Yes, I found the kids were starving when I picked them up from school and would eat nearly whatever I offered. I started arriving in the car with freshly washed and hulled strawberries & other healthy items & they’d disappear immediately.
Also brought water & gatorade—also disappeared instantly.
Since d is in the middle of a 5 day stretch of night shifts, I’m on to do the cooking.
I was the good grandma and got up at 6am (ugh!) to make homemade pancakes for breakfast. I have a chocolate babka rising over a bowl of hot water on the counter in the kitchen. (That’ll get baked later this afternoon for tomorrow’s breakfast.) And I’ll make mac & cheese with mixed veggies to go into the fridge. That will get warmed in the morning and packed in thermoses for tomorrow’s lunch. Dinner tonight is broccoli cheddar soup, zucchini oven-fries and home baked dinner rolls.
No idea what tomorrow’s dinner will be since I have commitments away from the house from 9 until 2 tomorrow, then have to leave at 2:30 to pick kids up at school and take them to swim lessons. Maybe (frozen) cheese tortellini with spinach and tomato sauce? Garlic toast if I manage to pick up a loaf of bread sometimes tomorrow.
I’m not a comfortable vegetarian cook and meal planning 5 veg dinners in a row is always hard for me. Plus the kids can be picky eaters. They’ve not liked my mushroom & lentil stew, vegetable lasagna, fettuccine Alfredo with peas, faux chicken fajitas, extra mild vegan chili or gruyere & asparagus tart. Basically if it’s not pizza, mac & cheese, spaghetti, cheese quesadillas or grilled cheese w/ tomato soup— at least one of the kids won’t eat it.
So if any of you have some easy vegetarian ideas–please share. We do eat dairy, but GS is egg-adverse. So egg-based dishes like quiche and frittatas are out.
Consider getting a bicycle trailer for kids if you family would have any interest in that. We used a trailer instead of seats on the backs of bikes. You can get them 2 carry 2 kids, which sounds like it might be a good idea since GSs are so close in age.
No Gatorade–too much salt and sugar.
Also there’s no or almost no fruit, just veggies. Fruit is never more than one choice on the platter.
The kids will always scarf fruit, but fruit is high in sugar (though it does have micronutrients and vitamins) and D tries to limit the amount of sugar they get.
Sounds like you’re coming up with fun and appetizing ways to serve a variety of veggies. Our kids didn’t eat much fruit, so this was my stealth way of getting them to eat some. They are fine with eating veggies in salad or stews or soups or just cooked as a side dish.
The grandson getting the bike seat is an only. He has hypotonia and his Mom isn’t ready for him to be in a trailer. They have an old trailer from a friend for down the road.
My grandchild with multiple allergies is a great healthy eater. Due to his allergies he hasn’t been given processed foods or sweets. His cousins are a mix. One is in a period where she eats cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets and blueberries and applesauce. They continue to offer her what they are eating and figure one day she will eat other foods.
I went to see Samin Nosrat the other day and she talked about her young friends who love cut up vegetables with a bit of rice vinegar drizzle and flaky salt. I’m going to try it.
I have Samin’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat cookbook. It’s one of my favorites. The raw veggies with rice vinegar drizzle sound like a good idea. My GD will eat almost any vegetable and asks me to cook Gramma JJ’s broccoli. She does prefer cooked veggies to raw
I haven’t figured out Christmas presents yet but I give all my kids, their spouses and my grandkids matching Christmas pajamas (from Little Sleepies) and an ornament on Thanksgiving. A couple I took the oldest two (4 & 6) to Hallmark to pick out their ornaments and we picked out ornaments for their parents. I also got both families a Magna-tiles advent calendar.
@tx5athome -I bought matching Christmas pj’s for GD and GS. Giving them at Thanksgiving is a great idea.
I have kept D’s kids twice in the last week and I am so entertained by how verbal the 2yo has become. I just wish I could understand more of what he is saying. He is very distinct, however, on his favorite sentence - “I be right back.” Used frequently to avoid story time before bed so he can go in his sister’s room to explore.
So glad DD1 has all the meal planning and grocery shopping taken care of - and she has to include goat milk/goat cheese for her husband who cannot take cow’s milk (a recessive genetic thing that thankfully none of the children has). I came up with the healthy snacks when there helping out - generally what DD had in the frig/pantry. The children are healthy and eat healthy.
Our time with them at their home will be with the older three kids out of school over Christmas. We will find out the parents’ schedules when we get closer. The older three have half days for 3 school days and then they are out for two weeks. We will find out at Thanksgiving when DD1 wants us to come - and we have an invite from DH’s cousin for a stop/visit before we get to DD1/SIL’s home (and we get together with cousin’s sister and her husband during that time as well). DH grew up with these cousins, and we are all close family.
I have figured out some of the items ‘from Santa’. I have to make sure to have enough from us. GD1 has an excellent memory, and she will remember what came from Santa and what came from Nana/Grandpa.
Interesting about “Santa” and “not Santa” presents coming from grandparents. I only remember parents ever getting Santa presents, never grandparents in my orbit. Different families, different traditions I guess.
We don’t do “Santa” presents at all. SIL remembers how crushingly disappointed he was to learn that his parents had been lying to him for years about Santa being real when he wasn’t. (It wasn’t that Santa wasn’t real; he’d figured that out himself. It was the lying part that upset him.) He said he’d never lie to his children so…no Santa. No tooth fairy or Easter Bunny either.
All presents come from someone, whether it’s mom & dad, nana & pop-pop, grandma, Aunt Terri or Cousin Abby…..Except for stocking stuffers, presents get put under the tree as they arrive or about a week before Christmas. Kids are allowed to squeeze, shake and rearrange packages, but they can’t be opened until Christmas Eve. Some larger gifts don’t get put out until kids go to bed on Christmas Eve because a couple of the kids get overwhelmed or too excited by too much new stuff. So some package opening is saved for the next day.
DD1/SIL cover essential gifts for their kids but tend to be minimalists. They pay attention to specific items that are requested - especially for birthdays. Also, they are so busy with 5 young children and busy FT work - and SIL still in a lot of job development and also having specific Army drills at 5 or 5:30 am M - F. By the weekends, they have the ‘catch up’ work. This past weekend was the last of the older three soccer games. They had a ‘break’ with the Veteran’s Day holiday.
I have time to get creative with small, inexpensive, but well-received toys that are also played with a lot. For example, both boys like the various small metal matchbox cars/vehicles and also those a little larger - and there was a small car launch to knock barrels out (two different cars that snap onto launcher) that GS2 got for his 4th birthday from us. However, I didn’t look closely at the two cars and those were ‘missing’ in short time - perhaps in their room where they had played with them. They were fun. I looked where I had purchased it, but not there anymore (Walgreen’s). I like to look at various small things that they stock in their toy area.
I saw some 3 1/2” cars and launch systems called “Flat2Fast” (Launch and Race) on Amazon, so I got one for each of the 3 oldest kids (ages 4, 6, and 7). Package says a Luki Lab toy. The car flattens out and loads in the launcher. Will see how it works!
The kids have plenty of ‘big stuff’. They all love the stuffed toy that go with books - and I have a few of those for all the kids from Santa.
Anything I buy is from me. “Santa” is on D and SIL.
Best tip I ever got from television was from Regis & Kathie Lee discussion on Santa. KL said Santa only brought 3 presents as that is the number from the Wise Men to Baby Jesus. Being divorced and having my kids get things from me, their dad and grandparents (paternal grandmother really liked to over gift and buy most of the Christmas list), that rule was one way to manage the chaos. Now I tend to buy clothes, a book & an ornament for each grand. My mother gave each grandchild an ornament every year and we kept a list for distribution when they were grown. They are now cherished reminders of her each year.
H loves Christmas, and we tend to overdo it as a result. I have finally managed to corral his gift giving instincts, because our “kids” are self reliant adults & our D does not want an overindulged only child. We give a toy that she has requested, a book and something to wear.
I frequent a wonderful resale shop, and as a result I have a pretty good selection of things for her to play with & do when she is here (we watch her 1-2 days a week). She plays outside a lot (we were the only ones at the farm/playground yesterday when the wind chill was 19), so we have things to play with outside. I saved all my kids’ books, so there is a bookshelf full of books for her here. She will be grown up before we blink, so H & I like playing with her on her terms for as long as we can.
Similar to @kelsmom, I had read about a concept of four category gifts and have started it with my grands. It has really worked out well.
Something they want
Something they need
Something to wear
Something to read
I’ve never in my life shopped for Christmas anything (being religious Jewish), but I love this taking the grandkids to pick out the ornaments for their parents. What a special nice surprise and bringing them in on the bonding like that!
D1 has a NYC size apartment, so she doesn’t like a lot of stuff for the kids. what she does is to rotate kids’ toys, so they don’t get bored and the apartment still look neat. I don’t buy many things without D1’s permission.
I just came back from Japan. I bought the girls kimonos, a sushi chef robe, fake sushi, Japanese dolls, hello kitty toys. They were all small size items and they were big hit. Both girls love real sushi.