Kindy Lunches

The kindy lunch. It’s a tricky one. I don’t know about you, but my toddler and food can be a hard thing. It’s not that she’s a fussy eater, she likes most foods. It’s just that sometimes she just doesn’t want to eat, and eating-time can become a long, drawn out and somewhat painful process. We can also be a bit paranoid about her food intake because of the crappy time we went through with her weight and size in her first year of life.

Kindy also has lots of rules about food… no nut-related products, not too much processed food if you can help it, easy on the sugar. Which in general is how we try to feed Mayana anyway (aside from the nuts, she loves peanut butter, almonds and macadamia nuts in particular), but at home it’s just easier to gauge what is going to actually be eaten on a particular day. Don’t get me wrong, we don’t kowtow to Mayana’s every food-related whim, but I do think that it helps when she gets to choose or even help us to make the food she is going to eat. The daycare centre Mayana used to go to in Toowoomba provided all meals (delicious, home-made type meals, cooked on site…) so it never really factored for us before. Unfortunately we are not so lucky with the Daycare centres here.

So, I have tried really hard to approach this Kindy lunch box thing in a creative way, still incorporating an element of choice and variety, and maintaining a healthy standard. If you follow me on Instagram (I’m @zoeyjoyful if you’re interested), you will have seen some of my #kindylunch photos, and I have been wanting to share some of them here on my blog.

I have previously been inspired by ‘Muffin Tin Mom’, and found that offering small amounts of lots of different kinds of foods was quite successful. Obviously I couldn’t send a muffin tin to Kindy with Mayana, so I had to get a bit creative. I bought myself a bunch of small, round Sistema ‘klipit’ containers, on sale at Woolies for 64c each. Six of them fit perfectly in our large Sistema lunchbox. The three of us have been having lots of fun thinking of interesting combinations of food to put in them, and Mayana has already got a number of firm favourites that she requests most days.

Here is a sample of what Mayana has been eating at Kindy lately:

star-shaped vegemite sandwiches | peaches | yoghurt | grapes | cherry tomatoes | cheese

dates, apricots + raisins | banana chips | sausages (from dinner) | yoghurt | boiled egg (from our chooks, super exciting apparently) | cherry tomatoes

dates, apricots, craisins + banana chips | lychees + grapes | cucumber + tomatoes | yoghurt | carrot + hummus | cheese + vegemite wraps.

As you can see, cherry tomatoes are a firm favourite, and usually the first to go. Fruit and dried fruits are also requested almost daily (I can’t get over how much Mayana loves dried apricots and dates!). Peter and I have been keeping a list on the fridge of ideas, which we add to whenever we think of something. I’m really hoping the novelty doesn’t wear off with this, because I have been having a lot of fun thinking of ideas and making these lunches each night. It’s been challenging too, trying to incorporate as much fresh foods as I can, and not including anything that has come out of a packet. I have been very pleasantly surprised almost daily at how little of her food is coming home, and it makes me happy to know that all that she is eating is healthy and doing her good.

What do you put in your kid’s Kindy lunches? And have you got any exciting ‘muffin tin’ ideas to share??

A Peek At My Week

This week has been incredibly fast-paced for the Friend Family, as we try and settle into our new routine being a Double-Income-One-Kid family.

Yes, Peter has started his new job! After a few days trying to find his feet (he was meant to be kind of eased into the job with someone helping him in his room, but for a number of reasons this didn’t happen and he was on his own from day one!) he is starting to get into the swing of things. He has brilliant ideas and plans for his kids, and I’m loving seeing him passionate and excited. I’ve also had fun helping him design and make some resources for his room. I love doing creative things like that and don’t get to do them so much in my role as a Distance Education teacher. The only real hurdle we have left to overcome is to find another qualified and fully registered teacher, hopefully in a local Kindy, who can mentor Pete so he can meet the requirements to get his full Qld Teachers Registration in the next twelve months!

It has been interesting for both Pete and Mayana that she is in his Kindy room. They are both having to adjust to the idea of not being solely each other’s, and Mayana has been acting out a little this week as she finds her feet. It seemed by the end of the week that she was starting to go back to being her lovely self, so it will be interesting to see how she goes this week. It’s a huge adjustment for her going to long days of practically full-time kindy, and considering that I think she hasn’t done too badly at all.

Mayana had her first dance class this week, and despite the fact that I got my times mixed up and she only actually got to do the last 10 minutes of the lesson (she didn’t notice this at all by the way), she had an absolute ball. It was literally one of the cutest things I have ever seen in my life. For starters she is at least 30cm shorter than everyone else in her class (even though she is the same age as half of them), and the look of pure concentration on her face as she tried to copy everything her teacher does was almost too much for me to take. I wish it wasn’t weird to take photos of her with other people’s kids so I could share it with you! She has had fun showing everyone she knows all of the things that Miss Desiree taught her. It will be interesting to see how much she picks up in an actual half hour lesson this week, and I’m already looking forward to seeing her in her concert at the end of the year!

We took a whirlwind day-trip to Kenilworth on the weekend, where we met up with my parents. Opa had promised to take Mayana on an ice-cream date if she could make good choices and have listening ears (our buzz words of the week) at Kindy for Papa on Thurday, and we thought it would be good to follow that through in a timely manner. It was an awesomely fun day, if a little exhausting!

For me it’s the same-old same-old, busy busy busy at work trying to keep my head above water, and eternally grateful that the bosses started my replacement off now and not a few weeks before I left. I honestly wouldn’t have survived without her these past few weeks- it has been such a blessing to have her there! Plus we get along famously and I have very much enjoyed her company. It’s fun having new staff in our office!

And that, my friends, is pretty much our week in a nutshell. I myself cannot believe that it is a week since I was sitting her writing last week’s post! The days are just flying by, and here we are practically in the middle of February already!

Tell me about your week!

Zoey x

Consider my thoughts provoked.

I was catching up on the blogs I love to read and came across this post from my friend Talia’s blog. You should pop over and read it.

It’s left me pondering Big Things ever since.

A lot to do with the election. This will be the second federal election I have had the opportunity to vote in. I choose to consider my right and responsibility to vote as a privilege, and I don’t take it lightly. I do a lot of reading, a lot of watching (though admittedly I don’t take much notice of the pathetic propaganda-like mud-slinging TV ads – they make me seethe, and I think it’s pretty embarrassing how pathetic our pollies can be), and a lot of talk to people. I want to make an informed choice when I vote, and I want my vote to count. And Talia made some points which I totally identify with.

And like Talia, I’ve been thinking about lots of other Big Things too. Like, next year. Getting a job. Well, for that matter – this year and finishing uni would be a good start! The fact that the thought of working full time and therefore having Mayana in daycare full time makes me want to cry. Whether I’d be happy doing relief work or something part time. Whether that’s even a choice anyway – it might end up being my only option for all I know.

Uni is so scary at the moment – everyone’s always talking about the Big Scary Unknown, and using all these education-related acronyms, talking about Ten Standards and Roadmaps and Action Research Projects and Literature Reviews. It makes me feel like I don’t know enough ‘stuff’ to be a good teacher, and I can’t wait to go out on prac where I know I’m doing the thing I was made to do.

Prac is only three weeks away now, which is pretty darn exciting, but also makes me  feel the need to ask for a paper bag (you know, so I don’t hyperventilate). And it’s only 15 weeks until we pack up and leave this place!

So yeah, lots of things to think about. And I promise you, this brain never stops ticking. It’s somewhat exhausting actually. So thanks for letting me ‘blah’ here :-)

Off to find a paper bag…

Mayana’s Week…

It’s been a pretty good one. We’re all feeling pretty settled into our routine now, and the week totally flew by.

Mayana has had an awful cold this week – one of the joys of daycare I suppose. Oh well, it all builds the immune system I guess. Her cough got bad enough that we took her to the doctors, but she told us it was just a ‘garden variety’ cold and she’ll get through it eventually. We’re dosing her up on Olive Leaf Extract and Inner Health Plus (baby versions of course). While we were at the doctor’s we had her weighed, and found that she’s sitting at 7.59kg. I was a little dissapointed, I thought it would be more, but her graph line is still climbing so that’s a good thing. She’s parallel to the 3rd percentile, probably sitting on the first or maybe just under. But the doctor did say that she’s happy as long as it’s climbing, and was suitably impressed with Mayana’s bubbliness and cleverness at pointing out her nose, eyes, ears and belly button. Beautiful clever bean that she is.

Anyway… here’s a few snapshots of her week!

Mayana took great delight in watching her Papa playing ‘Biggest Loser’ on the Wii. She was completely enthralled, and tried to copy his moves. So cute!

Girly-girl? Found Mama’s lip gloss and just *had* to have some. She thought she was so clever and pulled this killer pout for the next ten minutes or so, before discovering that it tasted pretty good and licking it all off.

Yeah baby!!! Her hair is getting thicker by the day… and Mama managed to scrape it into piggy-tails!!!!

Mayana discovered for the first time the joys of playing in a box! What fun…

See… check out that hair!!

Mayana adores colouring in. This week we bought her a pencil case, because the box her crayons came in was getting somewhat tattered. She thinks it’s pretty cool. However, she also thinks it’s cool to eat crayons…

On Friday, Mayana’s daycare teacher told us that pretty much the only thing stopping her from moving up into the toddler’s room is that she’s not quite adept at feeding herself with a spoon. So it’s time to perfect that skill. We bought Mayana some of those bowls that suction to the table, to make the learning a little easier. This was her first attempt at 100% independent use of a spoon… with lasagne. I was pretty impressed at how much she got in her mouth, and how little ended up on her tray and the floor…. can’t say as much for her face though!

On Saturday the three of us headed to the park for some family time. Mayana had a ball running around everywhere, playing with the xylophone and eating. She had a little oopsie, but the tears soon subsided when I produced a pretty pink fairy band-aid.

 

Sunday afternoon in the garden:

The Final Chapter

On Monday, uni starts. Finally. I’m actually looking forward to it. Summer holidays are sooooooooo long and by the time uni gets back I’m usually rearing to go. Especially this year. Why? Because this is it. The last year. Ever. (Unless I someday do my masters of course!).

Two more semesters, 10 weeks of prac, 4 courses, an interview with Ed Qld… and it will all be over. I’ll wear that mortar board and gown, and someone will hand me a pretty piece of paper declaring me to be the proud owner of a bachelor degree in education.

And then…. well I’m not entirely sure yet.

I want to get this part over first.  And it’s not something you can really plan for. It’s in God’s hands and not in my mind at the moment.

All that’s in my mind is The Final Chapter. Monday. First day back, Mayana’s first day of daycare. We’ve been approved for the JET scheme through centrelink, meaning we basically only have to pay around $1.00 a day for her care. Which is a major blessing because daycare is not cheap. And we ended up finding an awesome daycare that we’re so happy with. Lovely staff, lovely facility. They provide food, milk, nappies, linen and suncream. And really good care. And I’m trying my best to not feel nervous about leaving her there alone.

But for now… I’m going to enjoy my last few days of freedom. Of all-day-longs with my sunny little bean.

Three more days.