4 YEARS IN IMAGES

So the C Monster turned 4 this March here is a look back at some of my favourite picture taken of him over the last 4 years...

Taken in the first week he was born

2nd Halloween

He lived in his new helmet for 3 days; even slept in it.

I miss his mohawk it was soo cute

C Monster falls asleep anywheres when he is tired

Once again; he was playing upstairs too quietly I when to check and found him sleeping.

Halloween 2011

Strawberry Kiwi Smoothie

Until I tried this smoothy mix I could not get the monster to even touch a kiwi...

INGREDIENTS:

- 1 cup strawberries frozen, partly thawed
- 1 kiwi, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 cup Vanilla yogurt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tbsp. honey


DIRECTION:

Place all ingredients in your emmersion blender cup and mix with immersion blender until smooth.

Dentist

C monster had his first visit at the dentist this week.  I really should have taken a picture of him but well it slipped my mind.  He had perfect teeth, very straight and no cavities.  We opted out of the fluoride treatment for this time however I really need to research it and decide if we are going to give him fluoride or not.

If you have an opinion on the subject I would love to hear it.

iF it's wiseman mOnster apprOved...

I have a new blog I just started. This blog will concentrated on food and recipes that are toddler friendly....

Check it out and please do tell me what you think.

http://wisemanmonsterapproved.blogspot.com/

Fire Prevention Week 2010

We've been to a fire prevention week down at the 'South Command Centre' on Eastern Avenue, not too far from our house in the past. Now that we have a toddler who's exceptionally appreciative of fire trucks, it seemed worth going again. Unfortunately, we couldn't find very much information on the web about this year's events, only the schedule for events in 2006.

So I contacted the email address on the City of Toronto website for fire station tours and the like, and Stephanie Gauci tracked down the information for us. Since it was hard for me to find the information, I thought I'd post it here in the hopes that it might help someone else.

Toronto Fire Safety Week Open Houses:

• Sun 2010-Oct-03, 10am-4pm at 895 Eastern Avenue
• Tue 2010-Oct-05, 5:30-8:30pm at 200 Bermondsey Road
• Wed 2010-Oct-06, 5:30-8:30pm at 4560 Sheppard Avenue East

Events include:

• Inflatable Fire Truck Bouncer
• Mini-Combat Challenge
• Fire Truck Displays
• Celebrity Reading Room
• BBQ
• Displays and demonstrations by Fire Safety Experts

Anyway; if you have a child who's loves fire trucks, this is probably worth a look-see.

How to make glue...

How To Make Glue

When I was a kid we pretty much never bought glue my mom or memere would make it for us,  they used to just mix a bit of water with flour and that was it.  I wanted to find a recipe that I could make ahead of time and store.

Today I whiped up a batch; here is the recipe.

1/2 cup white flour
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 cup water


Mix all the ingredients until smooth with a whisk; then heat on low siring until desired consistency is reached.  Pour into an airtight container. 

This will make white glue that will dry transparent.  For the little ones that have a hard time understanding where the glue is you can add a few tablespoons of sparkles or some food coloring to make a more fun version of glue.  The sparkles or color help the little ones understand where the glue is on the page; also when they decide to use the glue as paint all is not lost you still have a work of art.

I will let you know if it goes bad before we go threw all of it...

Now That we Have Glue

C Monster spent parts of the day working on a mobile.  I collect various pieces from the recycling and we painted them green this morning.  Using the last bits of our store bought paint - so I guess I will be trying some paint recipes soon.  After they were dried C Monster and Grandma used the sparkly glue to attaches various ornamentation.  Once everything is dry we will turn it into a mobile for his room.

Looking Forward To

To my parents arriving - I think I said this before but I am really looking forward to it.

it's friday already

This week just zoomed by.  This morning was spent at our friends house Jessica and Z Monster for are weekly "moms play-date and lunch" - we had such a great time.  C Monster always is so excited to see all his friends.

Lets back up a bit and recap this weeks highlights....

Tuesday

C Monster and I headed out to the AGO for a field trip.  Grandma gave me a membership and I figured I need to make sure we use it.  One of my friends informed us that the AGO have a great space for kids to play and be creative - Off the Wall.  C Monster loved it and in his words said "more" as we left; this is definitely a new permanent destination for us.  We will try to make it once a month same as the Science Center.

Off the Wall is free, no need for a membership or a ticket you can just walk right in. It's open on Tuesday's from 10am to 1pm and on Weekends from 10am to 4pm.  I don't know how busy they get on the weekends but it was not too bad on Tuesday - really seemed like just the right amount of kids for the space.

C Monster spent his time drawing with chalk and markers, building towers from blocks and my favorite playing with a giant staking toy made out of a medal rod and everyday items like: shoes, plates, funnels to name a few.  I would post a good picture of him but every-time I went to take a shot he ran off to the next thing - I guess he was having fun.

Wednesday

Play dates all around...  C Monster's favorite activity is playing with his friends - I try to arrange play dates for him as much as I can.  I love play-dates because they teach him all sorts of things.

1. Help teach him to share
2. How to interact with others
3. Develops social skills in general
4. New and difrent stimulation (when playdate is at someone else's house)

I am sure there are all sorts of other reasons but these are the ones that come to mind first.  Also I find this is a little slice of sanity for mothers - after spending day-in day-out interacting with a toddler it's nice to have an adult (other then your husband) to talk to that relates with you.  Other moms and nanny's are like your co-workers (the good co-workers that become friends too).

So in the morning we had a play-date at our house with Lisa and A Monster and in the afternoon we travel the ever so far trek to Jessica's and Z Monster for a afternoon of fun. (they are our neighbors)

Thursday

Off to Sports Ball in the AM - C Monster is amazing me with his listening skills and just his patiance in waiting his turn.  When we got to class the babies class that is before ours was wrapping up; I told C Monster he had to sit and watch until that class was over and he did.  I was so proud; some of the other toddlers where running around like crazy distracting the class but my guy was sitting and enjoining some snack with a few friends.

In the afternoon we had a gardening play-date planned but the weather said otherwise so I came up with cookies instead.  I made the dough while C Monster was sleeping and then placed it in the fridge; once our little friend F Monster arrived with Debra we rolled out the dough and cut out the cookies.  C Monster preferred eating the dough then cutting it but he had fun and that is all that matters.

"Healthy" Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
2 limes, zest only
2 tbsp. yucca syrup
1 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1  cups panela
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tbsp oat bran
2 tbsp wheat germ
1 tsp groud flax seeds
2 tbsp pulverrised kale or swiss chard, chopped up extra fine in food processor

Directions:
1. Cream the butter and the panela together. Add the egg and mix well. Mix in the zest and yucca syrup. Add remaining ingredients, mixing until well combined. Chill dough for at least 2 hours, I like to chill overnight.

 2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. Place cookies 1/2 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets.

 3. Bake for 7-8 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are lightly toasted on the edges. Makes around 60 cookies.

Friday

And it brings us back to Friday...

Looking Forward To

Going to Aunt Tara's house tomorrow.

Last food diary

Monday April 5th - C Monster's food diary

Breakfast

Almond Milk

Left Over Waffle with Pure Maple Syrup

Breastmilk

Morning Snack

Rest of His Easter Chocolate (not very much)

Lunch

Soy Beans with Butter and Hemp Seeds

Almond Milk

Cashews

Breastmilk

Afternoon Snack (at the mall)

Juice Box - Mango

Peanut Butter Crepe with a Few Chocolate Chips

Supper

Papadums

Almond Milk

Roasted Chicken

Crackers

Breastmilk

To conclude; C Monster does not eat a perfect diet.  We try to sneak vegetables in because otherwise he would not eat them; I can't get fresh fruit in him unless it's blended in a smoothie. 

I want to mention that my bread machine is on the fritz otherwise you would have probably seen fresh bread in C Monster food diary.

Lots done

I feel like I got tones done today - I love days like this.  I picked up the last piece of edging I needed; I picked up a bike lock for C Monster's wagon, I gave plant food to all my seedlings, washed dishes, made iced tea, swept the floors, vacuumed, changed the bed linens, blogged, chopped up some kale to freeze, watched True Blood (yes this is an important part of Monday for me - it's my treat to myself during C Monster's nap), rotated C Monster's toys, changed the shower curtain... I am sure I forgot something.

Looking Forward

Going to the AGO.

Kitchen's here and more...

This morning

It's gorgeous out, you would think it is summer today. C Monster and I spent the morning outside; me cleaning the front yard and him drawings with chalk; ridding his tricycle; helping out with the cleaning; playing with his cars.  We also cleared out our little flower patch; we picked all the flowers that had grown - as I want to plant some vegetables here this year; Carrots and Onions.

Now lets rewind backwards and take a look at yesterday...

C Monster Talk

I have to say some of the stuff that comes out of my sons mouth is too cute.  Here is a few conversations.

A toy and him this morning were having a conversation at the table:

C Monster :”whats this?”
 
Toy : “yum yum me gona eat it”
 
C Monster : “Oeuf”
 
Toy : “num num”
 
C Monster : “mine”
 
Toy : “me gona eat it”

This one is his reaction to going to Sports Ball at a different time of day. See he started level 2 in Sports Ball (ages 2-3) this week the class is at 9:45 instead of 9am. Geoff dropped us off half way and we walked the other half in the stroller (we used to get dropped of at the door). Geoff dropped us off in front of the Donlands Subway Sation.

C Monster in the car: "more vroom vroom doing doing" - translated "more car ball" or "we did not drive far enough we are not at Sports Ball"

C Monster as I place him in the stroller "cho cho doing doing?" - translated "train ball" or "are we taking the train to Sports Ball"

When we got to Sports Ball we had to pass the door and park our stroller; in the winter we used to bring it in with us because their was construction happening in the stroller parking area.  As we approach and pass the door:
“There it is yeah”
“doing doing ohoh”
“no doing doing”

When he finally understands we are going:
“yeah doing doing”

The Kitchen Arrived

C Monster’s birthday present finally arrived today (I was just one month late). We got him a toy kitchen set from WonderWorld Toys.  I have to say I was a bit disappointed when I opened the box - the description on line was a rubber wood kitchen.  The top and bottom are made from laminated MDF and the round contoured bright bits are foam.  I we would have known this in advance I am not sure it would have changed our mind on what kitchen to get for him but it might have.  I was expecting all the parts except for the little window on the oven door to be rubber wood.  That being said the kitchen is really nice; lots of storage space for all his stuff and the most important thing is that he loves it.

C Monster’s Space Part 3

I was waiting for his kitchen to arrive to do the last segment of C Monster’s space. Like I said perviously we have an extra small home so you need to maximize your space usage as much as possible also it is important for me that C Monster has space to play and store his toys in both the living room and the kitchen as these are the 2 rooms most used in our home.

In my kitchen I have a few open shelves at the end of my cabinets - one section is allocated to toys; again I use the same bins that way toys can be rotated around easily.  In the hallway that connects the living room and the kitchen in order from the living room to the kitchen are:

His tickle trunk (dress up box) - I always stash a few toys on top of it when I am cleaning (in this picture is his abacus and xylophone).  Next is his potty and after that his new kitchen.

To make the space more kid like without making it look horrible I framed a few educational posters and mounted them on the wall.  The frames are designed in a way that the posters can slip out easily and be changed.  We have about 20 posters and I try to change them once every few weeks.

So there you have the Monster’s space... after we are done landscaping and figuring out our back yard I will post about his little corner outside.

Lots of Creative Cooking and a bit of Gardening

Paper Maché Part I

This morning C Monster and I had some fun ripping up a bunch of paper ( the paper is one month worth of junk mail - I think it is sad that it only took one month to accumulate this much unwanted mail). Sometime in the next few days we will use these strips of paper to make some paper maché car garages and tunnels for C Monster to play with.

Cassava Peanut Butter Cookies

So we have had a box of Cassava Crackers for over a year now and wont eat them because well we don't like them. I decided to get creative and try to make something out of them - I remembered making crumb cookies almost a year ago when we had enough bread crumbs to leave a trail from here to Florida. ( I am in Canada) I figured I could alter it some and make cookies with the Cassava Crackers - and guess what it worked. These are not my favorite PB cookies (well my favorite recipie for PB cookies comes from a pastry chef so what do you expect) but I would give them a strong 3.5 out of 5 stars and C Monster seems to love them.

The recipe used for inspiration was Bread Crumb Cookie by Thrifty Fun. Below is the new ingredient list the basic direction to make the cookies stayed the same.

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  
• 1/4 cup unbleached flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/3 cup raw cocoa nibs
  
• 1 1/4 cups panela (or brown sugar)
  
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2/3 cup canola oil
  
• 2 cups cassava cracker crumbs (place crackers in food processor)
• 2/3 cups peanut butter
• 1/3 cup quick cook oats

Beets; Beets; Beets

In our food box this week we had some beets; while reading TasteSpotting I stumbled on a beet chip recipe that I wanted to try. C Monster refuses to eat beets - I though maybe if they were a little more fun he might try them. I was right he gobble a handful up before bedtime.

The recipe calls for simple syrup and I also had a jar of this left over from making candied grapefruit peels - so it was perfect.

After I was done all the beets I collected the remaining simple syrup now turned red from the beets and made some lemonade with it. (Some very pink lemonade).

1 1/2 cup simple syrup - or to taste
1 cup lemon juice
3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

Mix all ingredients in a large pitcher; serve chilled.



Garden Prep

This week has been so nice with everyday above 15. Today was no exception so C Monster and I went out back in the afternoon for a few hours he played and I did some work. Then he helped me with some work on prepping the yard for a vegetable garden. This year we are expanding with an additional row along our neighbors fence here we will plant soy beans and lettuce.

I am so excited my soy bean seeds arrived today. We ordered them from West Coast Seeds; soy bean seeds seem to be hard to find despite the fact that is started from seedling they will grow wonderfully in Canada (at least that is what I am told) - On the agenda for tomorrow with C Monster is planting the seeds in seedling pots. It's the first time I ordered anything from West Coast Seeds; I am sure they are fine but will let you know in a few weeks when they sprout.

Looking Forward To

To Saturday morning and working on my LLLC Leader application.

To Do, Chickpea - Babble

To Do List

Many people say I am the most organized person they have met; well that is because otherwise I forget everything. Just how crazy am I about making list well lets see - we have shopping list; to do list; cleaning list and so one. I also have a daily to do list this is the stuff that I need to do everyday. I post the list on my white board and as the day goes by check stuff off as it is done.

How do you keep yourself organized?

Beans & Chickpeas

It's not a secret despite my best effort C Monster pretty much only eats pizza, pasta, crackers, eggs, cheese, edemame, peas, corn, smoothies, dried fruit in all forms. I was floored when he started eating chickpeas and black eye peas last night- he even did a repeat performance for supper tonight.

C Monster Babble No More

C Monster is slowly mastering his vocabulary and is developing some favorite sentences here is a peek in his vocab:

• Come papa (this is said every-time he sees a motorcycle; because his papa drives one)
  
• Help mama
  
• Mama Aide
• More mama up vroom vroom (this is said every-time we are in the car and I drive over speed bumps)
  
• Mine Mine Mine
• Meow en haut, down (by this he means the cat is on the counter and should get down)
  
• More juice
• There it is
• Yeah vroum vroum
• Papa this (and points at the toy he wants his dad to play with)
• Papa bye bye vroum vroum (this means papa went to work in the car)
• En haut cho-cho (this is used the describe a train on a bridge)
  

Looking Forward

To more sunny days...

Pancakes / Snowman and PARTY

This morning as almost every Saturday morning we made pancakes; except for I tried a new recipe (our typical recipe calls for yogurt and we were all out - kids gobbled it up in a smoothie on Tuesday). I found a great recipe on All Recipes that I think is now my new typical recipe. These were awsome. I changed a few things in the the original recipe:

Fluffy Pancakes with Wheat Germ and Applesauce

Ingredients

• 1 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 4 egg yolks
• 4egg whites
• 1/2 cup rice milk, or as needed (I probably added an extra 1/4 cup)
  
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Directions

1. In a large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, and baking powder. Make a well in the center, and stir in the egg yolks, oil and rice milk until fairly smooth. If the batter seems too thick, stir in more milk. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites with an electric mixer to soft peaks. Fold egg whites into the batter, just until blended.
2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Scoop large spoonfuls of batter onto the hot pan, and fry until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip and cook until browned on the other side. Continue with remaining batter.

PARTY TIME

Today was C Monster's 2nd Birthday Party (He will be 2 on Monday) - Minus me dropping the cupcakes (they were all fine) and Geoff backing up into our fence (I am not sure if it will be fine - need to wait till the snow is melted to assess the damage) the day was fantastic.

The Party was at SH Armstrong a local Community Center. The kids had time to play in the gym; then after we had a music class led by our favorite teacher Eva from Music for Life. All the fun was followed by pizza and cupcakes - oh so yummy.

For your viewing pleasure some pictures from the C Monster's big event:










Thank you everyone for coming and check in during the next few days for some pictures taken by Geoff.

Science Center

Earlier this month I purchased a membership to the Science Center; that being said we went today. As you can see from this visual journal Christophe had a great time.

Crazy sensor thing that made a picture of you - this is C Monster's face since he decided to stick his face to the camera.



Last time we were at the Science Center C Monster wanted to spend all his time with the hot air balloon - I am glad his obsession only lasted a few minutes today.


Thanks to one of my friends I have a new appreciation for this building.



Lunch and conversation - C monster says " oh oh spaghetti-o, juice and raisin "


Driving - well not really just turning a wheel. When C Monster first turned this wheel the freight elevator right next to us opened. It took me 20 minutes to convince him the wheel had nothing to do with it.


Found a quite spot to cuddle and relax.


My little scientist at work. The Science Center had a workshop for toddlers here C Monster is discovering what happens to corn starch when you add water.

- Now the day would be perfect if the giggling in his room would stop and the C Monster would so to sleep so his papa can watch the hockey game Canada vs Russia that currently sits at 7-3 Canada leads. -