Muffin Tin Monday - Snack Time With A Friend

It's been a busy week! Snowed-in Monday through Wednesday, a bout of flu or food poisoning Tuesday (we're thinking flu now, weird as it sounds. Z had a night of vomiting Wednesday night the week before, I had half a day of misery on Tuesday, then 4 days later (Saturday) my husband has a day of misery. Usually we catch stomach flu faster. BAM! BAM! BAM!) Then, of course, Thanksgivings Thursday and Friday!
But I had time to squeeze in a little fun! Wednesday I watched a friend's 18-month old because her regular sitter fell through at the last minute due to snow and such. I wasn't sure how it would go, since the girl has only met me a few times briefly, and once for dinner. Plus I'm terrified of watching other people's kids. I never feel comfortable. Except for my nieces and nephews; I feel free to yell at them, or wipe their bottoms, or whatever needs to be done.
It all went better than expected. "Baby Weena" didn't fuss at being left with relative strangers, and didn't fuss when Little Bossy Crankerton grabbed her toys away. The only problem was my house. I'm not a fantastic housekeeper, and we have lots of toys recommended for older kids, like My Little Pony Ponyville and Littlest Pet Shop, with a gazillion little plastic accessories. So while I look around normally and see things to avoid stepping on, with Baby Weena here, all I saw were choking hazards everywhere. I basically kept my eyes on her the whole time, which was kind of stressful.

She arrived before Z normally wakes up, so she had some time to explore on her own. I set up my new Dr. Sears Nibble Tray which arrived recently, and I hadn't had a chance to use it yet. It's actually smaller than I was expecting, so isn't really ideal for Little Z at this point, except as a snack variety tray at home. And I usually give her larger servings, so I'd either have to put fewer foods in or be willing to do refills. I hadn't pre-chilled the sauce portion of the tray (the green 'leafy' top,) and I didn't really want to have to clean up yogurt, so I left it off.

Baby Weena's tray:
Left to right: Raspberries, sliced string cheese (top and bottom,)
mini Saltines (top) and Cheerios (bottom,) and sliced apples. 

But for Baby Weena it was perfect! I was pleased when she'd keep coming back to graze, and she eventually left her pacifier behind for the rest of the visit. [No snarky comments on pacis at 18 months, please. It's not my child, and if Z had ever taken to the paci, I can't say that she wouldn't still be on hers at 2 and a half! And, at this point, if I could get her to switch from nursing at night to a pacifier, I. Totally. Would!]







When Little Z woke up, she came out and commandeered the snacks. She kept telling Baby Weena that she couldn't have any, so I told her that those were Weena's snacks, and she needed to share. That didn't work, so we made up a new tray for Z. I used a muffin tin so she'd have all the little compartments like on the nibble tray, which appeased her. Good thing I did, since I never got around to making our fancier Muffin Tin Monday meal this week!

Little Z's tray:
Clockwise from top left: Dried blueberries, sliced string cheese,
olives, raspberries, sliced apples, Goldfish crackers

The cheese was the biggest hit. They went through 4 sticks total. Next was raspberries. I'm not sure if Baby Weena had ever had one before, since she seemed unsure at first and gave a few to me, then watched Z eat some, before trying one herself. She made a big dent in them, and I'm fairly sure I had to do a refill at some point. The mini Saltines were also a hit. Z ended up eating all of her tray (plus much of Weena's first round of food) except for the dried blueberries. Yeah, yeah. No veggies. But this was set up from 9 to 11AM, so I wasn't going to sweat it. Plus I didn't know if Weena was skilled enough for uncooked carrots. My 'grains' category is kinda weak too, but we were running low on bread due to not being able to drive out on the ice and snow (we don't have AWD.)

This is my 'weakest' Muffin Tin Meal yet, with nothing out-of-the-box creative, and no foods shaped by me, but many of the other MTM submissions are simple, healthy meals like this, and I'm proud to post mine alongside! I'll still be green with jealousy over all the great ideas I didn't think up first, though!