Quiet Times

As the Summer winds down a bit for me and my wife and kids, I am finding that this has been a reasonably successful Summer in terms of relaxing, enjoying my family, and even in accomplishing a few goals.

Yesterday was rather hectic in that my wife has been involved with sending out a plethora of invitations for an upcoming anniversary celebration for her parents. My beautiful daughter Marie, painted two delightful paintings at daycare yesterday. In one, she had a bright red heart in the center, with red colored handprints (of her own hands) surrounding it. The other painting was of a pair of vivid blue flowers with white stems. Very lovely. Michael had a more challenging day yesterday, as he was placed on the "naughty mat" (our parental strategey adopted from watching the "SuperNanny" television series) several times last evening for not listening. He has a bit of a stubborn streak, and sometimes refueses to listen.

I have been enjoying a DVD collection I have acquired that has the first season of the television drama, "Hill Street Blues" on it. It is very interesting to watch on many different levels. I will write more about this tommorrow.

Konrad

Focus on Food

To encourage healthier eating habits in our kids, Maria and I have been adopting a style of eating we tell Marie and Michael is called "Resturant Eating". In our case, this means we do not eat any of our main course initially, but instead spend a lesiurely amount of time consuming our salad. My wife and I both have substanial sized salads that take probably 25 minutes to eat. Marie (she is four) gets a miniature version of our salad, some fruit, and needs to drink at least 50% of her beverage. Michael (being only 22 months) simply gets fruit puree (baby food) and his beverage.

At first this new change in dinner was met with curiosity. Marie did not wish to try most of the vegetables in her salad, but would instead lick the dressing off of pieces of carrot and cucumber. In the last three weeks, however, we have noticed a bit of a change. Marie still dislikes lettuce in her salad, but she is usually eager to eat her carrots, and often times her fresh brocolli. Additionally, she has been very good about eating her fruit and is getting far stronger with drinking her beverage.

Michael is doing well too. He usually eats one or two jars of the fruit slurry that is his baby food.

The wonderful bonus effects of this salad first eating method are... 1) Marie is partially satiated by the slow eating of her "salad" and drinking of her beverage. This leads her to eat more slowly and carefully during the more substantial part of the meal that follows. This also has improved her manners substantially at the dinner table. 2) For Michael, the change is also great. He too becomes partially satiated by the early fruit dishes, and is more content and calm during the main course. He has even become more willing to try new foods... he likes whole peas, green beans, and has been interested in the textures of many other foods as well. Prior to this point, the only solid foods he was willing to eat were mashed potaoes, cheese, and bread. 3) Maria and I have a quieter, more contented and fun family dinner, and 4) Maria and I both have been striving to lose weight, and the salad first option helps *us* to also become satiated with smaller portions of the main course.

We are both pleased.

Konrad

Weekend of Fun

This past weekend started actually on Thursday when Maria and I went to see the film, Ratatouli. This film was about a rat who wanted to be a chef. I should tell my brother about this film, as he studies rats. He would enjoy it as well.

On Friday, Maria and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary together. It was a special day in that we decided to take a hot air balloon ride. We took off from campus and flew over much of the town and very happily landed only a block or so from the day care where our children were. They were able to proudly tell everyone that their mommy and daddy were in the balloon.

Next we went to lunch at the Italian restaurant that was the scene of our second date. We of course had physical fun, and when we picked up our kids, we took them out to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was a wonderful time.

I purchased for Maria the following items.... a sterling silver neckalce made of five distinct loops each encrusted with small diamonds... to symbolize our 5th anniversary, several books, some chocolates, two new outfits and a few other odds and ends.

She bought me a hand made wooden box, a second smaller box for business cards, a portfolio bag, and a wonderful, 9 face clock designed to show time in multiple time zones.

It was a wonderful day. On the weekend, we took the kids and stayed at Maria's mom and dad's cottage. We, her parents, and Maria's sister, husband, and kid all stayed in the cottage and had an enjoyable time. Maria and I took the kids to the beach and both kids enjoyed it greatly. That evening, we went to Maria's uncle's house and they had a welcome home party and bonfire for their daughter who was visiting from North Carolina.

A very nice several days.

Konrad