What Happens When Toys Go Down the Garbage Disposal

Have you ever wondered what would happen to a wooden toy in a garbage disposal?

Neither had I, until today.

See, now that the boys have a play kitchen and play food, they think that real food and their toy food are interchangeable when playing.  I think that they think that they are helping us, but while preparing dinner or washing dishes, the boys always blindly throw their toy food up onto the counter, sink, table, etc.    Usually I  see the food before it could get knocked into the sink's garbage disposal, but the cucumber wasn't so lucky this time.

I turned on my garbage disposal this morning, I heard a whizz and then a dull sound-something was caught in the blades...I turned it off, reached down and pulled out 3 pieces of the wooden toy cucumber.  

I was actually very impressed with Melissa & Doug and their wooden toys.  The garbage disposal gave the cuke a couple dents and scrapes, but nothing to major!  

That carrot in the crate below?  It's missing.  Like...I think the boys threw it in the garbage because it's no where in our house.  Because they now know what we mean when we say "go put that in the trash" or "go throw that away",  we occasionally catch them throwing one or two of their toys in the trash.

Oh and I don't think I ever posted a photo here of the (mostly) finished play room.  Some of the beadboard on the wall is not all the way finished, but that's about it.   

 Since Christmas this year, the play room contents have grown quite a bit.  

They have a new table and chair set, hot wheels wall track, a couple ride on toys, and of course...

The play kitchen.

This is my favorite.  As annoying as it is to clean my house everyday, I actually enjoy putting the kitchen back to sorts.  Organizing the food in the fridge, arranging the pots and pans, putting away the dishes, etc.  I wanted to get the boys a play kitchen ever since they started demanding to see and be a part of everything that happened on the counters above their heads.  I thought that if they have their own, they could do that while I made dinner.  It has worked so far!  They like this thing.  And even though most of the time what they are trying to cook are hot wheels cars, they still have lots of fun with it.

Toddler Nom Nom 2

Second edition of Toddler Nom Nom!  

Here's what the boys have been eating lately:

Stewed Beef over Cheesy Polenta

Black Bean Burgers & Sweet Potato Fries

Beef Stew & Roasted Cauliflower

Chicken Marsala and Mixed Veggies

Mini Chicken Pot Pies & Caramelized Brussel Sprouts

Toddler Nom Nom

I'm going to start a new thing here.  Every so often, I am going to post photos of what the boys eat on a daily basis.  Dinner is typically our biggest meal of the day, so most of the photos here will be what the boys eat for dinner.  I'll also link the titles with the link to my food blog where I'll have the recipes posted (the ones I've gotten around to posting, that is.  I'm so bad about posting over there.  I have a list of sooooo many recipes that need to be blogged.)  

Toddlers and eating can be tricky.  Some days are definitely better than others.  Sometimes the boys clean their plates, leaving only a few crumbs here and there.  Other days the boys have food all in their hair, their clothes, and the majority of their meal ends up being thrown on our kitchen floor.  

I'm determined to raise kids who are open-minded to food.  I want them to appreciate all types of food, and never deny trying something at least once.  If they refuse to eat something, I don't just give in and give them something else that I know they like.  If they are hungry and need food, they will eat it (and usually end up eating at least some of it anyway, so don't think I starve my children). 

So anyway, this is the first of many renditions of Toddler Nom-Nom.  

 I would love to make this a link up spot for other mom bloggers who have found food that their littles love to eat.  Link up at the bottom so that we can share food posts!

Chicken Fried Tofu Nuggets & Roasted Potatoes and Carrots.

Cheese Quesadillas & Black Beans and Rice.

Ginger Lentil Soup over Pasta.

Pumpkin Mac and Cheese & Boca Vegan Nuggets.

Chicken & Waffles.  (didn't get a chance to get a before picture for this one...they dove right in!)

Dinner Time At Our House

Oh Dinnertime, how stressful you are.

Picture this:

Me in the kitchen with multiple pots, pans, baking dishes and food spread out all over the counters.  Onions in the middle of being chopped, butter in the middle of being melted, veggies in the process of being steamed/roasted.

Below me are two little boys, running around my feet, sometimes screaming, sometimes crying, sometimes laughing.  I constantly have to stop what I'm doing in the kitchen to distract/hold/play with/give food to/ laugh at/yell at/just stand still because the boys demand it.

That is what our house looks/sounds like from about 330 until 530.

Any other time of the day, the boys are totally fine and love to play with each other and with their toys (and with me, if I'm not busy doing something), but they are usually ok on their own and let me get housework done.

Not cooking though, they will have none of that.  I usually start cooking dinner around 330.  Yup.  330.  because it takes that long.  As soon as the boys realize what I'm about to do, it starts.  They whine and cry and demand to be right in the middle of what I'm doing, and don't want me to do anything without them being right next to it so that they can see whats going on.

I've tried to give them pots and pans and spoons so that maybe they'll think they're doing the same thing as me.  It works for a little bit, but not very long.  I wonder if I got or made them a little mini kitchen with food and put it in our kitchen if it would help?  They're just soooo interested in what I'm doing up on the counters that they don't want to do anything else.  I would just put them in a carrier, but now that they're bigger, it's really hard to carry around both of them.  and cook at the same time, while they try to grab at everything.

And so I just have to deal with it.  I have to take lots of breaks while trying to make dinner. It's also frustrating because the boys are pretty this fussy around this time because they're hungry.  But I can't get them their food fast enough because they won't stop whining, and keep making me stop what I'm doing.  Endless circle here.  I try to give them snacks to hold them off until dinner is ready, but then they just fill up on snacks and don't end up eating very much of their dinner.

UGH.  

Do moms with 1 kid have this problem?  Anyone have any tips they want to offer up?   

I love cooking dinner, and I love being home with my boys, but the 2 really haven't been mixing well together lately.  330-530 is a dang stressful time at the Tucker house!