Baby (and Mama's) Park Picnic

Tuesday, 8/27/13 - It was "Bring Your Kids to Work Day" at Hubby's work, but only for the first part of the day. E's co-op preschool had their end-of-Summer picnic at the same time. So we split up. Z got up early and rode the train in with Dadda, and Baby and I got to sleep in (ahhhh!) and go to the picnic before driving into Seattle to pick up Z.
I sent a snack box with Z, since she hadn't really had time to eat breakfast. Plus I wasn't sure if there would be anything at the catered family lunch other than the gluten-free pizza they were ordering for her that she could eat.

Meanwhile, E and I got packed lunches for a picnic at the park.

E insisted upon bringing "Titty" (Brown Kitty) [no, I'll never get tired of sniggering at how little kids say stuff!] and "Boo" (Blue. Yeah. My kids are ace at naming things.) I kept having to go pick them up from wherever she'd dropped them, or rescue them from other kids. Yay.

Toddler Noms

Organic strawberries, raspberries, and peas; black olives, GF Crunchmaster crackers, 1/2 GF PBJ

Since I was sending some olives with Big Sis to put on the pizza they'd be having (Hubby had told me that they were ordering plain cheese on the gluten-free pizza,) I pulled a few out for E's lunch first. And she got some whole grain crackers to make up for the likelihood that she would just lick the filling off her bread.

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Mama Munchies

PBCo Cinnamon Raisin Swirl PB, organic apples, organic salad (lettuce, kale,
tomatoes, raspberries, raisins, sunflower and chia seeds, hemp hearts, dressing)

Apples dipped in Peanut Butter and Co's Cinnamon Raisin Swirl is ah-mazing. That is all.

Big Sister's Snack

Naturebox Blueberry Almond Bites, organic strawberries and sugar snap peas, Enjoy Life Mountain Mambo trail mix

I put the trail mix in a Mini Dipper so it wouldn't spill out all over the box, and included a reusable cloth napkin from Red Poppy Crafts folded up inside to protect the cereal bites.
My intention had been to send a nut-free snack, since I didn't know if any of the other kids who'd be coming had allergies. But these Naturebox bites thwart me time and time again. Somehow I have a mental block and don't link "almond" with "nuts." Doh! At least it's peanut-free, yeah? And all Enjoy Life products are free from the Top 8 Allergens (which includes nuts and peanuts) plus gluten-free.

Tools of the Trade

    

Food for Thought
 

My little monkey really blossomed at this park. It's a long walk from the stairs to the slide on the play structure there, so she kept trying to take shortcuts up the side. Unfortunately, her ambition exceeds her skill and coordination at this point. But one of the ways up was a 3-rung ladder, which I helped show her how to climb, and then spotted her on it the next few times. Then I wandered off to socialize showed her I was confident in her abilities and let her navigate it on her own. (I wasn't really concerned about her falling 3 feet in case of a slip. High enough to teach her that maybe she should use the stairs for a while like Mama suggested until she gets better at it, but low enough she's not gonna break anything.)
There was a mom there concerned with my "Free Range Mama" approach, who kept trying to "help" her up, which just ended up pissing E off. She doesn't like to be touched, and hates being grabbed from behind. But I let them work out their differences. In the end, her desire to go down the big slide overrode her desire to have this lady stop bothering her. Haha!

She did totally fine, by the way. No slips. And she was thrilled to be doing what big kids were doing. This was an all-school picnic, so there were students aged 0-5 there. At 1, her class was on the younger end, so mostly got outclassed by the older, more coordinated, kids. Most of them weren't even interested in the big climber or slide, since it was a little high and scary. But my girl has an older sister to try and keep up with! Game on!