I think we have a new October tradition!

inspired by all of the Halloween decorations and Play at Home Mom, we decided to have dinner by blacklight. I picked up these blacklights for $10 each at Walmart. Yes, I’m admitting to driving to a different county to go to Walmart to pick up cheap blacklights (there is no walmart in King county and blacklights at the 3 other stores I checked were 3Xs the cost). Simon has been playing with glow in the dark and blacklight reactive objects under them all week. They are a ton of fun. So tonight we extended the play to dinner. I researched as much as I could about food that fluoresces under blacklights. I read that vitamines A (beta carotene) B1, B2, and B12 are all blacklight reactive and I hoped to crush up some and sprinkle it on our food but I was not successful in getting it to work. I must reshearch this topic further becuase I read that B12 is the secret behind Monster Energy drink’s orange glow. For tonight’s dinner party we stuck with tonic water which is made with quinine (from tree bark) it’s extremely bitter and usually used in the drink gen and tonic. I simply froze tonic water in ice cube trays and made jello with it for some eerie drinks and dessert. If you want to make your own blacklight reactive jello just buy the knox gelatin and follow the instructions on the package. You will need 4 packets of gelatin, 2 cups of some sort of juice (I used white grape) and 2 cups of tonic water (you can buy HFCS free tonic water and Whole Foods Market). Both kids found this to be too bitter so you might actaully need to make it more juice less tonic water (or add sugar).

these are our florescent ice cubes which melted into florescent water – the next logical extension of this is of course blacklight bath and tonic water is pretty inexpensive so don’t but it past me to fill the bath with it.

and this is our glow in the dark jello.

we also bought florescent green hair spray (as you can see so clearly on Simon) that was a huge hit once he realized it’s purpose. Our table center piece is just florescent plastic shot glasses that I found at the party store, Simon has had a lot of fun playing with them. The company that makes them also makes plates and cups. We might have to experiment with them next year. I also found on http://www.blacklight.com that you can buy all sorts of fun stuff that our local party store didn’t carry; nail polish, makeup, bubbles, balloons etc, etc.

showing off the hairspray (comes in like 4 different colors)

showing off his glowing teeth!

All in all it was a ton fun. I don’t think Talia was quite sure what to think of it. We gave her some jello to play with and she loved squishing it but I’m not sure she even noticed that it was glowing.
If this post inspires you or if you have any other ideas of blacklight reactive “stuff” we could add please comment!

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They  Love each other!

We tell Simon that Talia will always be his first friend, that it is his job to look out for her. Even though he does already enjoy bossing her around he takes that job pretty seriously. He always makes sure that she doesn’t have any choking hazards in her mouth and he comes running to me to let me know if she is even approaching any kind of danger. I think they are going to be life long friends.

I went to the fabric store yesterday in an attempt to get a head start on Halloween costumes. Instead I bought the material and patter to make the dress that Talia is wearing in the photos. It turned out pretty cute so I was trying to take some photos of her in it and Simon asked to get in some too. He rarely ask to be in photos so when he does I let him! The pictures I got of the two of them are way more precious to me than the dress modeling. But here it is in color

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a little bit more low key than last year. Myles requested grasshopper pie. The last time I made this I used a recipe that involved pureed avocado. This time he specifically requested avocado free grasshopper pie… After we sang, ate, and opened presents we had a squirt gun fight with the the squirt guns that Myles’s parents sent. What a great day!

Thank you Sarah Bayless for trying – I actually love them!

last year a bunch of my photographer friends were making these really cool butterfly aquariums. They would just catch caterpillars out in their yards and then make them comfy little homes inside a fish tank or similar enclosure filled with flowers and leaves. I thought Simon would love this so I went hunting for a caterpillar. TO my surprise it actually wasn’t that hard to find one, there was one right on our trampoline netting. After capturing it I went inside to look it up and find out what it ate. To my hoar it turned out to be a tent caterpillar which according to the WSU extension are “a serious nuisance in western Washington” So scrap that plan… So this year when the butterfly garden kits appeared in all the stores I bought one. And we sent off for our caterpillar larvae which then arrived in the mail. We watched the caterpillars eat and eat and eat and grow and grow and grow until the finally got so fat that they climbed to the top of their little container and spun their cocoons. After they hatched (emerged?) we released them and these are the photos from that day.

these are painted lady butterflies and I found their lack of color rather disappointing. I would really like to do this project again another verity of butterfly but so far I can only find painted lady butterfly larvae for sale so I guess my only option is back to looking for native species…

that’s what his hair looks like directly after nap. I’m not cutting it until the end of the summer. I’m afraid that this is the last of the curls

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Talia has been carefully studying how we eat and watching intently as we put food into our mouths so we thought that she might be ready to eating herself. She can sit up quite well on her own now but still has no teeth. I sliced up some avocado for her and placed it on her tray.

it took her awhile (because avocado is super slippery) but she did eventually get some in her little fist.

She did not care for it once she got it in her mouth…

(What was that mom!)

We helped her get a few more bites and she just spit them all out. Really this should not be called “Talia Easts” because I don’t think she actually ingested anything so maybe I should have title it “Talia Taste”

Since this we have tried purees and other sliced foods and she just spits everything out. The pediatrician suggested the mesh bag feeders so for the time being that’s what Talia sucks on during dinner with either a piece of banana or avocado. I think she is ingesting some of that but there is also always a lot on her and on the table/tray/chair afterward so one can never be sure. If you want to see photos of Simon eating his first food at this same age and learn why we skip the rice cereal (and why you should too) click here. And for the record Simon is now a great eater, he is very adventurous and especial loves strong cheeses and greens. I have been reading the blog It’s Not About Nutrition and it has really changed the way I think about childhood nutrition and eating. If you have a picky eater I highly recommend that you check it out but know that it will challenge conventions like the “just two more bites” and using dessert as a reward for finishing dinner/cleaning ones plate. But truthfully with 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. being obese I think it’s time that we challenge convention and start establishing healthy eating habits.

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I went to Whole Foods today and lo and behold!… they have “natural” peeps. I couldn’t believe it. So of course I had to purchase them and teach Simon they joy of peep jousting.

Simon instinctively knew that they were some kind of candy…

I let him eat one but then halfway through it I told him it was made out of slugs – this was his face upon hearing that news. The funny thing was that I asked him if he knew what they were made out of before I told him slugs and he guessed “chicks?” – and that didn’t gross him out?

here are two peeps preparing to battle….

the battle commences…

turns out neither fared too well. “natural” peeps are not made of the stuff that synthetic peeps are guess…

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Fun! we celebrated in style this year doing something our little guy really loves – swimming. Even Talia got in on the fun and went for her first dip.

I have to say I love a birthday party where I get to leave and come home to a clean house and no clean up – that was way to easy! Until now we have always had Simon’s parties at the house and now I am already wondering about where I can have a birthday party for a one year old.

2011 – not off to the best start so lets just go back to 2010. Here are some photos from Cannon Beach and Pacific City from our vacation this summer that I never got around to sharing. I have such good memories of this trip. I had never been to the Oregon coast before but now I want to go back every summer. This was the perfect vacation for a toddler.

We each had to get our photo in front of the famous Haystack rock (I was of course VERY pregnant)

Simon was content to play on the beach for hours. It was wonderful! we could sit and read and he would make sand castles. Just noticing that his hair has grown  a lot since August and I even had it cut right before Talia was born.

As I mentioned January has not been our best month, lots of sickness and injuries topped off with two trips to the ER. We area all on the mend now but definitely looking forward to spring. I have lots more photos to share soon!

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