So much for that

Croup, double ear infections, pink eye, allergies. (this was the kids) Bronchitis, sinus infection, pulled rib muscle, strep (this was me) We're finally feeling better though thank goodness!
Last time K was weighed she was at 20lbs 6oz (she had clothes on though).

We seem to be stuck in a rut: Mini muffins for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch with fruit...
The only dinners that please everyone are tacos, pizza and breakfast for dinner. So that means I usually end up making at least 2 dinners every night. I found dolphin shaped chicken nuggets and James LOVES them! He eats them face to fin (yes he's that kid who only eats around the edges of a chicken nugget because he doesn't like the "inside")

The kids both love pickles and olives. How do you make that high calorie?!

We bought a new blender so we can have shakes again! The first one we had was strawberries, blueberries, vanilla ice cream and chocolate fudge. It was pretty tasty though I think the fudge cancels out the healthiness of the berries. Oh well.

I made pancakes for dinner last night and gave James a whipped cream face with a strawberry nose and he asked for blueberries for the center of the eyes. He ate it all up! That just let me know that he does appreciate the fun meals and it does trick him into eating more and faster (the kid could take an hour and a half to eat half a sandwich!) So now that summer is on it's way I'm planning on re-visiting our fun meals and trying to boost the calories in them.

Well.

The holidays snuck up on me!
K had her appt with the endo. She's up to about 19lbs! That's great improvement! And she's on the growth chart for length now! (10% I think) The Endo said that we'll do a recheck in 6 months and if she's had as good or better growth we can be discharged! (possibly do a bone scan to estimate her height first. We will discuss that when it comes)
James is almost 30lbs finally. He weighed in at 29 1/2 when he and Kaylee got croup just before Christmas. He's loving hockey, and preschool. His new favorite lunch: Buttered bread with a slice of cheese and dill relish. Not so appealing to me but he LOVES it.
K still drinks her toddler formula. Which is ok but she doesn't let me brush her teeth very well and with that stuff she really needs it! I already need to call and get her teeth cleaned again. I want to switch her to a straw cup so badly but I don't want her to stop drinking her "milk" in protest. It's a catch 22. SHe is getting much better at chewing and eating though. The other day she used a spoon to eat her soup and ate the whole bowl! And she loves cereal bars (Big bird bars she calls them because the brand we bought has big bird!)

Tomorrow James turns 5. I can't believe it! I made him a hockey cake on Sunday when my parents visited. And in October he asked me out of no where for hockey pucks as his birthday treat for school. Yeah sure son. But I'm proud to say I did it - it took some failures but I did it! (we have oreos dipped in Hershey's chocolate - peanut free of course as per school rules - Finger jello hockey pucks and hockey puck krispie treats which are just round chocolate rice krispie treats)
On the high calorie front I really don't have any new tricks. Advice for the picky though: Be persistent. It takes forever and a day but it does start to pay off. I've had some luck getting J to try new things by letting him create his own "recipe."

Really?!

And we're still leaping along. Both kids had colds - thats a hard struggle. Chicken soup for all! And applesauce and Popsicles. James is back to himself finally (after a cold, horrible allergies and another cold - sick for a month! With a horrid cough.)

Why do I find it odd that so many parents seem to be feeding their kids healthier than themselves? I mean your kid is watching you eat! And on top of that - so many families dont eat together at all. It's just weird to me. And I really don't think 1 yogurt covered pretzel with lunch is enough to be considered a "Treat" for a 4 year old but that's just me - a confirmed junk food junkie - I guess. (and I'm not talking about large pretzels I'm talking about the kind that are twisty and come in big bags.)
So enough with my tangent - (feed your kids how you want, just stop trying to make me feel inferior because my kids eat *Gasp* Ice cream instead of frozen yogurt or whatever!)

James weighed in at 29 1/2 lbs the other day! GO James!!He also needs bigger shoes. Again. (good thing Daddy got the next size up hockey skate too!) And Kaylee is moving up to 18 month and 24 month stuff (for length obviously not weight) We see the endo in December. Hoping for an "all clear" but not getting my hopes up too high to be dashed to pieces again.

Oh our favorite season is upon us! Thanksgiving & Christmas. We'll be baking up a storm. And making candy. Oh and the ideas i have for lunches (time permitting) so excited!! And the store bought goodies too....mmmmmmmmmmm.

I shall make a separate post for Caramel apple nut cakes. They are so good. Hard to make some times, but still oh so good & fattening too!

Halloween!

We've been having a fun fall! I've been making a bunch of fun Halloween sandwiches (just sandwiches cut with a cookie cutter) Butter, cheese and pickles is the current favorite. James' own creation. If he likes it who am I to complain. Here's a ghost with grape bugs and eyeballs:

Acorns (a treat)



Spider (cheese, pretzels, raisins)


We're still plugging along. Kaylee hasn't been weighed recently. I tried to get her in to see the Developmental specialist but they make it impossible - shouldn't be that hard for existing patients to be seen! I mean really?! I have to call 3 months in advance and the appointments fill up that fast and really you can't schedule into the next month? You want me to call every day until you have the new calendar available? Really!? Anyway..... She sees the Ped Endocrinologist in December.
James weighed in at 28 1/2 lbs when he was seen for his cough last week. I just don't understand. Would my kids not weigh anything if I didn't go to all the extra effort to boost calories like I do??!? I guess I'm getting myself into one of my frustrated moods. Kaylee has decided it's grand fun to drop her food on the floor. She eats a few bites and then it's game on. I really want to force her to cut back on the toddler milk, but I know she gets all her calories that way.
On a bright note: She's learned to bite things! Cereal bars, cookies, chips, muffins, lots of things! And she loves that danonino yogurt. She grabs them out of the fridge and says "ogurt pleeeeasseee!" How can I refuse even though i know it's going to mean an extra bath?! She loves feeding herself yogurt.


A tip to increase calories for this post: I add cool whip to chocolate pudding. I am lazy and I buy the store brand (Hunts I think has the most calories per serving) and I add cool whip. You can make a cute ghost with it using sprinkle or chocolate chip eyes.

New Schedule

James is now in preschool 3 days a week. That's caused us to have a slightly new schedule. This has led to Kaylee falling in love with her snack cup! She seems to be eating more. She'll have a snack while waiting to get J from school and still sit down and eat lunch with us.
And the "fun" lunches have been cut back. The good thing is that J seems to come home hungry (even though they give them a snack) He now likes peanut butter and banana sandwiches and bread and cheese and pickle sandwiches. A monkey (use your imagination!) A pig and a bear with some bear friends. Halloween is coming - I have lots of ideas! (we'll see if I can get into the groove of this new schedule and find the time)


As for calorie options: Kaylee had raviolis (gerber toddler ones) and we added butter to the top.
James has started eating hot dogs (cut into bite size pieces) inside a hotdog bun with ketchup and mustard. He will eat 2 buns, 1 hot dog for lunch this way. *But be sure the ketchup is on the bottom! haha*
We've been snacking on cubed cheese (colby jack). They like it with crackers or veggie sticks or just about anything! And apples with peanut butter or caramel dip. Fried apples are good and you can top pancakes with them but the kids aren't really fans. I bought some mini muffins at the store (little debbie maybe?) and they both like those in the morning (So do I) I must get myself a mini muffin pan asap!! The fall baking season is about to start!

Still fun!

Kaylee's still small, but doing well! James starts preschool this week! Where is all this time going? His school is nut free, but thank goodness he doesn't eat lunch there. His favorite right now is peanut butter sandwiches. Almost every day he asks for a PBand J with no jelly. Who am I to say no?! I am not sure what I'll feed him when he has to take a lunch and it's a nut free school....Guess I'll start doing my research and testing now!
Still doing the fun lunches - he eats it up. And when I do bento style lunches (small portions of several different foods) he loves that too. I may just have to purchase an actual bento box set. Here's some of our fun foods:

A strawberry mouse with a banana tail, and some blueberry "bugs" with banana wings and antennae.
Buttered bread with marshmallow teeth, marshmallow and chocolate chip eyes. He ate this with a bowl of soup.
A raspberry and blueberry flower with pretzel stick stem. Strawberry and cracker butterflies with blueberry eyes.
Dog Pb&J Minus J. Cracker ears, marshmallow eyes, scooby snack crackers and a splitz yogurt.

Grilled cheese fish sandwich with some small cracker buddies.

And just so you don't think Kaylee gets left out: Though the fun in her lunch is dumping the entire plate onto her tray. (she has wagon wheel noodles with butter that I cut up for her, deli chicken - Boarshead everroast mmmm - and some cheese.)

As for the high calorie aspect of these lunches: We add double peanutbutter to his sandwiches, butter to his soup, butter to the noodles, I put butter on both sides of the grilled cheese and double the cheese and then he dips into mustard or ranch or ketchup... We've also had "brinner" alot. Thats breakfast for dinner. Bacon and pancakes or banana pancakes with a side of hashbrowns and eggs. Or french toast. If you want to add extra calories to those just use heavy cream instead of milk. Top with syrup, whipped cream, yogurt or jelly (or ice cream topping) We had fried apples on top of pancakes two weeks ago to get into the fall season. It was so good!
I can't wait to start doing my fall baking!

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.