The Veggie Masquerade

Not only do I have to hide teeny, tiny veggies amongst the rice, pasta or sauce for Gavin but the veggie masquerade continues with Baeleigh as well. She can spot a broccoli floret from 20 paces.

Their daycare provider cooks them homemade Korean food comprised almost entirely of veggies and oftentimes - gasp! - fish. If a sliver of green bean or cube of carrot even thinks about gracing their plate, it's rejected. A protruded lower lip and a quick whip of the head to the side accompanied by a sharp, "NO!". Or, dejected face, a shriveling of the body into the seat as if I melted her like the wicked witch synchronized perfectly with the hands bringing the hair into the face. Ugh.

I don't get it. Maybe I just need to make it easier on myself and just start pureeing it into the food. I'm not sure which requires more effort - thinking of ways to hide it or watching Baeleigh sit at the table for an hour and a half pout about her dinner. It doesn't sound very appetizing for me to eat that way - cauliflower in my mac-n-cheese, butternut squash pureed into my muffins, spinach in my brownies. Can you tell I've looked over Deceptively Delicious? If only I could find a happy medium.

Mommy-In-Training

Baeleigh begged and pleaded with Santa and any adult that would listen that she wanted a doll-baby that would eat and wet. The Kate Gosselin in me cringed at the picture this painted in my head. Baby food smeared all over everything and wet, or worse "dirty", diapers strewn all over the house. Like taking on the responsibilities of another baby without actually going through the pregnancy. Tommy is probably wondering if this counts as the third that we continue to debate over.

Regardless of my exhaustion over the sheer thought of the doll, we relented. Baeleigh opened up her Baby Alive on Christmas Day and was over the moon. Luckily, this happens to be only a "wetting" Baby Alive. No food required, except the "bottle" you feed her with to make her wet. Enter big sigh of relief here. Curious as to how this doll worked myself, I asked Baeleigh to feed her. She proceeded to hook up the straw to the Baby's mouth (apparently more of a sippie cup than a bottle set-up), then began the horrifying part - at least from a mother's perspective. Baeleigh then literally squeezed that Baby's belly so that the Baby could "suck" the water from the bottle. I can't help but wonder, though, what warped mind came up with exactly how this doll works. I know that she understands it's a toy, but it's just shocking to watch her learn how to be a mommy by practically force-feeding her baby to eat and pumping its stomach like she was performing CPR.

But there is more, later my dad and I were curious as to just how it "peeped" into the diaper. I investigated, unstrapping the diaper. How does it not just come running straight out? Well, apparently the whole exit hole is much smaller, the size of a pin. So, it trickles out. When I asked Baeleigh why I had two wet diapers sitting on my counter instead of the trash, she tells me "Mommy, that's what you do, you just let'em sit there and dry out?" Really? Can I do that with Gavin's diapers? Think of the money I'd save. Granted, the child's saving me from burning through her baby doll diapers, but again what in the world is this doll (or should I say her G - lol!) teaching her?!

Oh, and I don't know about you, but that Baby Alive is creepy looking. This photo above doesn't do its eyes justice. They are huge and darkly lined, bright blue. It certainly doesn't help as I'm reading the last of the Twilight series. You know, with the creepy baby dreams that Bella has?