April Fools' Day PSA and a Fun Prank for the Kindergarten Crowd

I hesitate to make any sort of "you should do this" or "you shouldn't do that" statement because really, who am I to tell anyone how they should live their life? You do you, babies.

With this exception: if you are thinking of posting a fake pregnancy announcement tomorrow for April Fools' Day, don't. Just don't. Fake pregnancy announcements are not funny. At best, they're insensitive and tone deaf. They can be incredibly hurtful to people struggling with infertility, miscarriage, baby loss, and more.

We've managed to avoid April Fools' Day with Grady up until now. This week he came home from school and told me about this hilarious holiday called April Fools' Day. All week he's been pranking me like "hey mommy! There's a giant monster behind you!" *finger guns* "APRIL FOOLS' DAY!" And I have to laugh because he's my kid and I love him and his innocence is adorable. But people don't have to laugh at fake pregnancy announcements. I hope that if you encounter a fake pregnancy announcement in the wild (believe me, it's a matter of when, not if) you'll tell the prankster that they're not being funny, they're being rude.

Right! April Fools' Day PSA over. Now for the fun part.

I don't want to encourage this pranking nonsense because honestly, I don't have the time or energy for it. But! I do want to satisfy Grady's imagination and encourage his belief in magic. So today after school, Grady and I will be filling an old flower pot with rocks. Then we'll plant our "doughnut seeds" (Cheerios). Tomorrow morning, when Grady wakes up on April Fools' Day, his doughnut seeds will have sprouted doughnuts. I am ridiculously excited (to see his reaction and, umm, to eat the doughnuts).

My prank didn't take a lot of prep and won't require a lot of cleanup. And we get to eat doughnuts for breakfast. It's the perfect April Fools' Day prank.

Do you participate in April Fools' Day with your kids? How are you planning to prank them tomorrow?

Apple Taste Test

Apples used to be one of the foods we could reliably feed to Grady and know he'd eat it without complaint. It didn't matter what type of apple. It didn't matter if it was sliced or whole. He was happy to eat an apple, and we were happy he was eating fresh fruit.

In the last year or so, as his picky eating increased, his love of apples decreased to the point where he would only eat a certain type of apple, and only if it was sliced, and he would try to remove as much of the peel with his nails as possible, leaving a sad heap of apple skin curled up on the side of his plate.

I refuse to fight about food. (I-refuse-to-fight-about-food-I-refuse-to-fight-about-food-I-refuse-to-fight-about-food-DEEP BREATH.) I don't want to spend mealtimes nagging Grady to eat. It's not enjoyable for anyone.

When we were embroiled in our #poopdoula days, Grady's doctor told me that little kids can control two things in their lives: what goes into their body, and what comes out. Obviously this doesn't fit every situation, but for us, she suggested we stop over-thinking and just let Grady sort it out. She gave us suggestions to support us, and we're doing our best to support him, and the "what comes out" part of the equation resolved itself in time. Now we're just left with the "what goes into Grady's body" part.

In an effort to stop over-thinking, and to let Grady feel like he's in control, I decided to let him dictate what type of apples we eat. We went to the grocery store and picked out an assortment of apples. We brought them home and had a fun little taste test (or as Grady explained it, we did science in the kitchen!).

Top, left to right: Granny Smith, Royal Gala, Ambrosia
Middle: Red Delicious
Bottom, left to right: Pink Lady, Golden Delicious, Fuji

We bought seven types of apples because I knew I would use up the leftovers to make Poppy's applesauce. If you don't have a use for a bunch of cut up apples, this taste test is just as fun with three or four apples.

We brought the apples home and Grady wrote their names on index cards. We chatted about the different colours and shapes, and Grady made predictions about which apples he would like best. If Grady was older, I would have made him write down his observations and predictions, but at five (and a half!) it took long enough to just write the names and I was trying to make the most of his attention span.

Next Grady put the apples in order from biggest to smallest. Then I washed and he dried them (teamwork!). I cut two slices from each apple and Grady put the slices on the associated card. He thought long and hard about the order in which we'd taste the apples.

The test!

After all our prep, we were finally ready to eat some apples. We "cheers"ed each slice and ranked the apples on a scale from 1-10 (which quickly became a scale of 1-400 because of course it did).

The results!

Warning: proud mama moment ahead. Grady tried every apple. I honestly didn't expect him to. He was totally unfamiliar with at least three of the types of apples we bought but he took a bite of every single slice. There were a couple he didn't finish but he didn't spit out a single mouthful.

In the end, Grady decided he likes four different apples. His favourite was Granny Smith (which was not a surprise, it's the only type of apple he's eaten for months,) followed by Royal Gala, Fuji, and Pink Lady. Before he did any tasting, he thought his favourite was going to be Golden Delicious, which turned out to be his least favourite after he tasted them all.

It was an interesting experience (for both of us, I think). It was a good reminder for me to give Grady more credit. When I take my time and listen to him (and stop nagging) he's more than willing to work with me. And I hope he's able to absorb the lesson too. He tried new things. They weren't terrible. And I listened to him. I hope it all sinks in and this is one step closer to less food stress.

How do you encourage your picky eater to try new things?

Poppy couldn't contain her excitement.  

Let's Faff

I haven't faffed in a while. Shall we faff? Let's faff.

(Don't know what faffing is? It's dithering about. I have approximately 92 important things on my to-do list today and instead I'm blogging about pretty much nothing. I'm faffing.)

Today is St. Patrick's Day! Did you know that St. Patrick's Day is a thing now? I blame Pinterest. I mean, I knew it was a thing in my twenties when I drank green beer and danced jigs all night. But I don't remember it being a thing when I was a kid. My mom didn't put green food colouring in the toilet water or leave gold coins or glitter hidden around the house on March 17th and I don't think my friends' parents did either. I don't remember feeling like my family was left out of the St. Patrick's Day celebrations. Apparently now it's a thing and kids expect leprechaun magic and look, I'm all about celebrating imagination but I just don't have it in me this year. This year we all have head colds and it's rainy and miserable. Maybe next year the leprechauns will visit. Am I a St. Patrick's Day Grinch? What are you doing today? I promise I'm not judging you if you're going all out with leprechaun trails and four-leaf clover hunts. You do you.

Speaking of head colds, Grady has had a very low key spring break so far. I had big plans for playdates and adventures but I don't want to invite his buddies over to catch our germs. We've managed a few fun projects (we baked a triple chocolate pie for Pi Day) but the rain is keeping us inside and the colds are keeping us exhausted. The colds and little Miss Poppy No-Sleep.

We did make it to Home Depot yesterday for a fun DIY workshop though (and I definitely earned some Cool Mom points when I let Grady use all the tools). Did you guys know about the Home Depot Kids Workshops? Home Depot hosts free workshops for kids aged 5-12. I imagine the schedule varies from store to store (so you should call ahead) but our local Home Depot is doing one every morning from 10-12 for the entire two weeks of spring break. You just show up and they've got tables and projects set up for building. They supply the materials, tools, and instructions and you just have to supervise your kid and help make the magic happen. Grady used a hammer, screwdriver, and wood glue yesterday like a pro. He got a little apron to wear and a pin for completing his project. He loved it and it kept him occupied and interested for a full hour (no easy feat). Then we brought it home and he spent another hour at home doing the paint job. We're definitely going back to do more building and collect more pins.

How are you keeping your littles occupied during spring break? I need some ideas for next week!

Kid Craft: Reading Sticks

We read with Grady every day but Grady doesn't know how to read yet. To be clear: we don't expect Grady to know how to read. We do, however, want to support his reading comprehension. We want reading to be enjoyable. We want to do whatever we can to help him learn easily but apart from making reading part of our daily routine, we weren't really sure how. ​

Grady's teacher recently introduced me to reading sticks. They're simple pointers the kids use to identify letters, syllables, and simple words as they "read" with her. They're brilliant. Grady can't look at a sentence and read all of the words yet, but he can use the pointer and consistently follow along, word for word, syllable for syllable, as I read to him. It makes our reading time more interactive (I'm not reading to him, we're reading together) and he's becoming more confident in his reading abilities. 

Reading sticks are an easy kid craft. Popsicle sticks are a great size and then you just need something fun for your pointer (pompom, sequin, sticker, googly eye, etc.). Grady's excited to make them (I let him use GRADE ONE GLUE!!) and that translates into him being excited to use them. We've made a bunch and stashed them in various places so at any given moment we can whip out a reading stick and do some learning. ​

How do you support your early reader? We've got two weeks of spring break and I want to keep the reading momentum going. ​