Fun Bites

Full Disclosure: This post was made possible by FunBites, however all words and opinions are my own. 
Thank you for supporting brands that make this blog possible.

Quacked like a duck, made thee most ridiculous sound effects whilst simultaneously injuring my vocal chords, and did a little shimmy whilst beatboxing. These are all things I've done to get my youngest entertained and sidetracked enough to eat actual food. Ri.dic.u.lous. But we've all done some form of this for something regarding our children. Let's be real. Right? So I love when I find ways for her to get so excited about eating that she, well, eats.

Avery is an absolute busy-body. Like, I don't know how I don't have the tightest, hardest, most amazing body on planet Earth because between running around with this kid and solely living off her scraps I'm pretty sure I should look like Beyonce from the neck down but whatevs. 

I digress. 

This kiddo needs something awesome to keep her attention. I have found a few things that work:

1. Letting her sit at the actual table rather than her highchair. She loves it.

2. Letting her color while she eats. Hey, it works for us.

3. Cutting her food into fun shapes. It's super easy, keep reading.

The fine folks at FunBites sent us this adorable tool that cuts her food into the shape of a heart. The first time I used it she gasped and said, "Sooooo pretttyyyyyyyy." And I felt like a total Pinterest mom but without all the work because all you do is place the curved cutter on your food, rock it back and forth, and use the other piece called the "popper top" to pop the food through the bottom. Too easy. 

Photo: Funbites.com

Second best part (the first is that my kiddo is more focused on her food) is that its dishwasher safe. Can I get a hallelujah, can I get an Amen? (Name that song). I'm all about easy food and easy cleanup.

And since I'm the Queen of making one thing work in multiple ways, leave it to us to break it out at play time as well. We talk about the different shapes we can make with it and cut out loads of hearts.

And if you think that heart is cute, head to FunBites.com to check out their other shapes. So much fun stuff over there, friends. Tell me, what gets your kiddo excited about meal time?

Re-Play

Full Disclosure: This post was made possible by Re-play, however all words and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting brands that make this blog possible!

Happy Humpday, ya'll! Hope your week is going well! Ours has been so busy, we've spent literally hours on the road due to appointments far from home. My oldest daughter recently had surgery (all is well) and haer follow-up appointments are like a 73 hour drive away so that's been loads of fun. Then the usual activities that the kids are involved in and lastly the hubby has his plate full(er than usual) at work too so I know our whole house is ready for a relaxing weekend. Phew!

Anyway, I'm popping in today to tell ya'll about a company called Re-play (Re-think It). They make eco-friendly tableware for kids. The cliff's note version is that their products are made from recycled milk jugs, how neat is that?

One of the great things I love about blogging is that I am introduced to so many neat companies. I would have never know about so many great products and wonderful companies had it not been for this ole blogging gig so I hope you all enjoy learning about them too. Its a win-win, right?!

They have loads of tableware products. Our favorites are the utensils, drinking cup, and the sectioned plate.

While they offer a non-sectioned plate (photo below) I prefer the sectioned plate. It keeps food separated (the baby is picky about that), and its pretty spot on with the portion sizes that I give the baby as well.

Photo: Re-play.com

Re-play.com

While we like the sippy cup they offer, we prefer the drinking cup. It's what Avery used to help her learn to drink from an open cup. She's always been very independent when it comes to things like eating, dressing, and the like so the drinking cup and the fork were great for us back when she was perfecting her skills.

We keep their snack stacks (pictured below) stashed in the car for times when the baby needs "nummies!" Which is basically like two minutes after getting in the car all the way until we reach our destination. Amiright?

I love that their products are all durable but what's also won me over is the sustainability of it all, they save waste from the landfill and turn it into items we use each day.  And in just the six or so months since I've been introduced to the company they've came out with more products. They have bowls, plates, utensils, teethers, you name it and they probably have it, so go check these guys out! You'll love them.

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Go-to Toddler Foods

Sharing some of our favourite toddler meals today and let me tell you, I feel like A's taste buds change every five seconds; one week she loves fish, pasta, and raisins and the next she looks at me like I'm feeding her garbage if I put those same things in front of her. Luckily we have a few standing favourite go-tos to fall back on when she's changing her mind about most other foods. 

Eggs. She loves eggs. All my kids do. So much so that we constantly have boiled eggs in the fridge, no exaggeration. And they go like hot cakes. Which is fine by me. So when the baby is being picky I can always make her eggs whether it be scrambled, fried, boiled, etc. We legit buy three 2.5 dozen cartons every two weeks and even still I usually need to go grab another dozen or so before the full two weeks is up. Yeah, our grocery bill is insane. 

Rice. She eats every last grain. I've had this amazing rice cooker for the last decade. No joke. And it was worth every penny because you literally push a button and you have perfectly cooked rice in no time. Sometimes I put a sauce on her rice. Sometimes I don't. Either way she devours it. I usually serve it with some sort of bean for protein. 

Pasta. Any kind. End of story.  

Couscous. Its her fave as of late

Potatoe salad. Yo, the girl likes carbs. She is her mother's daughter. My father-in-law's side of the family has a potatoe salad recipe that is heavenly. Super simple but heavenly nontheless. I never had anything like it and struggled to even call of potatoe salad for the longest time because it's only relation to traditional potatoe salad is that it has potatoes and mayonnaise in it. Anyway, it's another one all the kids love.

Chicken pot pie. I love this stuff. And so does she. And I don't feel bad about her having it because of all the veg it contains. 

Grapes and Clementines. She probably thinks they're candy. She rolls her eyes and hums whilst eating them and I never tell her no of she asks for more. 

Apples. She can eat an entire one. Girlfriend isn't gonna go hungry anytime soon.

I know all kids are different but hopefully some of these go-tos will be a winner for your kiddos too. And one more thing that ensures she eats well is not giving her loads of something at once. I don't know if she gets overwhelmed or what but she'll start playing with it and making a mess intentionally rather than eating, but if I just give her a small portion she happily eats. She's also starting to love eating at the actual table in a real chair rather than her highchair. Which is more than fine by me because I took ages to find a highchair that didn't have a large footprint and wasn't an ugly hunk of plastic in my dining area so while I eventually found a highchair that I love I'm definitely not going to be sad to see it get stored away soon.  

Happy Friday, folks.