More fun food!

James still really enjoys "Fun Lunches" here are a few of my latest attempts:

Mouse
Smurf houses/toadstools/mushrooms
Mouse ("warehouse mouse")

Wall-E

I find that he eats more if I do Bento style lunches. (Small servings of a bunch of foods.)

Kaylee had a trip to the ER. She slipped and hit her head. She checked out ok and did wonderfully during the whole thing (CAT scan included!) She weighed in at 17lbs though. She's still gaining slowly but surely. Her new favorite foods are yogurt and cereal bars.

As for high calorie stuff - we still do what we can to add to their foods. Kaylee still gets 27 cal/oz toddler formula. She's finally starting to learn how to use straws so I see a lot of shakes in her future! James loves his peanut butter lately. He's also discovered that apples go well with peanut butter and caramel.

CF

This website has some high calorie recipe ideas for kids. It's meant for kids with CF. James took the sweat test and passed so no CF but we can still use the calories! http://kidshealth.org/kid/recipes/cf_recipes/about_cf_recipes.html


Fun foods: This week we've had a turtle shaped quesadilla, butterfly pastas with leaf shaped cheese, a bear face sandwich, cucumber and pretzel tree, and pumpkin shaped sandwich with pumpkin puzzle cheese and watermelon. And James has eaten his lunch every day with no complaints. EVERYDAY. Looks like i'll be continuing on with the fun lunch stuff. Good thing a Party City just opened in the shopping center up the road! (and I'll post pictures shortly.)




Kaylee lost 2oz at her last weigh in, but grew 1/4 of an inch. And she graduated from Physical Therapy!!! Yeah!! We might start adding Duocal to her diet. I think I can be sneakier than when we tried it with James..... We shall see.

Fun lunches

Just getting started so cut me some slack. Here's our first "fun lunch". A sailboat sandwich with pirates treasure fruit and dip. (and veggie sticks)

James ate the whole thing and more fruits and veggie sticks.

I'm collecting more "tools"and gadgets for more fun lunches. Hopefully more creative than this one~ stay tuned!

Slowly but surely...

Kaylee is up to 16lbs 6oz and 30 1/4 inches. Not huge but she's growing and that's all that matters. James outgrew 2 pairs of shoes this summer and his jeans are SO short. We have alot of shopping to get to this fall!

The other night we had Banana "coins" or banana pancakes for dinner. It was a huge hit! All I did was dip bananas cut into small circles in the pancake batter and then tossed it on the griddle.
Today for lunch I served his sandwich and yogurt with blueberries in a pirate muffin cup with a pirate flag (toothpick/food pick) and James loved it so much. That means I'm going to go ahead and dig out the cookie cutters and start making lunch time fun. It might mean a few extra minutes preparing the meal, but if I don't have to say "eat your food" 1000 times it'll be worth it. I'm also hoping to get him to try new things. If it looks this cool/fun it MUST be good right?! I sure hope so! I'll post pictures as we start doing this - first I have to get everything together and get some meals planned. (I'm sure my husband will appreciate it if I don't go out and spend a mini fortune on this stuff all at once too!) I'm excited though so I hope it rubs off on James - and in turn Kaylee too.

Size 3s!

Finally hit 16lbs and the size 3 diapers are starting to fit! Also realized her size 3 shoes (6-9 months) are getting a little small and went out to get her some size 4s!!! She's walking all over the place non stop so I'm super happy about her gain of 6ounces in 2 weeks. (so is the nutritionist) Especially since she's teething and had a delayed allergic reaction to bug bites on top of the walking.

For foods lately: We've been loving summer. Fruit is a big deal in this house. Of course we dip it in coolwhip or yogurt or caramel or chocolate, blend it into ice cream shakes.....We've also been enjoying freeze dried fruits. And veggies (which Kaylee will eat - James is hit or miss) Corn, zucchini (breaded and fried or steamed) I made some dill ranch cucumber dip to go with some crackers I found at the store (keebler club sticks - perfect for small hands) I haven't convinced either kid to actually eat the dip (James tried a few crackers and said he liked it) but G and I think it's great. You mix 1 16oz container of sour cream with a package of the ranch mix, 1 tsp of dill and half a cucumber (cut up into small pieces)

On a side note: I've noticed more moms being told to fatten up their kids, and this in turn sparking the debate on how to feed your kids (no junk, only "good" fats etc) I don't want to be involved in all that - feed your kids how you feel is best! We've been dealing with this issue for 4 years now with 2 kids and in all the doctors, dietitians and nutritionists we've seen their main focus has always been getting in the calories. We don't eat only "healthy" fats (we eat Mcdonalds regularly). I still hope other moms are able to use some of our ideas and I'm able to help you help your kids.

Sunflowers!

Our favorite snack this week: Sunflower seeds. Yes they're salty if you buy the packaged ones but they're pretty high in calories for how little they are (and how little you have to eat) They've got lots of good vitamins too!
James loves them in a bowl with baby goldfish crackers.
You can also mix them in yogurt, on top of ice cream, in salad.

Kaylee is on a cheese, deli chicken and bread kick - and also avocados. I'm sure her drinking 21-28ounces of 27 calorie toddler formula fills her up so I'm just glad she's still eating. It seems it's working because she's officially a walker now (and so burning more calories) and still gaining weight! Eventually we're going to limit her "milk" and have her eat more "foods" but for now she's just catching up so to speak. Trying to get the calories where she can. I'm also going to talk to our Developmental Pedi and dietician about trying the Duocal with Kaylee (James somehow knew when we put it in his stuff, but I think i'm trickier now!)

A-OK

The endocrinologist is our new favorite person. She's not convinced there's really anything wrong with Kaylee other than her size and she'd much prefer to take a wait and see approach rather than an aggressive testing one. K had a few more tests today (only 2 tubes) just to get a few things pinned down. She sees the Endo in 6 months (unless these results come back really wacky) just to check how she's doing. She said we have her whole life (until she's done growing really) to straighten this out and correct if need be, but that it really doesn't look like theres a real problem. Whew. Just praying nothing comes up strange and it's smooth sailing from here. I could cry! Oh wait I did (when i was alone)


So Kaylee's up to 15lbs 12 oz and 28 1/4 inches (the typical weight of a 5 month old, and height around 7 months) but it's growth (Steady growth at that) and we'll take it! She's still much smaller than even James was, but mommy knows how to sew a stitch in her pants to make them fit so it's ok. And she's starting to take steps!

We've been snacking on cereal alot lately. Not the highest thing for calorie count, but not terrible for us. It's almost summer and we'll eat alot of fruit, and go through alot of whipped cream! Another favorite is chocolate filled crescent rolls. Yum! And calo-rific!!! It's simple. Roll out the tube of crescent rolls, spread some melted butter on them, put in some chocolate chips and roll into crescents. Bake according to directions (add a minute or so until brown) and drizzle top with melted chocolate. I've been thinking of adding some fruits to this too and sometimes we add nuts or almonds. Ok now i'm drooling.