More of the same

Like so many of my bloggy friends out there, I too have been in a bloggy funk. I've been continuously on the go with Maisie as well as cooking a lot of new meals but I just really haven't had all that much new to post about, nor the time. Tonight though Eammon is working yet again, I have the kitchen mostly cleaned up and the DVR is recording SYTYCD so that I can watch it later on commercial free, so I figured I would attempt a post.

Last week Maisie absolutely loved gymnastics camp and just couldn't get enough of being in the gym. When she awoke each morning, the first thing she would ask was about going to gymnastics camp, and on the days when I told her that she only had her afternoon practice, she was disappointed. I swear the girl would be happy living at the gym. Since she loved it so much I decided to try having her go five days this week knowing that Monday and Wednesday could be rough with her afternoon practice coming right after camp, thus no nap. Monday we arrived at the gym just after 8:30a.m. and I returned at 2:00P.M. to make sure that she had a little break, a snack and a bathroom break before her regular practice. I then watched her practice and once it ended at 4:00P.M., we left the gym much to Maisie's chagrin. After 7 1/2 hours of physical activity I thought she'd be worn down but once home she headed straight for the trampoline and continued to jump for another hour.

Tuesday when I picked Maisie up from camp, her coach told me that she won the stick-it competition. That's where they had to jump off the high balance beam and stick their landing. Pretty darn good for 2 1/2 year old especially in that her competition were 5, 6 & 7 year old. After back-to-back busy days Maisie managed to somehow wake up extra early this morning at 5:30a.m. As we had some extra morning time we were able to do a little shopping before arriving at the gym just after 8:30a.m. I was back at the gym at 2:00P.M. to give Maisie a break, snack and bathroom break before her regular practice. As soon as I saw her, I could see that she was starting to wind down a bit but she said that wanted to continue. That was until 3:50P.M. when she hit the wall, stick a fork in it done. I told her coach that she needed to go home and off we went. Less than a minute after being strapped into her car seat she was fast asleep for the 15 minute drive home but once the car stopped she was awake and cranky. She lasted until 6:30P.M. and then she told me she was tired and when I asked if she wanted to go to bed, she actually said yes!! Hopefully she'll sleep well tonight and tomorrow she's only at camp until 1P.M. so a little less tiring.

Even though it's summer and hot outside, I've been doing a lot of cooking and I've been on a bit of a curry kick. Eammon and I have loved all the new foods but unfortunately Maisie is very picky and really hasn't liked anything new. She has an extremely limited diet of foods that she'll eat and left to choose her own diet she would live on noodles and Go-gurts. I think that she still may have some texture issues so I do the best I can and though I introduce her to whatever we're eating and new foods all the time, she rarely likes them so I tend to feed her the same meals again and again just so she'll eat and get food into her. Then she'll tease me with what she'll eat. For example, for a while she couldn't get enough fresh grapes, cantaloupe or apples, but now she won't even put any of them in her mouth. Her new favorite is dried fruit especially apricots, cherries and raisins. As far as vegetables, she'll only eat carrots and steamed broccoli. Protein, that's and entirely different issue, eating even fewer options. So all of her lunches lately tend to include noodles, dried fruit and broccoli or carrots. I have to pack lunch for Maisie to take to camp and starting in less than a month, to school, so that's three to five days a week of providing food that she wants to eat. So, in an attempt to make her lunches more interesting, appetizing and hopefully more appealing, I took a cue from M3 and the adorable bento lunches she makes for her girls. I purchased some bento boxes and supplies and I've been packing bento lunches for Maisie. I pack things that I know she'll enjoy and want to eat but having them packed in a more appealing way has made her want to eat more of her lunch. In addition she gets lots of comments and interest in her lunches so that entices her to eat more of it too. I've started yet another new blog, Maisie Eats Bento, to show some of the lunches that I've been making for Maisie and as I make more I'll continue to update the site. I've also added a link in my sidebar.

In other news, I booked our December trip to Aruba. Maisie and I will be down there for 19 days, the last two weeks of the trip we'll be staying with my parents. Eammon unfortunately can't take that much time, so he'll only be with us for the first 10 days. Nine days on the beach with little Miss Energizer Bunny and no Eammon, OY!! I'm going to be enlisting help from not only Gamma & Gampa but from any and all on the beach willing to chase the girl down!

And since no post is complete without a picture, I've added the most recent stinkin' adorable Maisie pic to this post even though it's a repeat from the previous post. I need to stop taking pictures of her lunches and start taking more piccies of her!