Tag: toddlers

Categories
Contests

Byron Barton’s “The Three Bears” Best Toddler Book Ever

There are a lot of books being marketed to young children out there. Many are based on popular kids shows — forget about these. Many are classic stories we remember from our own childhood — these are often nice. And then there are the fairy tales — be careful with these. Too often a publisher will put out a shoddy rendition of a fairy tale figuring that the story will sell itself. The abridged story will be poorly constructed and the illustrations barely passable. There is no joy in these stories.

Continue reading “Byron Barton’s “The Three Bears” Best Toddler Book Ever”
Categories
Uncategorized

The Infant-Toddler Cusp

DAILY SNACK

“What should we do now?”

I ask Irene.

“Should we draw a picture?”

She nods.

“Do you want to use chalk? Where’s the chalkboard?”

She points.

I put her down and we walk over to the chalk board.

I hand her a fat piece of sidewalk chalk.

She puts it in her mouth.

“No, Irene, no. Yucky.”

She laughs and tears off into the kitchen,

Chalk firmly between teeth.

What am I dealing with here?

Categories
Uncategorized

Coney Island Everything

I feel pretty vindicated on the food front after Colum devoured his lunch today. A couple weeks ago I had a hankering for some chili and made an enormous amount. I know that Colum’s not especially big on the meat, but chili is tomato-y and he does like beans. Still, I served it Cincinnati-style over some whole wheat spaghetti to make it Colum-friendly. We sit down at the table and he announces, “I hate chili.” Wow. I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard him use the word hate before. And I had chili for at least two more meals that week and some for the freezer. Just then, my brother (who was joining us for dinner) rang the doorbell. So I said, “Shane’s here now and he really loves chili. He will be upset if you don’t like the special dinner we cooked for him. I’m going to go let him in and you should just start eating.” I don’t know how I came up with that, but it worked! He started eating, and even though he ate mainly pasta and left the chili, I was satisfied. We had it a couple more times and he would grudgingly eat enough of his dinner. Today I cracked out a small frozen serving and heated it up and served it over spaghetti and topped it with cheddar once again. And he loved it. So there you go: repeated exposure, and some trickery, and a good dose of hunger really do work wonders. And man am I sick of chili.