July 16, 2009: Wyatt has started sleeping with 5 or 6 pillows on his bed. I wonder if he could feel a pea if I put it under his mattress?

July 17, 2009: If I ask him to pose for some silly photos, I can sometimes get nice portraits of Wyatt. And I also get a lot of silly photos.

July 18, 2009: We took a trip to Angel island with our friends from around the corner. Zach and Randolf sailed over on a sailboat, while Beate and I took the kids over on the ferry. Here, the boys look out the ferry window on the way over. We had a nice afternoon, splashing in the water, eating a picnic lunch and enjoying the spectacular views from the island. We definitely want to go back soon to explore more of the island!

July 19, 2009: Zach and I took the boys to Totland and August took his first spin on a ride-on toy.

July 20, 2009: Zach had to drive the good car to a conference down in San Jose every day this week, so we pulled the kids seats out and put them in the hoopty. While Wyatt’s seat was in the living room waiting to be installed, he put it up on the coffee table and played batcopter.

July 21, 2009: I took another round of portraits of Augie, this time with monkeys behind him.

July 22, 2009: I think this is the most boring daily photo I’ve taken yet. Augie had a doctor appointment today and fell asleep in the car on the way home. There wasn’t enough time to go home before Wyatt needed to be picked up from preschool, so I drove through Starbucks, got an iced tea and parked in their parking lot to play games on my iPhone while Augie slept. This bird was perched on the bush right outside my window, so I took a picture.

July 23, 2009: OK, maybe this is the most boring daily photo I’ve taken — waiting in line at the post office. I was mailing 7 books for Paperback Swap.

July 24, 2009: Yesterday, I washed the hoopty for the first time in well over a year. I came out today and found this bird poop covering almost half of the passenger side window. Gross!

July 25, 2009: I’ve started taking one morning per weekend to leave the house to work on a book proposal. I started out at the library, but then I got really hungry, so I moved on to a French restaurant nearby to read my book proposal book (imagine writing the book proposal for a book about writing book proposals) and eat some lunch. I had an omelette and a big mocha and savored being at a restaurant all alone. Ahhhh….

July 26, 2009: After I got home from my writing morning, Wyatt and I broke out a tie-dye kit I’d picked up at the craft store and decorated some t-shirts. We left them over night and then Sunday morning, we did the big reveal. They came out GREAT! I’ve never seen home made tie-dye that looked this good. All those crappy Rit dye shirts I made in high school and college look completely inferior next to these babies. Wyatt is so proud of his shirt and has wanted to wear it every day since we made it.

July 27, 2009: Monday promised to be fairly warm, so the kids and I went on an adventure to find a new cool playground. We ended up driving all the way out to Danville (45 minutes away) to check out the Osage Station playground which I’d read about online. It’s a nice playground over all, but it’s best known for it’s fancy water features. I gathered up suits and towels for the boys along with a picnic lunch, but when we got there, we were disappointed to find that the water was turned off because of the drought. The playground was still nice though, with fancy play structures, a sand pit with “buried dinosaur bones and lots and lots of shade.

July 28, 2009: Tuesday I tried the recipe for the one bowl chocolate cupcakes from Martha’s cupcake book. They came out really well — super moist and yummy.

July 29, 2009: After preschool, I was busy with Augie when I noticed Wyatt milling about in the vicinity of the cupcakes out of the corner of my eye. “Wyatt, you’re not sneaking frosting off the cupcakes are you?” I called from the living room. “Noooooo, Mama! I’m just looking at them,” he told me. I thought  the veracity of his statement was questionable, but I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. My bad. When I came back into the kitchen, this is what I found.

1. StoryCorps — Have you heard StoryCorps? They play it on Morning Edition on Friday mornings. I found the podcast on iTunes a few weeks ago and I’ve been running through the episodes at an amazing rate. It just features people’s stories. The stories of their lives. Big stories, little stories, funny stories, touching stories. I laugh or, more frequently, tear up every time I listen to one. It’s like an oral scrapbook of the American experience. Except great and not as pretentious as that description sounds.
2. Maclaren Quest Stroller — I wrote a little about this stroller back when we first got it a few months ago. Now that I’ve been using it for awhile, I can tell you that it is the best stroller ever! It was pricey, but when you consider how many strollers we bought when Wyatt was a baby — three — I think that the cost of this one stroller is about the same as what we spent on all of those. I like that it is slim and light, that I can easily maneuver it one-handed and that it doesn’t look all cheesy. I wish I could load it up a bit more without it getting tippy, but I can live with that.
3. Camera Strap Cover at Design*Sponge — I made one of these for our camera the other day. Not only is is fashionable, but now I don’t have to put up with that weird rubbery side of the strap touching my neck.
4. Stone Loops of Jurassica — I’m totally addicted to this game. I play it on my iPhone while Augie nurses.
5. Cosmo Cricket Snorkel paper — I love the bright, summery colors of this paper. Perfect for photos of my cutie little California boys. Actually, I’m loving all the Cosmo Cricket papers right now. Must resist….
6. Red toenails — Every summer, I paint my toenails red. I finally got to it this week and it gives me so much pleasure to look down and see my toes painted.
7. Charlie and Lola — I’m suddenly totally enamored of this kids’ show. We’ve checked out some of the books from the library before and they’re great, but I think the show is even better! That’s not something I say very often, either. The voices are perfect and the cool collage-y animation is wonderful to watch. If you have kids, you should go get a DVD to watch, right now!
8. The Freakin Never Ending To Do List — You have one too, right? Right? Download this free printable and like me, you can laugh every time you pull it out.
9. Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes — I’ve made three of the cupcakes in here so far. The red velvet recipe was fantastic. The others I’ve made are the brown sugar poundcake with brown butter icing and the triple citrus. Those were good too, but not good enough for me to make either of them again. I think the next kind I’m going to try are the one bowl chocolate cupcakes. I’ve heard lots of good things about those.

And finally, this is going out to all the mothers out there. I hope your kids treat you right!

Whew! I’m late with this post! Last week was a busy week for me so I’m way behind on my blogging.

I don’t have a photo for Tuesday’s lunch because I sent garlic butter noodles in a thermos with a side car of blueberries. It was too boring for me to photograph. I just couldn’t do it. So you’ll have to use your imaginations.

Wednesday, I toasted a mini-pita, put a little bit of  butter and garlic salt on it and cut it into wedges. I also put blueberries and salami into the box.

Thursday there were more blueberries (I got a gigantic box at Costco), a turkey hot dog, a little container of catsup and a half a hambuger bun.

Friday I made a catsup sandwich with some garlic naan we had leftover from dinner the night before. The catsup sandwiches really gross me out, but it’s harmless and it’s not my lunch, so I put them in his lunch whenever he asks. He also got some strawberries and a few deli ham roll-ups.

Tuesday’s lunch consisted of blueberry mini-bagel (cut in half and stacked in the box) orange chunks, baked tofu, and blueberries.

This lunch was packed in yet another new “bento” box that I picked up a week or so ago at Dollar Tree. They had Strawberry Shortcake ones too. These weren’t marketed as bento boxes, but they’re sized perfectly. The one concern I have about this box is the quality of the plastic. It was made in China and I’m sure it’s chock full o’ BPAs, which we generally try to avoid. You can see that I’m still using it though, so obviously I’m not that concerned.

Wednesday’s lunch had a gigundo strawberry, blueberries, a turkey hot dog, catsup for the hot dog and some cheez-its.

Thursday’s lunch had leftover noodles from dinner the night before tossed with a little butter, some garlic salt and a healthy sprinkle of parmesan cheese.See them up there? Ha, just kidding — they were in the thermos. This side car had some peas, blueberries and strawberries.

You know how some days all your kid wants to eat are beige foods? Well, Friday was one of those days. The best I could do to brighten up the bun, banana, and tofu packed into Wyatt’s lunch was to decorate the bun with food safe markers.

July 9, 2009: How hard is it to keep a 4 1/2 year old out of a trench in the street in front of your house? The answer: very hard. Short of locking Wyatt inside all week or holding his hand the entire time he was playing outside, there was no way we could keep him completely away from the construction that was being done on our street and driveway. Thursday, they poured the concrete for the driveway and curb while he was a preschool. I was so bummed he missed it and even more disappointed that it was mostly dry by the time he got home so we couldn’t carve our initials in the cement together. He still had fun climbing on the construction barricades and pretending to work on the driveway himself. If you look closely, you can see the red wrench he brought outside with him — one of many tools he took out — attached to the barricade behind him.

July 10, 2009: This is our dish cupboard. We have plates and bowls on the bottom shelf, mugs and cups on the next one up, big bowls and overflow bowls on the third shelf (which I can barely reach), tea cups and saucers and  miscellaneous junk on the 4th shelf and plastic toddler plates and bowls and stuff waaaaay up at the top. It might be time to get those down, now that I think of it.

July 11, 2009: While we were eating dinner, Zach’s dad called and told us to go outside and look at the sky. We all went out front and we saw a full semi-circle double rainbow! I couldn’t get the whole thing in the photo, but it was amazingly beautiful.  As the sun went down, the sky faded to a lovely fuschia color and the rainbow persisted. Neither Zach or I could remember having seen anything like it.

July 12, 2009: Another square foot garden project. Our tomatoes are starting to get big and needed something to climb so Zach spent the day building a trellis. One of our beds (the one you see here) is doing phenominally well. The other (to the left in the photo) is an utter failure. The plants aren’t dead yet, but they’re not growing either. We’re pretty sure the bed is getting too much sun, but the other is getting almost as much so it’s a bit of a mystery. Also, I harvested our first zucchini this week!

July 13, 2009: Finally! They finished our driveway. Wyatt was home for this one and when the road crew pulled up, he was so excited! He ran into the kitchen and said, “Mom! There’s a steam roller! And they’re speaking Spanish!”

July 14, 2009: I made salads for lunch. Mine had lettuce (of course), avocado, grilled chicken, goat cheese, raspberries, and spicy sweet pecans.

July 15, 2009: I kept Augie occupied by putting smallish toys in the compartments of the pet hospital, closing the doors and letting him pull them out. Check out that deep squat he’s doing there? Can you imagine doing that for more than a minute or so? He does this all the time.

In the last few weeks, I’ve seen an marked increase in people coming to this blog after having searched for terms like “school lunch ideas” and “preschool lunch packing.” I originally published this list of ideas last fall, but I thought this would be a good time to refresh the list and add a few more ideas.

When I originally made this list, I was really surprised by all the different things my son eats! Since then, new items have been added and some of his favorites are no longer things he’ll eat (beans ).

Almost everything on here can be eaten cold or at room temperature. I always send his lunch with an ice pack in the box, but other parents swear by frozen juice boxes. I don’t like to send juice boxes myself because I like to dilute Wyatt’s juice with a little water (or just send water), so I send a little Rubbermaid container with a beverage in it.

Carbs/Tummy-fillers

• whole grain crackers
• pretzel sticks
• mini-muffins — Wyatt favors blueberry muffins, but I also send corn muffins or any other kind of muffin really. I try to make them myself so I can make them healthier with whole wheat flour, less sugar, etc.
• goldfish crackers, cheddar bunnies or other snack crackers
• pretzel thins
• bagel chips
• mini-rice cakes/crackers
• rice balls
• pasta — I toss with a little butter, garlic salt and parmesan. You can also send warmed pasta in a thermous
• granola bars — I like to make my own but I send store-bought ones too
• banana bread, zucchini bread, etc.
• cereal bars — we get ours at Trader Joe’s but Nutrigrain bars are more widely available
• dried cereal — Cheerios, Puffins, etc.
• mini-bagels — Wyatt likes his plain, but other kids would probably eat cream cheese on theirs
• hot dog buns, hamburger buns or dinner rolls
• garlic toast
• pita bread — I usually toast these so they don’t get soggy. Minis are fun or cut a big one into wedges
• leftover pancakes or toaster waffles — mini-waffles go over especially well

Fruits

• apples slices or chunks (dip in pineapple juice to prevent browning)
• berries — strawberries, blueberries, raspberries
• cherries
• grapes
• bananas — I usually only send a half banana, unpeeled so it doesn’t go soft and squishy
• melon chunks — watermelon or cantaloupe
• raisins, dried cranberries, etc.
• canned peaches (or fresh, of course)
• applesauce
• pineapple chunks
• orange wedges or mandarin oranges in little tubs

Veggies

• frozen peas — these will thaw by lunch time
• frozen corn — these will thaw too
• carrot sticks — I steam or parboil them because my son won’t eat them raw, but I know other kids will
• grape tomatoes — I cut them in half and sprinkle with balsamic vinegar
• steamed green beans
• broccoli spears

Proteins

• leftover meat from dinner — Wyatt loves carne asada or cold pork roast in his lunch the next day. Other kids might enjoy chicken pieces, too.
• chicken or turkey sausage with catsup for dipping
• deli meats — turkey, ham, salami (I like to roll these up)
• beans
• peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• meat or cheese sandwiches
• peanut butter “sandwiches” made with crackers or graham crackers
• taquitos with salsa for dipping (Wyatt likes pineapple salsa from Trader Joe’s)
• baked tofu — a good one to cut into shapes
• quesadillas (I like to cut these into shapes)
• mini-burritos
• mini-pizzas — if you make a pizza at home, make a couple tiny ones for lunches at the same time. Or send mini-pitas with sauce, cheese and pepperoni
• hard boiled eggs — my son wouldn’t touch these with a 10 foot pole, but maybe your kid will!

Dairy

• yogurt
• cheese cubes
• cheese slices (cut into shapes)
• cottage cheese — Wyatt won’t eat this but other kids might
• Laughing Cow cheese wedges — open the wrapper if your kid can’t do it herself
• string cheese — again, open the wrapper — or start it — if your kid can’t
• Babybel cheeses — I like to cut a shape out of the wax

Easy ideas to “cute things up”:

• Cut things into shapes! Use cookie cutters to cut sandwiches, cheese, tofu, etc. into various kid-friendly shapes. I use animal, star, heart, gingerbread man and circle cutters. You probably have a few cookie cutters in your cabinets already, or you can buy some fun new ones. Also, remember that you don’t need a cutter to cut shapes. Use a regular knife to cut sandwiches into strips or triangles. Cut cheese and tofu into matchsticks or cubes.
• Use mini-versions of regular foods (or cut them smaller). Mini muffins, bagels, and crackers seem to go over better with preschoolers than regular size.
• Add sprinkles to chopped fruit.
• Use lots of color. I try to have at least three different colors in each lunch I send. It’s appealing to the eye, but it also is a good way to ensure that your child is getting lots of fruits and veggies.

Did I leave something off this list? What do you send in your kid’s lunch?