There was a big change around here this week. Augie started going to daycare two days per week. And get this:

I have to pack him a lunch.

I swear, that’s not why I chose this daycare!

He’s going to be going on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I’ll be posting photos of his lunches on those days along with Wyatt’s. Packing a bento for a toddler is a little bit different from packing one for a preschooler or kindergartner. One big difference is that they’ll heat food up for Augie at his daycare, so I can pack stuff that doesn’t necessarily have to be eaten cold. I’m hoping to make some batches of meals ahead of time to freeze to make lunch-packing go a little more quickly. The other difference is that I need to do a bit more chopping up of fruits and veggies and whatnot so there’s less room for cute-ification (not to mention the fact that the cute stuff goes right over Augie’s head). Still, it’s kind of fun to be able to mix it up a little. Augie eats almost everything we give him so it will be nice to branch out a little.

Monday:

I tried to do too much before  Wyatt’s school drop-off on Monday and I found myself really pressed for time when putting his snack together. He begged me for chips and bean dip and I figured it wasn’t the worst snack in the world, so I gave in. Just so you know, I co not recommended packing bean dip this way! It got everywhere inside the bento box and Wyatt still had bean dip on his hands when he got home from school. I also sent an applesauce along.

Tuesday:

Wyatt’s lunch and snack were: more chips and bean dip (I put the lid on the red container which worked pretty well), a mini-tangerine, banana bread, fresh pineapple chunks, rice and deli ham roll-ups.

Augie’s lunch box had leftover carrots from dinner on Monday night, rice, peas, tofu chunks, more rice and pineapple.

When I picked Augie up from daycare and checked in on how his day went, the daycare provider told me, “Wow! You did an excellent job putting his lunch together!” I had to work really hard to keep from laughing out loud. Little does she know about my secret life as a lunch-obsessed crazy lady! Bwa ha ha HA!

Wednesday:

We broke out the jelly bean lunch box for Wyatt on Wednesday. The top layer had a couple of mini-tangerines in it which made Wyatt really happy. This batch of them has been perfect — sweeter than candy. I also put in a jelly sandwich cut into the shape of little men and some ham roll-ups on skewers.

Snack was a cup of pineapple chunks and some graham crackers. I also packed a yogurt tube, but forgot to put it in the photo.

Augie’s lunch was rainbow colored again. I packed peas, chopped grape tomatoes, tangerine wedges cut in half, rice and leftover curried chicken from dinner Tuesday night.

Thursday:

I loved how Thursday’s lunch looked — almost entirely straight lines with the chaos of the tangerine wedges breaking it up a bit. This Mondrian-esque lunch featured a half banana, a hot dog bun with strawberry jelly inside, tangerine wedges, Triscuits, banana bread, green beans, and salami.

As always, when I’m particularly proud of a lunch, Wyatt likes to keep me humble. Here’s what I found when I was unpacking his backpack last night:

It looks like he ate the salami, the banana bread and a few tangerine slices.

Friday:

This hastily assembled snack was a jelly sandwich and a tangerine.

February 26, 2010: Augie checks out his first pineapple. He was doubtful about it until I cut it up and let him eat it and then he decided pineapples are a good thing.

February 27, 2010: Wyatt has been giving Augie tooth brushing lessons in the evenings.

February 28, 2010: Zach finally gets to meet his new niece. He was traveling for work when she came home from the hospital and then he caught a cold, so he had to wait a few weeks to see her.

March 1, 2010: Batman’s vehicles are at the ready in case a diabolical crime occurs in Gotham City!

March 2, 2010: Ah yes! My morning cup of tea. I bought this mug a few months ago and it makes me happy every time I drink from it.

March 3, 2010: Our messy living room.

March 4, 2010: Augie emptied all the blocks out of their box and settled in to play with a toy.

Monday:

Monday’s snack box contained a buttermilk biscuit decorated with the Batman logo (I used food safe markers). The monkey box has a little bit of strawberry jam to spread on the biscuit. I rounded it all out with some dried cranberries.

Tuesday:

Tuesday’s lunch and snack were packed together in the big box. It had pineapple, cantaloupe, two mini blueberry muffins, chicken Italian sausage slices leftover from dinner on Monday night, and pepperoni pizza leftover from dinner on Sunday night.  I had to cut the pizza into strips to get it to fit in the box and Wyatt found that so bizarre that he wouldn’t eat them. Or maybe he doesn’t like cold pizza. I dunno.

Wednesday:

On Wednesday, I packed a banana chunk, some grape tomatoes, a mini muffin, baked tofu and more pineapple. Those pineapples go a long way.

For snack, I sent cantaloupe chunks, another muffin, pretzel thins and a yogurt tube.

Thursday:

Thursday’s lunch/snack combo was packed into the laptop lunchbox. It contained: a half banana, pretzel thins, garlic toast cut into star shapes, salami, pita bite crackers, and peaches with sprinkles.

I usually make Wyatt’s lunches while I’m giving the kids breakfast, fixing my own breakfast, nagging Wyatt to put on his shoes, and all that other morning stuff. For the first time ever, I made this lunch from start to finish all in one shot and on a whim, I got out a stop watch and timed how long it took me to make it. The result: 12 minutes and 4 seconds. I had no idea what I was going to put in the box when I started the timer, so part of that time was spent staring into the refrigerator tapping my foot and trying to get inspired. It probably would have been more like 10 minutes if I’d planned a little better because at the end I had all the boxes filled except for the yellow one and I had to take the time to make the toast. If I’d thought of it sooner, I would have just popped the bread in the toaster oven at the beginning and cooked it while I was doing the rest of the lunch.

I’m curious: How long does it take you to pack a lunch for your kid?

Friday:

On Monday, I discovered that biscuits are a perfect canvas for drawing with food markers so I couldn’t resist drawing a kitty face on another one for today’s snack. I also added a couple of orange wedges from Wyatt’s aunt and uncle’s tree. I love how this orange looks like a sparkly jewel.

February 19, 2010: Augie loves, loves, loves jumping right now and he especially loves holding onto the edge of his crib and going up and down. Sometimes Wyatt likes to join in by jumping with him.

February 20, 2010: This is my new niece, Evelyn. Isn’t she a little snuggle bunny? She was born on the 15th, but we had to wait 5 whole days to meet her because we all had terrible colds and I really didn’t want to pass on our germs to such a tiny little baby. When we were finally well enough, we went to Erin and Bryan’s to see her. We are so happy she has joined our family.

February 21, 2010: Though it looks like Augie is reading to Wyatt here, Wyatt is actually telling Augie the story of Officer Buckle & Gloria. Like all of Peggy Rathman’s books this is one of our favorites. We often quote the safety rules in it to the boys, our favorite being “Safety Rule #1: Never stand on a chair with wheels!”

February 22, 2010: Wyatt and I played a quick game of Trouble while Augie finished his breakfast. He beat me.

February 23, 2010: The boys goof around in their room before bed time

February 24, 2010: Augie likes to lay on our bed while I fold laundry.

February 25, 2010: Playing on the school playground after Kindergarten pick-up with some of the kids from Wyatt’s class. There is some kind of fad with using these swinging rings all of a sudden. I’ve been taking the boys to play on the playground after school for months now and I think I’ve only seen kids use these rings once or twice. Then, this week there are suddenly kids swinging back and forth constantly. Huh.

Monday:

Phwew! After a week off school, I was completely out of the habit of making lunches and snacks for school! I totally forgot to put something together until 5 minutes before we had to head out the door so I threw together this quick snack of ham cubes and one of Wyatt’s beloved buns. I added a lion pick to snazz it up a bit and to give him something to use to eat the ham besides his fingers. The lion pick was chosen to match the lion on the lid of the bento box:

I’m all about the coordination, folks!

Tuesday:

Tuesday was Laptop Lunchbox day. I put in a couple of Chessman cookies, pretzel sticks, dried cranberries, peaches and pears with sprinkles, a whole wheat bun, ham cubes and apple slices. As usual, he didn’t eat the apple slices but I like to put them in now and then just in case he decides to try them.

Wednesday:

Lunch on Wednesday was sweet Italian chicken sausage rounds, a lone cherry tomato, banana bread and pineapple and blueberries arranged to look like a bumble bee (though I didn’t really realize that until I was reviewing the pictures).

The Italian sausage is a new food we’re trying. As you’ve probably gathered by now, Wyatt is a sausage lover, but he’s always declared Italian sausage to be “too spicy”. I bought these sausages for a lasagna I made on Tuesday night and he was eating the chunks almost as fast as I could put them into the pan so I decided to try them out for his lunch on Wednesday.

I packed an applesauce crusher, pretzel thins and dried cranberries for his snacks.

Thursday:

Thursday’s lunch had wedges of whole wheat flat bread that I toasted and spread with a smidge of butter and garlic salt, blueberries, pretzel thins, banana bread, pineapple chunks, grape tomatoes and a block of baked tofu with his name in it.

Friday:

Today’s snack was some blueberries and a hand full of pretzel thins.

February 12, 2010: I made a batch of hard-boiled eggs for breakfasts and lunches and put them in a carton in the fridge. Zach and I got our wires crossed when I told him where they were and this is what ended up happening when he gave one a good whack on the counter to peel it.

February 13, 2010: Oh. My. God. This is one of those humiliating motherhood moments like no other. I was checking Wyatt’s homework over before I sent it off to school and I noticed this drawing at the bottom of the page where he was practicing writing his P’s. It’s a picture of a guy shooting a gun  at someone and saying, “HA HA HA HA”. I didn’t even know Wyatt knew how to spell “ha ha”. He says it was a good guy shooting a “bad guy”, but I was still appalled.

February 14, 2010: Tubby time!

February 15, 2010: Wyatt was off school for winter break this week so I tried to get us out of the house every day to do something fun. This day we went up to Tilden park to ride the steam trains. It was the first time we’d gone with Augie since he’s been aware of his surroundings and I was curious to see how he liked it. When we took Wyatt at about the same age, he was so scared that we dubbed them the “terror trains”, but it ended up that Augie thought the ride was pretty fun. (Wyatt loved the trains the next time we rode them, by the way…)

February 16, 2010: Zach let Wyatt play with his phone as a reward for being well-behaved at dinner. He likes to play Doodle Jump and he’s pretty good at it. Note the little red socks on the floor under Augie’s high chair. He takes his socks off practically every time he eats a meal.

February 17, 2010: Yay! Yay! YAY!!! My new camera came! This is one of the photos I took the first day. I used the highly sophisticated stick-out-your-arm-and-click method of photography.

February 18, 2010: For another fun vacation activity I took the kids to the Bay Area Discovery Museum. Here August works on building the Golden Gate Bridge.