Sunday, July 18, 2010
What Shots?
Karston had five shots Friday morning (but won't need any more vaccinations for six more years), and he said his left leg hurt (where he had the two shots the nurses told us might bother him). This morning, he found the play doctor's kit that Cale got for his birthday, and he had to play doctor! He changed from his Batman shirt with attached cape (once Batman is on, it never comes off) into a plain white tee-shirt so that he would look like a doctor. He spent a long time trying to listen with the stethoscope, but I don't think the quality is as high as it would need to be (to be kid-durable, it might not be possible). Eventually he and Cale moved on to giving everyone shots. Karston was right there for shots, so we think he's completely over having had his shots on Friday.
Friday, July 16, 2010
On the Chart!
Karston went to the pediatrician this morning. We sailed through all of the developmental questions. For instance, can your child count to 10? and the answer is he counts to 100, and wants us to ask him simple addition and subtraction questions. Good hearing, good eyesight. He's 39 1/4 inches tall now, and he was 29.6 pounds on their scale. Average annual growth for this age range is 2 inches and 4 pounds; Karston grew 2 1/4 inches and gained 3.9 pounds last year. His height is around the 5th percentile, and for the first time in years, Karston's weight is on a percentile! He's back on the weight chart! His weight is on the 3% percentile line, but he's back on the chart! The last time his weight was on the chart, he was 6 months old; at 9 months old his weight fell off the charts. (At one year old, he was one standard deviation below the average weight for a breastfed boy, so his weight numbers weren't too terrible, just sluggish to match his (lack of) enthusiasm for eating.) After the positive notes, we did head to less pleasant territory: his immunizations for kindergarten. Karston got 5 shots. He wanted to watch, and the pediatric nurses generally give shots to supine children, so we compromised on a position where I lifted his head so he could watch and we held both of his hands. Karston was really good about it: he didn't complain about the three shots that generally don't bother kids, and he was happy about pretty band-aids. Such a good kid!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Aloha!
Now that school is in session, Karston goes to Spanish class Thursday mornings. This afternoon he announced that the Spanish greeting is ALOHA! Weeeell, not quite. He watches enough Handy Manny that I'm sure he knows Hola as well, but we like the Aloha variation to match the Hawaiian shirt he wore today.
Monday, July 12, 2010
The First Day
Since Karston was accepted to the year-round elementary school (with the 48% acceptance rate), today was his first day of kindergarten! Half the kindergarten class came to school today, and the other half will go tomorrow, then the whole class on Wednesday. He loves his new school (he's been asking for months, when does he get to go to "the big school"), he loves his teacher (my teacher, he says), and he loves the playground. When we went to orientation last Thursday afternoon, Karston wanted to stay in his classroom or go to the playground; he didn't care about the other rooms.
When I asked him about his day today, though, he told me all about going to the Music room this morning where they sang songs. He said he knew some of the songs from Kid Tracks, but not all of the songs. He's ready to go back, but we'll have to wait until Wednesday.
It appears to be intentional; the Kid Tracks kids are all in different kindergarten classes (as well as the Abundant Life preschool, which is as far as the parental note-sharing got), so he doesn't see Zach or Genna in his classroom but he might at recess and other times. However, Logan who was at Kid Tracks until the most recent years is in his class, so there's one familiar face for Karston.
When I asked him about his day today, though, he told me all about going to the Music room this morning where they sang songs. He said he knew some of the songs from Kid Tracks, but not all of the songs. He's ready to go back, but we'll have to wait until Wednesday.
It appears to be intentional; the Kid Tracks kids are all in different kindergarten classes (as well as the Abundant Life preschool, which is as far as the parental note-sharing got), so he doesn't see Zach or Genna in his classroom but he might at recess and other times. However, Logan who was at Kid Tracks until the most recent years is in his class, so there's one familiar face for Karston.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Monkey Muffins
I saw these monkeys on the cover of Taste of Home at the store today, but I find "
First I made my peanut butter banana muffins (that works out to 1 cup of mashed banana, and I left out chocolate chips this time). After all, what says "monkey" like banana?
I put a thin layer of chocolate frosting, left over from the torch cupcakes for Karston's birthday, on the muffins. Banana goes well with so many other flavors! Like honey and peanut butter (in the muffins) and chocolate (in the frosting)! I put an extra swizzle blob at the top for the monkey's hair.
I carefully cut a Nutter Butter in half for the ears. Then I discovered that half a Nutter Butter is still too heavy (so I recommend mini vanilla wafers for a low-maintenance alternative). My recovery plan was to use a toothpick, but it split the Nutter Butter in half the first time. So the way that works is to hold the Nutter Butter half very tightly while inserting the toothpick. I couldn't get the toothpick in as far, but that doesn't seem to matter. Using the toothpicks, I was able to position those monkey ears at a jaunty angle!
I cut a vanilla wafer in half for the mouth, and added a big smile with red cookie icing in a squeezie bag. For the eyes, I used white M&M's with a dot of blue cookie icing in another squeezie. I discovered that bigger blue circles look friendlier, so that gives me even more room for slop in my fledgling decorating skills. All of a sudden, I had a cute monkey cupcake!
I've been stressed for two weeks about what to pack Karston for lunch once school starts. He eats so little already, with so little interest, that the collision with 30 minutes for lunch could add up to one empty Karston tummy, and that leads to poor behavior and maternal stress trying to avoid that situation. So one of my plans was to make his food so attractive, he'd be more interested in it, and hopefully eat it. Well, this afternoon, Karston took one look at the first monkey I made, and he ate it. He ate all but the bottom half of the muffin because he wanted another layer of frosting there. Cale saw Karston eating a monkey muffin, and then he had to have one. I couldn't make it fast enough for him, but I wasn't allowed to cut corners and leave off part of the face decorations. Cale kept pointing out what I hadn't done when I asked if he wanted to eat it now in response to his endless Monkey Muffin! calls. After making one of these in an insane hurry for Cale, I feel comfortable saying this is a very easy decoration task. I can do it. Generally when I try artful decoration, we end up talking about how good it tastes: I can cook, but I usually can't decorate.
Hopefully the attraction of a cute monkey muffin for dessert will encourage Karston to eat his lunch tomorrow!
1 package chocolate cake mix" less than inspiring. (Translation: I have never bought cake mix, and I have no plans to change that. Cakes are easy to make!)First I made my peanut butter banana muffins (that works out to 1 cup of mashed banana, and I left out chocolate chips this time). After all, what says "monkey" like banana?
I put a thin layer of chocolate frosting, left over from the torch cupcakes for Karston's birthday, on the muffins. Banana goes well with so many other flavors! Like honey and peanut butter (in the muffins) and chocolate (in the frosting)! I put an extra swizzle blob at the top for the monkey's hair.
I carefully cut a Nutter Butter in half for the ears. Then I discovered that half a Nutter Butter is still too heavy (so I recommend mini vanilla wafers for a low-maintenance alternative). My recovery plan was to use a toothpick, but it split the Nutter Butter in half the first time. So the way that works is to hold the Nutter Butter half very tightly while inserting the toothpick. I couldn't get the toothpick in as far, but that doesn't seem to matter. Using the toothpicks, I was able to position those monkey ears at a jaunty angle!
I cut a vanilla wafer in half for the mouth, and added a big smile with red cookie icing in a squeezie bag. For the eyes, I used white M&M's with a dot of blue cookie icing in another squeezie. I discovered that bigger blue circles look friendlier, so that gives me even more room for slop in my fledgling decorating skills. All of a sudden, I had a cute monkey cupcake!
I've been stressed for two weeks about what to pack Karston for lunch once school starts. He eats so little already, with so little interest, that the collision with 30 minutes for lunch could add up to one empty Karston tummy, and that leads to poor behavior and maternal stress trying to avoid that situation. So one of my plans was to make his food so attractive, he'd be more interested in it, and hopefully eat it. Well, this afternoon, Karston took one look at the first monkey I made, and he ate it. He ate all but the bottom half of the muffin because he wanted another layer of frosting there. Cale saw Karston eating a monkey muffin, and then he had to have one. I couldn't make it fast enough for him, but I wasn't allowed to cut corners and leave off part of the face decorations. Cale kept pointing out what I hadn't done when I asked if he wanted to eat it now in response to his endless Monkey Muffin! calls. After making one of these in an insane hurry for Cale, I feel comfortable saying this is a very easy decoration task. I can do it. Generally when I try artful decoration, we end up talking about how good it tastes: I can cook, but I usually can't decorate.
Hopefully the attraction of a cute monkey muffin for dessert will encourage Karston to eat his lunch tomorrow!
Saturday, July 03, 2010
High Five!
It's Karston's birthday!
We had family over for grilled dinner. For dessert, I tried to make Lady Liberty Cupcakes, but my decorating skills (and supplies available at the store) were not all the way up to the challenge. Still, chocolate cake in ice cream cones (about 1/3 leaked) with chocolate icing and vanilla cream sugar wafers (sprayed with orange and yellow decorator's spray) doesn't taste too bad! Note, red food coloring will not make red icing, so I decided chocolate was a better color (and flavor) than pink.
Our neighbors with two girls each about a year older than our two boys came over. We had moved the craft table downstairs, and the kids spread out with crayons, paper, and stickers. They decorated slide whistles, colored then assembled pinwheels, and assembled stars-and-stripes airplanes. What fun! Then Karston's friend from preschool, Zach, came over with his family, so we started all over again with crafts.
And if that weren't enough fun (my kids were getting very worked up), then we went outside to watch our neighborhood fireworks over the 12-acre lake! Wowie! Zowie! Ka-pow! 1300 pounds of fireworks, an outdoor stereo system around the lake, a week of preparation from a team of volunteers, and safety precautions everywhere. Impressive display. The other kids didn't want to go home, and our kids didn't want to go to bed. Eventually we will get to wind down, I'm sure.
We had family over for grilled dinner. For dessert, I tried to make Lady Liberty Cupcakes, but my decorating skills (and supplies available at the store) were not all the way up to the challenge. Still, chocolate cake in ice cream cones (about 1/3 leaked) with chocolate icing and vanilla cream sugar wafers (sprayed with orange and yellow decorator's spray) doesn't taste too bad! Note, red food coloring will not make red icing, so I decided chocolate was a better color (and flavor) than pink.
Our neighbors with two girls each about a year older than our two boys came over. We had moved the craft table downstairs, and the kids spread out with crayons, paper, and stickers. They decorated slide whistles, colored then assembled pinwheels, and assembled stars-and-stripes airplanes. What fun! Then Karston's friend from preschool, Zach, came over with his family, so we started all over again with crafts.
And if that weren't enough fun (my kids were getting very worked up), then we went outside to watch our neighborhood fireworks over the 12-acre lake! Wowie! Zowie! Ka-pow! 1300 pounds of fireworks, an outdoor stereo system around the lake, a week of preparation from a team of volunteers, and safety precautions everywhere. Impressive display. The other kids didn't want to go home, and our kids didn't want to go to bed. Eventually we will get to wind down, I'm sure.
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