Joyful Vegan Family

Vegan Goodness:
Today we ate . . .

• Breakfast: Green smoothies and toast with butter for Mom and LP.  Mom also had some soy yogurt.
• Lunch: Leftover Indian food – LP and Mom shared a samosa together!
• Mom had a granola bar.  LP had some crackers and almond butter.
• Dinner: Slow-cooker snow chili
• Mom and Dad had some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies while we watched election results.

Money Matters:

Today we spent the following:

• $7.00 on a coffee shop date with a friend

Tuesday Toddler Update:

Today was a special day for LP – election day!  This was his first general election, and he got to go into the voting booth with his Dad (Mom took IP with her).  I was talking up the idea of going to vote this morning.  Then, as we were walking to our polling place, he kept asking about water, and driving something.  It took a while, but then we figured it out.  He thought we were going to drive a “boat”!  After that build up I think he found that marking a ballot was a bit of a let-down.  It’s ok.  Someday he will understand how cool it was that he got to “help” Dad vote.
One nice by-product of the whole boat/vote confusion was that we had a ready-made game for LP and I to play when we got home.  We got all his stuffed animals from upstairs that were sea-related: a dolphin, two sharks and a penguin.  He also brought a donkey along – I guess it was a swimming donkey.  Then we went down stairs, built a boat out of foam blocks, and paddled along with the animals swimming by our side.  LP’s imaginary play gets more and more elaborate everyday, with more and more props.  It is fun to watch, but even more fun to join in. I really enjoy the way that playing with him is less and less of a chore, and more and more of a cool activity.  I find myself getting into the game and trying to find the best way to set-up our boat.  Sometimes I make up random little songs to sing as we play.  When I do I feel like a creative mother who is advancing her child’s musical development.  Then LP looks at me, shakes his head and says “No Mama.  No.”  It’s a jolt back to reality – I’m the mother of a toddler!