Skip to main content

Tuesday Trip Tip!

Ok, so Christmas is right around the corner.

If you haven't already finished shopping for you toddler, you are probably in a pure panic.  Sure, you can go out and see if anyone still stocks the Hug-Me Elmo, only to be upset, and further panicked, when you find they have it.
Ninja Yum!
Makes a surprisingly great Christmas gift for toddlers!

Have no fear, Triple The Dad is here.

This Christmas, get your toddler something both you and he can enjoy.  A Ninja blender.

Ok, so you'll enjoy the blender more than he will.  But have you purchased gifts for a toddler?  Three quarters of the fun for them is in the opening of the wrapping paper and no less than half the fun is in playing with the box.

So you'll let them open it, and play with the box while you get to work stuffing the child's new Ninja with fruits and veggies.

I suggest you start out with a banana, a cup of frozen strawberries and say a half a cup each of milk and yogurt.  Let your kids help by dumping the strawberries in.  Let them watch as the blender does its job.

Get all excited as you drink it.

Soon enough they'll want one.  It is fruit and milk, so of course they'll love it.   I mean, fruit and milk are at the heart of the Little Miss Muffet children's story for a reason.

But didn't I say veggies?  Yes I did.  Now that we have the little ones hooked on fruit smoothies as a snack, we can sneakily throw in a handful or two of baby or adult spinach.  The spinach adds somewhat disturbing green flecks to the smoothie, but next to no flavor, so the kids will never know.

The dirty little secret of the "veggies" world is that most have nothing going for them.  Those green beans you wish your kid would eat?  Nothing.  Very few vitamins, especially at the portions kids are going to eat them.  Great for adults who need filling, no-cal, foods to cram into their mouths.  Not great for kids.

But spinach, on the other hand.  Well, its jammed full of nutrients, so even if its the only veggie your kids eats, that is probably OK.

Bonus trick: Google smoothie recipes with pumpkin, another super, nutrient rich food kids are likely to enjoy.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

NIGHTMARE: Three Kids; One Invite

Its a triplet parents worst nightmare, really. I only have triplets, so most of what I;m about to say about singletons is conjecture and assumption, but here goes: I imagine that when you have three kids of different ages its easy when only one of them is invited to a birthday party. Any younger child is probably interested in where an older sibling is going, but is easily refocused. Older children probably just don't care what a younger child is doing, but to the extent they are invested, I'd think its easy to explain to them. After all, they are probably in different schools, or at least different grades. They have different teachers, different classmates, and while they may share some friends, those are largely different as well. Not so with triplets When you have three kids all the same age they attend the same  school; often in the same class (as ours do). So when only one of them receives an invite, as our daughter did, its hard not  to feel slighted. After all, ...

Thoughts On Breastfeeding

I was going to post in this space about breastfeeding eventually.  It started when I joined Twitter recently as @triplethedad (follow me!) and started following a bunch of Mom and Dad types.  Although I previously experienced the ferver of the breastfeeding crowd, I was still taken aback by the militartism of some of them and the "us against them" attitude. I knew I would have to address it at some point, but honestly, as a Dad to formula fed triplets, I don't have a lot of experience or knowledge.  And further, while I'm not 100% comfortable around breastfeeding women, I have no problem with them/it and realize what they are doing is totally and completely natural.  So, between the lack of deep understanding and acceptance, I wasn't sure where to start.  What I did know was that I wanted to address the unnecassary ferver around the topic and the seeming war between formula and breast. Luckily, Jamie Lynn of Iamnotthebabysitter.com beat me to it in a post o...

Good parenting /= Stressed parenting

Just more evidence that taking a breather and giving your kids a little room to play on their own is good advice:   A new study suggests stressed parents result in obese kids. Why?  Well, the study suggests stressed out parents frequent fast-food joints more and are less inclined to plan organized meals.  Which makes sense.  Its hard to make food to feed two or three kids when you are busy ferrying them each to 3 sports or activities. What can you do to stop the stress?  Stop trying to make your child the next Einstein or LeBron James.  Yes, you want to provide every opportunity available, but your child's genes set in concrete when sperm met egg.  No amount of after-school activities will make a child with a 95 IQ the next Stephen Hawking nor your short, slow child an NFL wide receiver.  Relax and enjoy who your child is, rather than worrying about what they will become.  Ninety five percent of your role in who your chi...