Manners

I openly admit one of my biggest pet peeves is table manners. My sister and I both have a problem with some of the judges we see on TOPCHEF and Iron Chef America. I am all for the European style of eating (no fork shifting), but we find that many are eating from muscle memory.

I know that I have my faults, and try my best to set a good example. It can be very difficult. Ella has been taught to hold her utensils correctly (no shoveling food at my table). She has been taught to sit facing forward, asked to be excused, etc. Most of the time I think she knows what she is doing wrong and chooses to do it anyway. As many times as I tell Ella "if there is food in your mouth, your mouth should be closed" I would hope she learned. Unfortunately, this is one of the things that I struggle with from time to time. She points out my faults, much to her pleasure, and my chagrin.

A couple of weeks ago she asked to be excused while I had my mouth full. I pointed to my mouth and shook my head. Which is when she said, "Mommy, finish your bite and say yes."

bribery doesn't work

We have mastered the potty. Our next challenge with Ella is thumb sucking. She never liked pacifiers. The benefits of a thumb sucker are great; no getting up in the middle of the night to find a paci caught in the bedding, no losing the paci while out, no other children using her paci, or her trying to use others paci’s.

Unfortunately, the one big draw back to thumb sucking is what makes pacis so great. I cannot cut off her thumb and tell it is broken, I cannot throw it away, the paci fairy cannot come and exchange it for a special present. So the bribery begins.

Saturday night before bed I told Ella that when she stopped sucking her thumb she could pick anything she wanted (mom and dad approved) and we would get it for her. She has been on a trampoline before and loved it. I thought that might be a good bribe. We had her going for a couple of minutes. She responded to the words “big special treat” with wide eyes and a big smile. Then I repeated that she could have her big special treat when she stopped sucking her thumb. Her reply was:

“I don’t want a big special treat, I want to still suck my thumb.”

For those of you that know Callie, this reminded me of her “they’re not my friends anymore” when her daddy told her all of her friends had stopped using a paci and were wearing big girl panties.

It sucks being out-smarted by a nearly 3-year-old.

ella in the kitchen

when she not yet two, i would sometimes come home to find ella and her father watching foodtv, which he HATES (chris, unlike me eats to live, instead of lives to eat). i am especially fond of rachael ray & alton brown. they are both a bit off and quirky, that entertains me. i also enjoy rachael's fast-paced cooking; alton, because of the science he brings to food. (i am not a scientist. biology grossed me out, i failed chemistry, and did not attempt physics.)

in the mind of alton brown, i, and millions like me, am a baking cheat. (too much chemistry involved.) i do the box thing when baking cakes and muffins. ella is thrilled by this. it means that she gets to help in the kitchen. she is allowed to sit on the counter and get dirty. not just watch me at the stove from a safe distance. it means cracking eggs, stirring batter, and most of all, licking the beaters.

yesterday, she graduated to power buttons on small kitchen appliances. the first was the blender. we were making a poppy seed vinaigrette. (she loved the sound and watching the dressing spray up the sides of the pitcher.) while we are putting things in the blender i explain to her what we are doing. her teachers will be very surprised to hear her playing in the "housekeeping" center at school and using the word emulsion. big word for a two year old. i find out next time we make dressing if she remembers what it means.

the other small appliance that she discovered was the kitchenaid stand mixer. we dumped the cake mix into the bowl, added an instant pudding pack, then the wet ingredients. (totally the wrong order, but...) she turned the mixer on, played with the speeds and helped me scrape the bowl sides, asking the entire time, "lick it?" who among us has not loved licking the beater? good thing it was bath night.

my proudest moment of our day in the kitchen together was when she patted the mixer and said "alton has dis". either she is overly observant or she is watching entirely too much foodtv. my husband would claim the latter.

bedtime rituals

ella's bedtime ritual consists of a bath, running thru the house to find dad in a towel, getting dried, putting on the star pull-up (ella reminds us that "stars are for night"), putting on pj's, combing hair, cleaning ears, putting on the sleep sack, kissing us good night, and climbing into bed.

several nights ago i forgot step seven, cleaning ears. - which i wouldn't have known were it not for the two year old with an outstanding memory - while ella went into the bathroom with dad for the q-tips, i put my face on the floor to wait. upon ella's return she said "get up mommy," thrusts the q-tips into to my face and says, "mommy, kean out my ears."

shame on us when we forget a step.

good laughs

in the process of trying to teach manners, we all make "mistakes" that end up being rather funny. in our house we don't use the term poop. mom never let my sister and i say anything other then "i dirtied" and when it was the dog , it was she "made a mess". so i guess it is rather fitting that we also do not use those terms in our home. ella has a bootie not a butt. as the process of potty training and manners come along, i have tried to teach ella that you need to say "excuse me" when you fart. continuing with the using better(?) words than what most people say; i don't say fart around her. so after being asked many times what she needs to say when the before mentioned takes place, my dear sweet child says: "ohh, my bootie made noise."

while at aunt cathryn's house over the holiday, we continued the potty training thing, so when ella says "i hafta go potty" one of us jumps. on this occasion, i was cooking dinner, so cathryn had to take her. ella is on the toilet when she farts and says "my bootie made noise". next phrase is "my done". cathryn takes her off the potty and the entire thing starts over again at the part; moves to "i hafta go potty" & "oh, my bootie made noise"; then "my done". when this has happens for the 3rd time without ever leaving the bathroom, cathryn says and ella repeats; "oh lord" for the rest of the night that was about all she said.