 20 somethings seemed shocked and amused at the same time.

Last night we put the girls to bed and they were having a hard time settling down. Royce and my bedroom door faces the girls so when we are in bed watching a movie we can look over and see Adia in her bed. She was talking NON-STOP and we were trying to ignore her so she would just go to bed. She was singing, laughing, talking in different voices, jumping on the bed and repeating to me over and over that she couldn't sleep.

I was more amused than frustrated but it was nearly 11 pm so I finally said:
"Adia it's time to sleep! I'm starting to get mad now".

Adia askes, "Is Papa getting mad too?"

Royce replies, "Yes, Adia I'm starting to get mad too".

Adia says, "Well, I'm mad too! I'm getting MAD!"

Then softly and quietly I hear Rasa's voice say, "yep me too"

Royce and I giggle and then hear Adia say, "This is getting ridiculous! It's ridiculous!"

It's friday, friday, friday!!

Nana's back from the cabin and she drove down today to hang with the girls and I. We went over to The Cottage House in South Minneapolis to shop their one weekend a month sale. HEAVEN! Everything I love packed into one big old house and everything's dirt cheap! I could have spent the day there but I picked out a few things (thank you Royce!), my Mom bought me some curtains (thank you Mom!) and we left before the girls did any serious damage to the place. Seriously they were like wild animals running from room to room, out the front door, out the back door, climbing on everything, touching everything.....now that I type this it sounds like typical three year old behavior huh. Still, they are normally perfect in public!

We skipped over to 50th and France and had lunch at Barrio. I love their guac! Fish tacos were just ok but the girls were happy with the guac and quesadilas. In the restaurant they were pouring water on everything, jumping on the booth, climbing under the table etc. Oyi! When my Mom volunteered to take them both to the bathroom I happily let her go and giggled a little after they walked away. Public bathroom trips with those two is sickly disgusting. They climb on the toilet to potty and don't care that they're touching EVERYTHING! They touch the booth walls, the toilet flusher thingy, the sinks etc. I have major ocd when it comes to not touching a dam thing in a public restroom and I cannot handle taking them in there! I walked back to check on my Mom's sanity after they were gone about 15 minutes and when I walked in she was drenching them both in hand sanitizer looking at me with her eyes wide open saying, "they touch EVERYTHING!!". Lol yep, I do know that!

After lunch as we were walking back to the car we stumbled upon the most magical of all places! Sweet Retreat Cupcake Boutique. Positively AMAZING! Adia had a princess vanilla cupcake, Rasa a chocolate vanilla, I had a butterfinger cupcake (peanut butter cake with chocolate frosting rolling in crumbled butterfingers...need I say more) and my Mom got a chocolate espresso cupcake...probably the twins fault for her needing a jolt after the bathroom incident. Best cupcake I've had in my life and you all know I've had a million of them so trust me. Cupcake in St. Paul doesn't even come close to these!

After roasting in the car on the way home (it's HOT today) I disrobed both girls immediately and turned the sprinkler on so they could cool off before nap.

We had a great day and what a beautiful start to the weekend!