Sunday, June 10, 2012

Family Dinners

We started our day today with a couple of errands. We had a few things for the house to get from Lowe's and I needed to swing by Michael's as well.

We waited until after Ayden's morning nap, fed him, changed his diaper and headed out!  He has become such a little trooper in the car.  I suppose this is a prime example of what consistency can do for modifying behaviors.  Since we had no choice but to make him ride it out when he used to scream for an entire car ride, he eventually realized that they weren't the end of the world.  Now we either can't even tell that he's back there or get to listen to him "talk" to himself the whole time.  This development has definitely made for more pleasant car rides and we no longer find ourselves cursing red lights and traffic which is alway a plus...

I teach the pre-dance program at our family dance studio and today was their big performance.  The actual recital is on Saturday but these little ones get a performance of their very own.  We needed to go to Michael's to pick up their end of the year gifts.  We ended up getting them little princess wooden frame kits.  They were only a dollar each and came with tiny markers so they'd be able to decorate them themselves.  They ended up being the perfect little gifts.  I also picked up the supplies to make one of these guys:

source

I've got some crafting to do and I'm looking forward to it!

I left Ayden with David while I went to teach the performance since I needed to be able to focus on my students.  Here I am in my ballet teacher garb:


The performance went really well.  The little ones in their tutus are always adorable and it's really fun to watch the families enjoy their babies.  I was even more aware of that this year now that I have my own little boy to show me the pride of being a parent.  

Ayden is finally big enough for the Ergo without the infant insert but wasn't a huge fan for long. As he grows he'll get more and more comfortable in it.  It just makes his little legs spread so far apart.  I know that's the safe way for them to be positioned but he's just not big enough yet.  David has missed being able to use the Ergo so he was especially happy to see that the time of him wearing Ayden again is near!  


Since he wasn't a fan for very long, I took him out and David played with him while I worked on dinner.  David had him giggling so much and it was so cute. We made our first harvest from our patio container garden!


David may or may not have had a few funny things to say about the shape of this guy...
I put our first zucchini into the sauce for our spaghetti squash with meat sauce.  It was delicious!  We've been putting Ayden at the table with us in his Bumbo with his little bamboo spork and bowl.  


He sits and plays with them the whole time and we actually feel like we are eating as a family.  We even let him gum on a carrot sometimes which he loves!  He'll be 5 months old in eleven days...  Solids are right around the corner.  I purchased the Baby Led Weaning book from Amazon and need to get reading because I'm pretty sure we'll be using that approach to introducing solids.  It will be important for us to have nice family dinners and we think this is a great start!

Are your kids good at the dinner table?  How young did you start having them join you?

~Sarah

1 comment:

  1. Sarah,

    We have 6 kids...16, 12, 11, 4, 3, and Sophie who is 8.5 mos. We have everyone at the family table for every dinner (unless the oldest has cheerleading practice or its during dance season when the 12 yr old is at practice) but if your home, your at the table. Sure its chaotic at times....but its the only time we can be together. Sophie right now is in her highchair pulled up to the corner of the table next to me. She usually has her solids before dinner and will play w/ some toys or she is currently really fond of those Gerber snacky stars and will try to eat those while we have our dinner. I am going to try some of your recipes...as we have to follow a diary/soy free diet in order for me to nurse because of our littles having MSPI (milk soy protien intolerance) when they are younger. So at around 33 wks pregnant I start this diet and continue until I stop nursing. I am hoping to find some great recipes from you!

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