Gametes In Love

G (when he’s in his sweet mood) likes to share his food. A cheerio for him: a cheerio for you. It’s nice… except for when:

1. Said cheerio was first chewed a bit by him. Unlike birds, I’m not a huge fan of previously chewed-up food. Thanx, buddy, but this is one I’d like to skip.

2. It’s a fish-cracker. I really, really dislike the taste of them.

It’s just hard when you have him genuinely want to do something sweet for you and heads his little fingers towards your mouth. I’ve said “No, thank you!” with no success. I’ve also considered pinching my lips tight (so he doesn’t succeed in shoving said food item in it), but then have to remember that I could only be teaching him to do the same to me in a few weeks. All this means is that I end up with some sort of grossness in my mouth, that I have to smile and “graciously” accept. “Thank you!” (and then try not to gag).

So yeah, sharing is awesome.

G’s daycare is instituting a new policy in regards to birthday celebrations: only healthful foods, please! This means, no more cupcakes. They’re politely asking that if parents bring in treats to the classroom for the kids and teachers, they bring in low-calorie, low-fat, healthy alternatives. They even provided a neat list of suggestions.

I dig it!

Although I am known as a connoisseur of junk food, I want better for G, and I’m happy to hear that his sugar and empty calories will be delivered by yours trully at home and not at school.

On the bonus side, this also means a lot less effort for me 🙂 I’m a good cook. I really am (and am not ashamed to toot my own horn). And I love baking… just the thought of baking and decorating cupcakes for two dozen kids each year was really unappealing. Cutting up fruit and making fruit kabobs though? Sign me up for that!

PS. If you are into cake/cupcakes though and want a great sugar-free alternative, I highly recommend the Baby’s First Birthday Cake recipe (found here: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/tipFirstBDay.htm). These are what we served at G’s birthday, and even though there was no sugar to speak of, the treats were plenty sweet (thank you raisins and apple sauce), and super moist. Man, these were good! If you decide to convert this recipe to cupcakes, bake only for 1/2 the suggested time and use an ice-cream scoop to ensure consistent amount of batter in each tin. The recipe produces 2 dozen cupcakes… although less will be delivered to the party as I’m sure you will eat a few along the way… for taste-testing of course ;p

Last week, after a nice warm spell (thank you Indian Summer!), I decided that it was time to introduce G to ice cream. I’ve been relaxing some of my food rules of late and thought that it would be good to give him some frozen yummy goodness. To be fair it wasn’t “real” ice cream — it was soft-served frozen yogurt, but none-the-less, fullfilled the frozen sugary treat purpose.

Verdict? Major win!

G got over the first taste of coldness and kept coming back for more. He had his little vanilla taste (which if you’ve ever been to Yummi Yogurt know that it’s big enough for a small serving) and then proceeded to help S and I with the one we were trying to split.

Well, at least now 3 of us can split the calories.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emQTVsHldnM]