make your choice

We've had some extra time on our hands this week.
Or extra downtime I should say.
Gus is still sick with this nasty cold.
I'm chomping at the bit to get out of the house, but don't want to expose her to the cold or to other people!
So, we're kind of stuck at home.

It's been mostly good - amidst all the crabby-assy-ness that being sick necessitates.






There have been a lot of cartoons this week, but also a lot of painting and coloring and cuddles.


And then there's this:Here's an arial shot:
This started when we were working on our library, but it was never this extensive. The book habitrail can keep my two year old occupied for at least 30 minutes. That is almost forever in my world. It was a pleasant burst of creativity on her part. See how straight those lines are? I was so impressed.

With all this semi-quiet time I've had a chance to catch up on some stuff.

We struggle with Guthrie telling us when she's hungry and usually 'I'm hungry, please can I have a snack?' ends up being 'I shall now throw myself on the floor screaming for your entertainment because you suck at ESP.' We try to keep on top of it, offering snacks and of course meals, but I'd really like her to be more self-sufficient. So I made her a snack box. I put goldfish, crackers, trail mix, fruit leather and the like in it. It's kept in the same cupboard as her utensils and dinnerware. Mostly she likes to pull it out and rifle through it. Occasionally she brings us something to open.
Never has she gone and gotten herself a snack.
Blast.

So, I dug through the annals of preschool teacherdom in my head and made some flash cards to add to the mix. I added a bunch of perishables - yogurt, cheese, apples, you know, things that won't really do too well in the dark cupboard.
I hate doing the,
do you want cheese?
no.
do you want apples?
no.
carrots?
no.
bananas?
no.
yogurt?
yep.

While I don't really like giving her all these choices; we're in that toddler pickiness phase and I hate throwing food away. Our compost bin is getting full. And I do think that choices are good. Makes her feel like she's got some control over her situation. The idea is that now I'll just be able to say, go pick something out and you can have it. That way she's got about 4 things to choose from and I don't have to stand in front of the fridge and search for something she can have. That's the theory at least.
And I plan on changing it up every week so there are some staples, but also some surprises. Possibly a reward for being so self-sufficient? Also I'm hoping it'll help her speech. She has to say what's on the card before she can have it. Given that the only food can say right now is apple I can kind of guess what she'll be eating a lot of!