Food Warning

As part of my procrastination and general lack of productivity this rainy, wait - now sunny - Monday, I feel compelled to write about a food topic that came up over the weekend. If you prefer to remain blissfully ignorant about what is really in your food, this post is NOT FOR YOU. Move your mouse to the 'x' in the upper-right corner of your browser and say good-bye now.

If you're still here, I'm warning you again that most of you are not going to like me for this info, but here goes nothing... A good friend yesterday at church graciously gave me a bag of fruit snacks for Kiley, who was as hungry as we were unprepared. I read the ingredient list and that sparked a conversation about gelatin, which is the ingredient for which I was checking. My friend is very knowledgeable about nutrition, and yet didn't know what is in gelatin, which is what prompted me to write.

"The gelatin you eat in Jell-O comes from the collagen in cow or pig bones, hooves, and connective tissues. To make gelatin, manufacturers grind up these various parts and pre-treat them with either a strong acid or a strong base to break down cellular structures and release proteins like collagen. After pre-treatment, the resulting mixture is boiled. During this process, the large collagen protein ends up being partially broken down, and the resulting product is called gelatin. The gelatin is easily extracted because it forms a layer on the surface of the boiling mixture."  read more...

The biggest culprits that have effected me day-to-day since I learned about gelatin many years ago are jello and pudding - you'd be surprised how many recipes use them in some way. More recently, however, I became aware of gelatin in yogurt, gummy bears, and fruit snacks (the chewy kind for kiddos). And, just today, I found out and confirmed in my pantry that gelatin is also in marshmallows.

Most food facts I am fine with knowing; I can't eat mayo knowing how much fat there is, I know real men's men who work in the meat industry and won't touch a hot dog, you get the idea. But all I'm asking for is a rice krispie treat and a good cup o' hot chocolate with marshmallows, without the mental image of a pig hoof stuffed in my mouth - *sigh*. I guess the moral here is... next time you find yourself eating a chewy treat with no fat that surprisingly retains its shape, you'd be wise to check the label and please comment back here so we can all be sadly better informed!

Funny little ones

Jake.  So last night after we finished getting the kiddos to bed, Jake comes running down the steps.  "Martin, can you spray me with a squirt bottle in the morning so that I can get out of bed more quickly."  Laughing, I told him I would try to remember.  This morning, I didn't remember but he jumped in the shower pretty quickly.  I set his clothes out to help him along but he was still feeling very tired from the weekend and was dragging a little.  We got to school late this morning and he forgot his ADHD meds.  I don't know what made me ask him as he was heading into the school but I hadn't reminded him this morning and thought it better.  He said no.  It's so nice having the school so close to the house.  I'm very spoiled about that.  Anyway I brought his medication up to the school and gave it to him.  As he's walking down the hallway back to class he calls out to me, "Hey Martin,  tomorrow let's do the squirt bottle thing".  pretty darn cute.  I agreed. HA!!!

Sydney.  This morning while Jake was struggling to stay on task and get ready, Sydney was helping me with breakfast and her lunch.  This doesn't happen too often but it's really nice when I have one of the kiddos watching my back.  Well, she did her lunch.  The whole lunch, sandwich, goldfish, an small orange, and I thought I would toss in a couple of chocolate morsels since I was already adding them to the pancakes we were making.  You know as a special treat.  Well some time passed and I realized that Sydney forgot to pack in a small bottle of water that we usually put in her lunch bag.  I pulled one out, got it filled and was adding it to her lunch bag.  I noticed pretty quickly as I was shifting things around that she had added a ring-pop to her lunch.  I thought about mentioning it to her cause she knows those are for her birthday on the 15th of this month but really thought it was a fair treat since she put her entire lunch together herself.  It was really funny when she asked me with a big ol' grin, as I was rearranging things in her bag, "What are you looking for?"  I think she saw that I noticed something in there that wasn't really a typical lunch item.  I said, "nothing just fitting in the bottle of water".  Such a cutie pie.

Kiley. Kiley was so happy this morning.  we have a video monitor that often times gives us a sneak peek as to what she is up to when she wakes up.  we've seen her dance around, hug and kiss her many stuffed animals, read her book, sing, dance, and even stare into the camera as if she knows were looking.  one time we she stuck her eye right up to the lens....she is very amusing in the morning.  This morning she was very talkative.  After bringing her down she usually has breakfast and some milk.   It was no different today.  She was very happy.  We communicate pretty well these days.  She likes to say the word "no" a lot but is slowly learning the word "yes" too.  sometimes I'll ask her if I can share her breakfast, most of the time the answer is "no".

"one little bite, just one."

"no."  as she picks up a piece of orange or strawberry or manana (banana) and goes about her business of eating without giving me a second thought.  Then when I'm leaving, I'll say "buh, bye, Kiley.  Kisses for papa?"

"no."  She is a very busy girl.  What can a papa expect. ha!

I just have to laugh.....and give her tons of kisses anyway as she laughs and giggles.  She is going to be a handful......

I love them all for their uniqueness and unpredictability.... :)

Did it really snow yesterday?

I had to look back at these few pictures for confirmation. :)

a work in progress

Sydney and a snowman.

He's looking much better now.... (yes it's a "he", i asked.)

This is Jake before I clobbered him and his friends with snowballs. :)

Across the street from Trailhead Park

Random pictures from my Camera Phone

Sydney running along the beach on Coronado Island

Courtney looking cute at Ikea

A submarine warning.  Don't get into the sub if you can't fit through this hole.

Who is the coolest kid in the whole wide world? (Jake on Coronado Island)

Too cute for words.....

Milestones

Kiley now says:

• bye-bye - her first official word that she's been saying clearly for months
• hello (when she picks up one of the kids' itouches and holds it up to her ear - comes out as huh-LO
• ball
• baby
• uh-oh - very cute, anytime something drops or someone falls
• mo - along with the sign, means more or I'm hungry
• no - as in 'can we change your diaper?', answer 'NO'
• mama & papa - although she doesn't typically say these when she sees us or in context, (more like babbling 'mamamamama') - once in awhile she will look at me and say 'Mom' or 'Mama' and the same with Papa

She knows where her tummy is, her eyes, her nose. She knows her toes and feet and hands. Her tummy was first - we'd say 'where's Kiley's tummy' and she'd stick it out (which takes very little effort really) and pat it. I love, love, love her feet. I call them her happy feet - as they are in constant motion. When she's really excited in the car she kicks them between the seats while I drive. She also does her happy dance, when she's having fun or something tastes really yummy. She LOVES to eat; now will do green beans, broccoli, spinach, roasted bell peppers (but not raw), tomatoes, strawberries, bananas, oranges, any kind of carb, cheese, yogurt, peanut butter, and on and on. She knows where the girl scout cookies are and she will go to them and point and grunt, or come and grab and hand and drag us over and point and grunt. If she's eaten, I will give her a small bite. She ALWAYS wants 'mo, mo...' and I tell her 'that's a treat and we only eat a little bit. Too much is bad for our body.' And she gets really mad, but we move on and find something else to do.

Kiley took a spill at Brownies the other day because she was tired and missed her nap. She hit her mouth on the floor (carpet) and it bled like crazy. It was scary, but Sydney was incredible - she whisked her to me and then ran to the bathroom for paper towels, then stayed with me while I rinsed Kiley's mouth and stopped the bleeding. Once all was under control, I realized I was shaking and repeating, 'It's ok, it's ok, it's ok...' which I realized I was doing kind of robotically to reassure myself as much as anyone else. Still Sydney was a trooper until a few minutes later when I looked up to see big tears in her eyes. She held it together longer than I did really, and when she lost it she was upset for awhile. I didn't realize that your mouth bleeds so much. Sydney and Kiley's shirts were both ruined because of the stains, and Kiley's mouth looked bad for a few days, but she's just fine now.

Included are a couple of pictures from lunch yesterday. We ate outside at Chuy's and it was gorgeous!! We're expecting a couple of inches of snow tomorrow??? Anyway, you can see Kiley's four teeth (just four) - with the same big gap between the front two that Sydney had with her baby teeth - compared to the gummy grin that is long gone. And, if you look closely, you can see three hair bows in her hair, because she finds them lying around and wants them all in her hair at once these days.

today....

today, i stopped by for a visit at lunch. when kiley heard the door open she ran over with her arms together and with the biggest smile, ran over to see her papa.

....she had been playing with her mama all morning.

did i mention, how stinkin' cute she is? :)

stuff kiley loves....

stickers...she just discovered them. or maybe it's something i just noticed. she puts them on our hands, clothes and sometimes on herself.

shoes & clothes....the other day we must have tried on 6 pairs of shoes. My sis donated a lovely selection of what must be 500 pairs of shoes (only a slight exaggeration) and kiley routinely has to try on a few any time she has an opportunity.

her car....yep, kiley has a car. it's not a real car but it's certainly a toy she can not get enough of. she finds a set of keys. our spare keys most of the time....where are those spare keys? Kiley!!!! they can usually be found in the ignition of her fred flintstone car (called that because it's foot powered) or in her einstein music table or in one of her many toy boxes. she's so stinkin' cute.

books....yes she likes books. some of which are the classics like goodnight moon and Angelina Ballerina and some that mia and reid (jacq and ryan's little ones) picked out for her. one is a barnyard book with holes in the pages for the parent reading the story to stick their mouth's into and make the animal sound. pretty funny. I think courtney hid that one. HA!!! She loves the I SPY books too. Loves 'em! and of course the Eric Carle books, the grouchy ladybug, the very hungry caterpillar. the one thing she does that i just think is adorable, is she'll find a book, bring it over to you and sit in your lap for you to read it to her. It's cute when she goes over to anyone but i especially love it when she does it with me.

eye brows.....this has got to be the most hilarious thing yet. okay so you look at her and when she wants to be cute, she'll raise her eyebrows...up and down, up and down. it's the funniest thing. it's like she knows just how cute she is. hahahaha. we have to get a video clip of that. it shouldn't be hard at all. HA!!!