Breakfast, Lunch and Other Stuff

 I can't find the email now, but someone asked me to do a post about school lunches, so this is really a year-later follow-up to this post. 

Breakfast - The old chart lost its charm toward the spring, and we winged it (wung it?) through the summer.  But with fall returned the need to be efficient and predictable in the mornings, so here's our new breakfast chart, taped to the inside of the cupboard.  "Mom's Choice" is a nice new addition, so we can have cereal or whatever is kind of left over from the week, no complaining (in my dreamworld.) 

 

Lunch -Towards the end of last year we got Hazel making her own lunch.  She and I made this matrix as a guide and put it on the fridge - she packs one item from each category.  Sometimes we have other things she can take but this is a pretty good representation of stuff we usually have.  This year we went back to the matrix and it works well, but I found she was bringing home one, two, sometimes three items in her lunch uneaten.  She said they make the kids hurry so there isn't enough time to eat it all.  I suspect it's a combination of timing and chatting, knowing Hazel.  So we pared it down to three items - a protein, a veggie, a fruit, and only occasionally something sweet or snacky.  Ginger also takes lunch to preschool this year, two days a week, so she is learning to make her lunch as well.  By next year she'll be a trained expert.

 

Morning Routine - Hazel is a monumental dinker-around.  Space cadet, la-la land, whatever you call it, that's her.  This year we've added showering in the morning a few times a week to her routine, and we found that she takes so long to shower (play) and get dressed (play) that she is frantically rushed once she comes downstairs.  I take it back - Ed and I are frantically rushed yelling at her and riding her case to get ready on time.  She's too busy playing to feel frantic.  "D.Y.J." - Do Your Job - is heard many times each morning at our house.   So I finally made her a schedule, which she illustrated, and now instead of bombarding her with directives, "Hazel!  Have you brushed your teeth?  Where are your shoes?  Is your lunch in your backpack?"  We just redirect to the checklist and she is moving closer to morning independence.  And as with lunches, Ginger is getting trained at the same time. 

 

I like the idea of clean refrigerator facade.  But between the lunch matrix, morning checklist, and Wii charts, it is admittedly cluttered.  So what's one more item?  This is a card Hazel made for me on a...difficult day.  It melts my heart and, depending on the day, brings tears to my eyes, whenever I look at it. 

 And not to leave out Poppy, here is her favorite eating position.  The highchair strap isn't that good so sometimes I don't bother.  And this is what I get.  So I'm getting more diligent at buckling and tightening.

 

And hey, while I'm posting other pictures, here are the girls playing a game Saturday morning on the very computer I'm typing on right now.  I generally hog it, so getting a game is a special treat.  As you can see from the zombie expressions.