Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Cookie Thief


Despite my attempts to get my daughter to eat healthy snacks, she loves cookies. (And yes, I know the apple does NOT fall far from the tree!) Part of the reason she developed a love of cookies is thanks to my mom (and I did let her have graham crackers c.f. blog entry "Teddy Grahams"). My mom’s belief was that certain biscuits from Italy had vitamins in them and that the baby could use more vitamins. Of course, upon looking at the nutritional information of said cookies, there were, in fact, as I suspected, very few vitamins in them. 

However as my daughter’s food pickiness came into being, it became a debate of whether to give her something to eat (the vitamin cookie) or nothing at all. I opted for a cookie every now and then to give her an occasional treat. But like most things, when the cat (momma) is away, the mice (grandma) will (give the child cookie) play.  I discovered many cookies were being eaten and nibbled on when I was at work. 

Of course these food issues with my daughter are a power play that she’s getting away with on her grandma. I try my best to give her fruits and veggies and other things we eat, only to have her toss it to the dogs. My pooches are thrilled by this free for all, believe me. 

On occasion before I’ve even placed food on my daughter’s plate, she’s already made eye contact with the dogs and they sit under her high chair. The food goes from my hand in a direct path to the dog’s mouths. It’s great! Really! 

Lately what I’ve noticed is that my daughter takes her sweet time eating her cookies. This is pure temptation for my bigger dog, who is always hanging around my munchkin. M will walk around the apartment with a hand on the wall or her playpen and the other hand tightly grasping a cookie. When she takes too long, the big dog follows her around. Her face fixed on the cookie in hopes that the cookie will either drop on the floor. Or with the desire that my daughter will just give her the cookies after her hands get all steamed up from the dog’s hot breath on her fist. 

Once or twice, I’ve been there to witness the dog gently put her mouth around the treat in my daughter’s hand, my daughter giggles from the drool and opens her hand. The pooch has serenely digested the sweet snack satisfyingly and all is right again in the puppy universe. Score one for the canine. 

Last weekend my daughter walked back and forth in the apartment for about 15 minutes. She probably completed a mile of pitter-pattering with a gingerbread cookie in her hand. Throughout this little marathon, the dog walked on her side with her snout right above my daughter’s fist. A couple of times, my daughter shoved the dog’s face away from the cookie with her cookie-covered hand. This only made the dog salivate more. Over time and repetition of this same scene, the cookie became soggy and my daughter opened her hand to rub the drool off of her hands. The cookie fell to the floor. And score two for the canine!

Let’s look at the scoreboard:
M = 0;  pooch = 2!

I am pretty sure this game of cookie ball will continue for quite some time. At least until my daughter learns to keep her food to herself. I suppose I should be happy that she’s learning to share but it’s not quite how I imagined sharing to be taught to my daughter. It’s certainly not sharing by intimidation but by salivation.

Honorary Smurf

Recently a pair of jeans that I have had for many years went to the denim patch in the sky. I really couldn’t do much to salvage the worn fabric between the thighs since most of the area was threadbare. Fixing them would be more time and money than to just buy a new pair at Old Navy (where I always get my jeans). It was a sad sartorial day in my closet. Sniff, sniff.

Shortly after saying goodbye to my trusty pants, I ordered a new pair online. (Yes, I know the morning period was rather short but I needed a new pair of jeans pronto. The next weekend, when all I wear is jeans, was fast approaching). I found a pair with a dark wash, which is good for a mom who spends time crawling around after a little munchkin.  As soon as I got them, I cleaned them as the instructions stated and as is my common practice with new items. 

The next weekend came and I wore my jeans all day. By the end of that Saturday evening, I was changing into my pajamas and noticed a weird tinge on my legs. I thought it was either my tired eyes or the bathroom lighting so I didn’t give it much thought.

However the next morning with fresh eyes I realized that the jeans’ dye was wearing off on my skin. Further proof came when I took my shower and the water had turned navy. I looked up the product information to see if it said anything and I realized from having worked in retail back in the day, that it would take a number of washes before the color would stop ‘bleeding’ onto my legs.  While I will have to wait a bit longer to get out of my Papa smurf phase, my daughter had it much easier.

For Christmas, I ordered some blue velvet cupcakes from a bakery that I saw online. Since I love red velvet cupcakes, I thought I would see what was so special about blue velvet (aside from it being my favorite color and fabric) ones. When they arrived, I was very excited! They were so pretty and blue that looked more like the sky than the royal blue that I love.

The cupcakes were quite moist and yummy but nothing too different than the red velvet ones. They had more of a vanilla flavor than the red velvet ones I’ve had. I decided that my daughter should try one out with me and let me know if I was correct in my decision. 

I gave her a little piece but she demanded a chunk with frosting. She stuffed it in her face immediately but missed most of her mouth. A good portion of the cupcake landed around her mouth and under her nose. Due to my daughter’s not yet mastering self-feeding herself, the only part of her face that wasn’t blue was her forehead. By the time we had finished the dessert, she looked like a smurf temperature gauge – where the heat hadn’t quite gotten to 100 degrees yet. 

A quick wiping with a towel got rid of all smurfy evidence on her face while I am still dealing with my blue legs! A few days later though, while eating blueberries and blackberries, my daughter looked like a very angry dark Smurfette. Not sure when I will start to regain my human color but at least with a little water, my daughter returns to normal relatively fast.