Today I ate a rainbow!

In my latest efforts to have our family eat healthily, last week I bought a "Today I ate a Rainbow" kit: it includes a rainbow refrigerator chart and magnets, as well as a book and a rainbow-coded shopping notepad. The way it works is that each person in the house gets different shaped magnets (Aidan chose stars for himself, circles for me, squares for daddy, and triangles for Kiana). Then, throughout the day when they eat fruits or veggies, they put the color of the fruit/veggie that they ate on the rainbow. At the end of the day, if they've eaten all of the colors of the rainbow, they also get a "Today I ate a Rainbow" magnet. I figure, at the very least, it's a good way for all of us to think about eating a variety of healthy foods. The first day I put it up, Aidan was really interested in it! He even asked for crunchy carrots, so that he could put an orange magnet on the board, and he tried a raisin (blue/purple category), so that he could fill out the rainbow and get the rainbow magnet. That night, when he crept out of bed at 10PM to get Daddy to soothe him back to sleep, he whispered to him, "Daddy, today I ate a RAINBOW!" (I was thrilled!)


Since then, he told me that having to eat a rainbow every day is hard, but he (and we) are thinking more about it, so I think it's a good step. We didn't do many rainbow magnets this week, but on Wednesday, when Daddy came home from work, Aidan told him about his "magic" tennis racquet: "It eats bad food and it poops out fruits and vegetables!" (I love it!) And on Sunday (today), he asked me, "Why do they say, 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'?" I told him it was because fruits and veggies help us stay healthy and strong. "Oh!" he said "So, I would like to have an apple right now!" He added, "And I LIKE apples!" (They are definitely his favorite fruit - and yellow is his favorite.) :)


In other Aidan news, although he has been against kisses for quite some time now, he has started giving me Eskimo kisses (nose to nose rubs)! When I want to cuddle with him, he now gives me Eskimo kisses and "raspberries" on my neck and then we both laugh. :)


In Kiana news, I forgot to note last week that she cut her *fifth* tooth (top left, outside the middle two)!. This week she has also been working on her sixth, as well. They are making her *really* grumpy, which is not much fun for anyone, and I'm sure worst of all for her.


Her language is also continuing to develop. She is saying "atCH" a lot this week, as well as continuing to talk about "Dad" and "Da da da" (Daddy) and "Ay-dah" (Aidan). One time this week we thought she said "Ma!", so I'm hoping "Mama" comes soon! Another time, she pretty definitely said "uppah!" when she wanted to get picked up (I ask her if she wants to come "uppah" with me), so there's another word!


This weekend, we drove up to the Catskills and had a wonderful time visiting Grandma and Grandpa Ruane. Aidan absolutely adores visiting them, and is totally confident in taking care of the house with Grandpa and cooking with Grandma. Kiana transitioned totally happily into hanging out with them as well. It was wonderful! Alex and I were able to pass off the kiddos at 6 and 7 am on Saturday morning and go back to sleep until 9:45AM, at which point, I picked up Kiana, nursed her to sleep, and then went back to bed again! (AMAZING!) Saturday afternoon, I had a massage with Elaine Grandy (a birthday present from Grandma) - which, of course, was incredible. Grandma had to leave that afternoon, but Grandpa went out to dinner with us for pizza out our favorite pizza restaurant, Brios. Delicious! Sunday night, the kids were both asleep before 9PM (woo hoo!), and Daddy got to watch a movie with Grandpa. It was a wonderful day!


Sunday, we caught Kiana's morning nap coming home, and relaxed back into being in the city. We are grateful for the chance for some R& R before the next week starts again!