This is the life.

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Monday Meal

We're going back a few weeks for this one as a lot has been going on in the house and I haven't been photographing a lot of mealtimes lately. I will update on those things shortly, I just have to sort them out in my own head first. As you can see, we've made some changes around here. A sleek new look to start. A reflection of some of what's been going on with me in that I'm working on feeling like myself more. Ya, it's not coming out right. I'll try again in a day or two.

For now, Asher's Mother's Day Lunch. Believe it or not, this was a first for having spaghetti. We have pasta all the time, but never spaghetti. It was a bit harder to eat on his own than what he's used to. But all in all, he was very good for not having a proper nap and Mom and Gramma both enjoyed his company. As well as our waitress with whom he was quite infatuated.

We cut it up for him but in the end it was just easier to use a spoon.

He didn't buy that this green thing was actually food.

The coloring book on the other hand...

...mmmmmtasty.

As a parting thought, if you see someone leaving a comment on your blog called Strange Mamma, ya, that's me.

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Monday Meal

It's Tuesday?! What? Long weekends completely throw me. Why you ask? I don't work. Asher's not in school yet. Ah, but dear hubby is at home. And that makes all the difference in the world. Especially on a long weekend when he has no deadline or threat of impending doom. It was a truly glorious weekend. We did yard work and housework on Saturday and still had time to go to the park for a bit. Sunday afternoon was spent out on our patio. Asher had his water/sand table out and was having fun combining everything. We discovered a table and umbrella (likely from the 70's but that's okay) and set up for a nice leisurely day. Monday was spent with a nice lie-in (after taking an hour and a half to put Asher back to sleep at around 3 in case you thought he might have actually slept through the night, but that's another post) a bit of lounging and laundry and a trip to the park. All of it with Jeff by our sides all happy and relaxed. Big contented sigh.

Which is why I totally forgot that yesterday was Monday. So here is what I had planned for this week's Monday Meal:

This is not so much a test as a testament as to the totally great kid that I have. Here he is with a plate of fish sticks, chips (fries) and peas.

He loves all of these things. I had thought he loved chips the best, followed by fish and then peas.

I guess not. He's not touched his fish and chips in favour of finishing off his peas first.

Grammy and I are very proud of our little man.

He loves his peas so much he'd like to share.

Even the ones in his mouth.

I love my little man.

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Oh, for a full night's sleep.

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It's Monday! Again.

Okay, so this is quickly becoming less about me getting nutrition into Asher in new and fun ways and more just a topic to get me going on a Monday. So here is Asher having High Tea (I don't know if that technically calls for capitals, but it sounds like it should) at the Ritz. It apparently takes two months to get a reservation here (lucky Mum booked it as soon as she bought her flight) and you can't take pictures because there might be famous people there. So we hid our camera behind the menu and the tea pots and the sandwich tray and tried to take pictures with only Asher in them. Even though there was no one that we recognized.

Asher was very good. For the most part. He did scream for a couple minutes when I pinched his leg in the highchair clips while I was buckling him in. I felt so bad. I felt bad for the well-dressed people who thought there were in for some high-dining and I felt bad for the look of complete horror on my son's face as I caused him pain and then I felt bad all over again when I went to change him after and saw the little red mark I left on his leg. Poor little man. He got a bit restless at the end, but once I let him out to walk around the hotel he was thrilled. And greatly admired as he strutted his stuff in his fancy little suit.

This is the tray of goodies. We had already gone through the sandwiches and they brought us more. Mom loved the scones the best, I found the pastries a bit disappointing. Who knew that the Ritz could make such wonderful sandwiches.

Asher loved the ham sandwiches the best. But apparently he only likes ham sandwiches like they make them there because he's been less than thrilled with them here at home.
There you can see his backup snacks and sippycup.

And the rest of the pictures are really just of him being adorable. Enjoy:(I have no idea what that look is he's giving me)



(checkin' out the neighbors)





This really says it all. Tea at the Ritz is, well, ritzy, but at the end of the day toddlers are exhausting.

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Monday Meals...give or take a day...or two

Okay, okay. Perhaps I should have waited to start the whole weekly blog thing until I knew I would have some actual time on my hands. This week also has a great excuse. My Mum is visiting from Canada. Yay!! It's been very nice to have another adult in the house to talk to during the day. And of course it is truly wonderful to see Asher and his Grandma laughing and having fun. More on that later.

Right now, I have to talk again about cottage cheese. I loved my last comment that perhaps if it's not in this country then perhaps I'm not such a stranger after all. Alas, I found it. Granted it was on the bottom shelf so no one can see it, but still.

I thought I would put some peaches in it to have a familiar and sweet taste to entice him:



I know you can't really tell so much from these pictures, but he was essentially just sitting there with his mouth open, moving the stuff around, trying to not swallow it:



All in all, not a big fan. Which I am totally okay with. So what next? I'm thinking maybe tomatoes. Or potatoes. That's not such a big deal I know, but he keeps steeling them out of their basket and trying to eat them raw. I'm tempted to let him try. But for right now, I'm going to say that next week I'm taking off. It will be Mum's last couple days with us and I don't want to worry about it or give excuses again.

I'll leave you with a couple pictures from a wedding we went to this last weekend. None of the pictures are of the wedding, they are all of Asher in his awesome little suit. Tell me he doesn't look like a tiny little Doctor Who only without the long coat.





*Just to note, I did not get a chance to 'fix' any of the photos which I know isn't bothering you, but it is bothering me so I had to say something.

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Monday Meals...give or take a day

Okay. So much for blogging with discipline. I totally forgot I had decided to do the whole checking out what Asher's eating on Monday. Okay maybe totally is a bit of an exaggeration. I remembered while I was in the grocery store yesterday that I was supposed to try Asher out on Cottage Cheese. They don't seem to have any in this country. So by the time I got home I had forgotten again.

Then I'm reading this blog today, and lo and behold it's a recipe for homemade cottage cheese. I have to say, I found the idea of cottage cheese before rather revolting. Now I really don't know if I'll be able to feed this to my child. I am truly sorry to those of you who make this a part of your daily diet. My good friends Emily and Sam would eat it for lunch if they wanted something light. And I didn't hold it against them. Much. but now that I have such a concrete way of making it myself I don't know if I can go through with it. But I will try. Maybe.

To be fair, we've had kind of a major deal happen. We bought a car. Don't get too excited. It's actually 6 years older than our last car. Which was a '99. Jeff is more distressed by this than I am, it actually reminds me of my first car, which I loved. I don't have a picture for you today, but I will take a before and after (it wasn't cleaned before we got it, but for 150 quid we're not complaining).

Also my Mom is coming into town tomorrow. Yay!!! Well, I should say into the country, or maybe onto the continent, but you get the picture. So there may be more blogging without obligation in the next couple weeks rather than blogging with discipline. But I will more than make up for it with a barrage of pictures of her visit.

Off to get my beautiful son out of the bath.

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