My New Favourite Kids' Shampoo

I was in Shopper's Drug Mart the other day and bought Baby Einstein Extra Gentle shampoo (it was an impulse buy, I'll admit - the lion on the bottle is the same one as in "Baby Newton", my son's favourite Einstein vid, and I thought he'd get a kick out of it).

I LOVE it!! It leaves their hair very shiny and soft feeling (as though it's very clean with no residue), and the clincher for me was the fact that there were very few tangles in my daughter's hair. I've tried many different shampoos for her, and this shampoo stood out as being better.

I'll definitely buy it again.

A Lesson In Manners

Miss Thing had a moment of triumph at the park the other day... she was able to perform a back flip off a trapeze bar while an older child couldn't.

"I'm five and a half and you're six, and I can do it and you can't? Wow!"

She wasn't intending to rub it in, or make the other girl feel bad, of course - she was just proud of her own achievement. Still, I cringed when I heard her words, but I was sitting too far away to discreetly correct her without everyone present hearing me. Not to mention the fact that in the moment, I wasn't really sure what to say.

I tried to explain the pitfalls of boasting later on that day, but I could tell it was lost on her. She's pretty sharp, so I guess it was my explanation that fell short, rather than her listening skills (although I wonder about those sometimes ;-)

Maybe it was a lesson for me, that the next time I see another child exhibit less than stellar manners, to remember that teaching them proper social skills isn't always easy...

How Many Calories Per Day Do My Kids Need?

I looked this up on a whim and found some info:

My kids are in the 4-6 year category here, and it looks about right:
http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/children/nutrition_calorie_needs.htm#cals

The trick is making the calories count. I'm lucky that my kids LOVE high calorie foods like avocado, peanut butter and bananas, so I can restrict things like pasta and white bread and not worry that they're not getting enough fuel.

Here's another chart:
http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/consumer/archives/percentDV.htm

My issue is making sure they get enough, and that I'm not too overzealous in my "crap cutting".

My daughter is a skinny mini, and never stops moving. Today she asked me for a hamburger bun with peanut butter on it. Instantly my Nutrition Warden hat came on, and I recoiled at the thought of letting her eat refined, white bread.

"Mommy please? I know the bun has no vitamins, but the peanut butter does, right? Please?"

I gave in, because I knew she'd be back outside in the yard, burning it all off. Sure enough, as I type this, she's hanging from the monkey bars.

Layout in Progress

I'm trying to change my layout here... what I want is for the blog content to span the entire width of the page. This template does that, but now I have to add some interesting graphic elements...

Just A Moment Ago:

JOSPEH: "I love you Mommy!!"

ME: "Aw, thanks Buddy!! I love you too!"

JOSEPH: "I not talking to you, Mommy. I talking to my yogurt tube."

(???)

The upside, I suppose, is that the yogurt tube wasn't talking back...